It was twenty past two when he had the first attack of the wobbles as his mother would have said. He was walking in the park, a habit he had gotten into after he'd retired: a short walk after lunch.
He enjoyed watching other people going about their business, it allowed him to feel connected to the rest of the human race without getting too involved: he didn't mind interaction with other people from time to time, but he didn't want any kind of commitment.
He had just passed a mother pushing a pram, with a toddler walking beside her prattling along as these small creatures like to do when he felt the strange sensation. He literally wobbled and almost fell over. He would have done if he hadn't grabbed hold of the bench he was walking past.
"Are you alright?" the woman asked. He looked up and tried a smile.
The child started crying and said, "Why does the man look funny, mummy?"
...
"I'm fine," he said, trying not to look too weird but feeling that he was failing. But then, as he tried to sit down on the bench, he had another wobble but this time, it was the park that wobbled. The whole thing seemed to bounce like jelly before blurring and shimmering and disappearing. He blinked his eyes and found that there was not a trace of the park.
He was in a large white room. There was a strange buzzing noise and a sensation of movement. He blinked again. He was still in the room, no sign of the woman, child or park.
Perhaps this was it, he thought. Death. Maybe I had a stroke or a heart attack. Maybe I died in that park and have traumatised that small child for life.
There was a bed in the middle of the room and not having anything else to do he walked over to it and sat on it, swinging his legs up and lying down.
...
If this was death, some kind of holding area before the next bit he thought, I might as well have a nap.
He closed his eyes but a second later they snapped open as a door slid open and a man - who looked uncannily like himself - walked in and said, "Oh bugger! Not again."
"I'm sorry?" he said, sitting up and blinking again.
"You're back, I see!" The stranger said. "We hoped that wouldn't happen but I was warned that I would make it coincide with the new manoeuvre we were trying."
"I'm sorry," he said again. "I have no idea what you are talking about. Do I know you?"
The other walked over to a control panel that was sliding out of the wall. "I do hope not," he said. He pressed a couple of buttons and the wobble came again, the walls of the room shimmered jelly-like and disappeared.
He opened his eyes to see the worried face of the woman in the park.
