Adjustment Team

"Adjustment Team" is a science fiction short story by Philip K. Dick. It was first published in Orbit Science Fiction, Sept-Oct 1954, No.4. "SOMETHING WENT WRONG ...AND ED FLETCHER GOT MIXED UP IN THE BIGGEST THING IN HIS LIFE." -- Orbit introduction to "Adjustment Team". 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's been de-energized, Fletcher enters a terrifying gray ash world. Escaping white-robed men he flees across the street back to the everday energized world outside Sector T137 fearing he's had a psychotic episode.