Spending a night at the Kappa Nu fraternity, potential freshman pledge Hank Gordon is the recipient of visits from Thaïs, Cleopatra, Nell Gwynn, and other ladies on their way from the past to their future patrons.

Every now and then, I’ll be reading a story, not really sure whether it’s meant to be sf or not, but realizing that it has a pleasant sfnal tone—and then, voila!, there’s time travel. Davidson’s story is a piece that lives on the edge between real and surreal, ostensibly telling the story of Fred Hopkins, an artist who puts old buildings on canvas and takes a late morning breakfast at La Bunne Burger.

Never is it easy to discern what’s in the mind of the indiscernible Avram Davidson, but I suspect that he was on a train journey with a plethora of tourists—perhaps the California Zephyr, which enters the majestic Rockies at a point just outside of Eldorado State Park—and he thought to himself, “Just what would it take to pull my fellow travelers away from that there card game?”