Adjustment Team

"Adjustment Team" is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip K. Dick. It was first published in Orbit Science Fiction (September–October 1954, No. 4) with illustration by Faragasso. It was later reprinted in The Sands of Mars and Other Stories (Australian) in 1958, The Book of Philip K. Dick in 1973,The Turning Wheel and Other Stories (United Kingdom) in 1977, The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick in 1987 (Underwood–Miller), 1988 (Gollancz, United Kingdom), 1990 (Citadel Twilight, United States), Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick in 2002 and in The Early Work of Philip K. Dick, Volume One: The Variable Man & Other Stories in 2009.

"Adjustment Team" served as the basis for the 2011 film The Adjustment Bureau.

Sector T137 is scheduled for adjustment, and a Clerk is supervising a canine Summoner to ensure real estate salesman Ed Fletcher is inside Sector T137 during the process. An 8:15 bark to summon a Friend With A Car is needed. Unfortunately, the bark is a minute late, bringing an Insurance Salesman, causing Fletcher to leave for work late. Arriving at Sector T137 after it has been de-energized, Fletcher enters a terrifying gray ash world. Escaping white-robed men, he flees across the street back to the everyday energized world outside Sector T137, fearing he's had a psychotic episode.

The Clerk is brought to the top-level Administrative Chambers to explain what went wrong to the Old Man, who decides to personally deal with this unusual situation and orders Fletcher "brought up here". Complicating matters further, Fletcher has told his wife Ruth about the experience. With Ruth accompanying him for moral support, Fletcher returns to his workplace to prove he has not experienced a full psychotic breakdown or seen behind the fabric of reality as he still fears. Things seem normal at first, and Ruth leaves, but he soon realizes people and objects have subtly changed. Panic stricken, he runs to a public phone to warn the police, only to have the phone booth ascend heavenward with Fletcher inside.

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