The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by Philip K. Dick Page A

illness unfortunately threatens to undermine my physical ones. However, I shall do what I can, and when in the end the edifice comes crashing down, I shall have salvaged what was worth preserving.'" Tim shut the book and returned it to the shelf.
    We said nothing. I did not even think; I merely sat.
    "Schiller is very important to the twentieth century," Tim said; he returned to his cigarette, stubbed it out. For a long time, he stared down at the ashtray.
    "I'm going to send out for a pizza," Kirsten said. "I'm not up to fixing dinner."
    "That's fine," Tim said. "Ask them to put Canadian bacon on it. And if they have soft drinks—"
    "I can fix dinner," I said.
    Kirsten rose, made her way to the phone, leaving Tim and me alone together.
    Earnestly, Tim said to me, "It is really a matter of great importance to know God, to discern the Absolute Essence, which is the way Heidegger puts it.
Sein
is his term: Being. What we have uncovered at the Zadokite
Wadi
simply beggars description."
    I nodded.
    "How are you fixed for money?" Tim said, reaching into his coat pocket.
    "I'm fine," I said.
    "You're working, still? At the real estate—" He corrected himself. "You're a legal secretary; you're still with them, then?"
    "Yes," I said. "But I'm just a clerk-typist."
    "I found my career as a lawyer taxing," Tim said, "but rewarding. I'd advise you to become a legal secretary and then perhaps you can use that as a jumping-off platform and go into law, become an attorney. It might even be possible for you to be a judge, someday."
    "I guess so," I said.
    Tim said, "Did Jeff discuss the
anokhi
with you?"
    "Well, you wrote to us. And we saw newspaper and magazine articles."
    "They used the term in a special sense, a technical sense—the Zadokites. It could not have meant the Divine Intelligence because they speak of having it, literally. There is one line from Document Six: '
Anokhi
dies and is reborn each year, and upon each following year
anokhi
is more.' Or greater; more or greater, it could be either, perhaps lofty. It's extremely puzzling but the translators are working on it and we hope to have it during the next six months ... and, of course, they're still piecing together the fragments, the scrolls that became mutilated. I have no knowledge of Aramaic, as you probably realize. I studied both Greek and Latin—you know, 'God is the final bulwark against non-Being.'"
    "Tillich," I said.
    "Beg pardon?" Tim said.
    "Paul Tillich said that," I said.
    "I'm not sure about that," Tim said. "It was certainly one of the Protestant existential theologians; it may have been Reinhold Niebuhr. You know, Niebuhr is an American, or rather was; he died quite recently. One thing that interests me about Niebuhr—" Tim paused a moment. "Niemöller served in the German navy in World War One. He worked actively against the Nazis and continued to preach until 1938. The Gestapo arrested him and he was sent to Dachau. Niebuhr had been a pacifist originally, but urged Christians to support the war against Hitler. I feel that one of the significant differences between Wallenstein and Hitler—actually it is a very great similarity—lies in the loyalty oaths that Wallenstein—"
    "Excuse me," I said. I went into the bathroom, opened the medicine cabinet to see if the bottle of Dexamyls was still there. It was not; all the medicine bottles were gone. Taken to England, I realized. Now in Kirsten's and Tim's luggage. Fuck.
    When I came out, I found Kirsten standing alone in the living room. "I'm terribly, terribly tired," she said in a faint voice.
    "I can see that," I said.
    "There is no way I am going to be able to keep down
pizza.
Could you go to the store for me? I made a list. I want boned chicken, the kind that comes in a jar, and rice or noodles. Here; this is the list." She handed it to me. "Tim'll give you the money."
    "I have money." I returned to the bedroom, where I had put my coat and purse. As I was putting on my coat, Tim appeared from behind me,