Weekly Short Story: Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick

I've become accustomed, when reading renowned twentieth century science fiction writer Philip K. Dick's short stories, to experiencing reality-bending moments when what we think should be the normal world around us turns out to be something entirely different.  Adjustment Team, first published in 1954 and appearing in the collection Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick (Pantheon Books), is a prime example. Ed Fletcher thinks he is getting out of bed, enjoying an excellent breakfast prepared by his wife Ruth, and going to yet another ordinary day at his downtown office job...but we know better, of course.  After all, Ed's office building lies within the sector that is to be "adjusted"...and he'd better get there in time because he's part of it all.  The Clerk tells the Summoner (Ed's dog) to summon (by barking) the car that will take his "master" to work earlier than usual that day...but the canine foolishly sleeps past the allotted time and Ed is very late for work...causing disruption of the whole plan.  And no, I don't expect you to know what the heck I'm talking about...

The Clerks and Summoners...as well as the Watchers, Adjusters, and the Old Man...are all part of a reality creating-and-changing organization with their own agenda for the world.  When Ed steps past the invisible threshold between his normal world and the sector being "adjusted"...well, you have to read through it to get the full vicarious experience as a reader.  I will say this much, though: it is his initial experience going to the office that morning that won the story over for me as well as creating an awfully scary scenario that would exceed the terror of any nightmare I might have...

There was a 2011 movie starring Matt Damon called The Adjustment Bureau that adopted some pertinent elements of Dick's story but transformed it into something very different.  I've read that there was a legal battle going on between Philip K. Dick's estate and those from the film for royalty payments...I've yet to see this movie and, quite frankly have no intention of doing so anytime in the near future.  But the short story is a good one and, in spite of that scary part, also has quite a lot of humor...