Nah.  Wouldn't they have called soon after they noticed the movie was 
missing?  Theodore began scrounging around his apartment for any movie 
that might be the missing one.  He took the elevator down to the garage 
and looked in his car, under the seats, in the trunk.  No rental movie was to 
be found.  I am sure of it, he thought, I did not forget to turn in a rented movie.
	A thought sprung into Theodore's head.  A peculiar thought.  Why 
hadn't the lady on the other side of the line told him which video he had
rented?  And why had they just noticed that their tape was gone?  Eighteen 
months is quite a while.  He couldn't imagine that a simple video-rental 
store operated under some huge, intricate bureaucracy, capable of losing 
papers for years at a time.  And the fine!  What was the point of that?
What was it, punitive damages?  Theodore quipped.  He vowed to 
telephone the store the minute he got off work - they'd be open by then, 
he assumed.  Then he would be able to straighten up this mess.  Perhaps 
they had mistaken him for someone else.  Or perhaps the computer was 
malfunctioning.  He surely didn't forget to turn in a silly one-night rental 
video.
	That evening, after he left the office, a colleague invited him to 
play racquetball at the local health-club.  Theodore decided to accompany 
his friend, as he did enjoy the lively sport, and had unfortunately to 
decline a time in the past.  Afterwards, they went to a small bistro for a 
light dinner.  They chatted over coffee afterwards, consequently delaying 
Theodore's arrival home till after eleven o'clock.  Theodore determined 
that 11 p.m. was too late to call the movie-rental store; he would wait until 
the following day.  Going to bed, his mind was still fogged with thoughts 
of thousands of dollars and secret-agent video-tapes.  Fortunately, he was 
quite fatigued from the evening of sports and dining and slept relatively 
soundly.
	The following day, after work, he resolved that he would clear up 
the issue, though of course minor, once and for all.  He called the store,
but, unbeknownst to him, renovation of the store had begun the evening 
before; the telephone recording announced that normal operation would 
not begin again until Thursday.  Theodore decided to spend these several 

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