He informs Ed that his own adjustment teams make vital changes. Then the phonebooth disconnects from the building and launches into the heavens, where Ed meets “The Old Man,” a god-like figure, including flowing robes and long white hair. He dodges into a phone booth to tell the police and to inform them that someone is altering reality. Most notably, his boss Douglas seems younger and thinner and no longer has wrinkles. He then starts to notice subtle changes in the physical environment and the people themselves. At first things do look as if they are back to normal. She forces him to return to the building to put his mind at ease. She seems to think it was some kind of psychotic episode.

He finds his wife and tells her what has happened. He looks back, and his office building appears normal again. The sun is out and everything is brightly colored again, with people bustling about as usual. As Ed flees, thinking perhaps he has seen reality behind the veil of everyday appearances, he crosses into an adjustment, this sector still energized.

He flees in terror with an adjustment team in pursuit, men in white with complex machinery. He sees a de-energized sector, all grey ash, with everyone and everything crumbling to dust. The dog falls asleep, and by the time he is awakened to summon, it is 8:16, so the summons no longer calls the desired “A Friend with a Car,” but instead brings “A Life Insurance Salesman.” Ed is consequently late to work and shows up while the adjustment is in progress. Ed and Ruth Fletcher have coffee before work, while outside their house an adjustment clerk tells a dog that he must “summon” at exactly 8:15 in order to make certain that Ed arrives at his office early, before the adjustment of sector T137 begins.

Adjustment Team by Philip K. Dick