Slowly, the unease began to dissipate. It was summer in New York. Hardly a time and place for heavy thinking.

I’ll go see Barney, he decided. Maybe he’s heard of something on the street. Something to get me up.

“They call it Time-Jizz.” Barney handed Derek a packet of white powder. “It’s the latest thing out o’ the Black Chemists. Man, this time they’ve really stolen a march on the guv’mint. Time-Jizz is the biggest thing there is now.”

“What it is, man? What’s it do, bro?” Derek unconsciously adopted the dialect of his supplier, mimicking the street tempo perfectly.

“Mooch-hooch, baby. With this stuff you can go back to any limber scene you ever had, and relive it. I mean, I tried it an’ it works! I went back to the best lay I ever had, and man, I found out my memory weren’t exaggeratin’ one bit. Mmm-mmm.”

Derek fingered the packet. “I dunno, Barney. A new blam-scam from the Black Chemists… I don’t want no junkie-monkey, now.”

“Aw, the shrinks have had this stuff f’years!” the dealer soothed. “Word is it’s safe. No monkey, for sure, babe. And you get to choose the time and place you go back and visit! Shoot. A deal like that makes you think them Black Chemists were really brothers after all, and not a bunch of old white syndicate clowns with Pee aitch Dees.”

The powder glistened in the light from a bare bulb. Derek stared at it.

“Anywhere or anytime I wanted…” he murmured.

“Yeah, man, you could go back to when you were suckin’ Baby Ruths and peekin’ up girls’ dresses.”

“My childhood was a boring crock.” Derek snickered. “Still,” he added thoughtfully. “It had its moments. Anyway, as the serpent used to say, why not?”

He looked up and saw the dealer was staring at him. “George Bernard Shaw,” he explained. “From Back to Methuselah.”

“Sure, man.” Barney shrugged. “Anything you say. Now about the price. Startin’ out I can offer you a real sweet deal…”