During his routine evening walk, a former metaphysics professor named Chambers overhears a snippet of a news bulletin reporting that the Empire State Building has disappeared into thin air. Dismissing it as a radio drama, he continues about his reclusive existence, disconnected from the world.

As it turns out, Chambers was dismissed from the university for proffering a wild theory that reality as we know it is held together by the collective consciousness of everyone on Earth. With millions of lives lost during WWII, there were fewer minds keeping the world together.

And then the streets in his neighborhood begin to fade away… ( )

Listened to the version on librivox.org, as narrated by Peter Yearsley, who has a slight British accent and did a marvelous job. 36 minutes.

Note - the entries are mislabeled, at least for now. If you hit 'play' and start hearing Peter Rabbit, go back to the collection, and select Peter Rabbit, and you should get this story.

Simak does better in novel form, imo, but even in his short stories he doesn't get so caught up in the gimmick of the story's concept that he forgets the humanity of his characters. The details of the scientist's life, and his reactions to the 'adventure,' are so carefully drawn that I almost wanted to spend a whole book with ex-professor Chambers. It's not just an ashtray, it's an elephant ashtray. Which, we learn at the apt moment, he never liked much anyway. Poignant and clever, both. Never mind the implausibility of the science - after all, what do we really know? We could be so wrong about basic physics, why not play with the ideas, if the result is a charmer like this one. ( )