A famous author has a bitter memory of his high school days. He took a writing course and was roundly and continually belittled by his classmates and, most of all, by the teacher. He longs to go back in time and show off, letting those idiots know that the boy they treated with such contempt did better than the rest of them put together. And Azazel makes it possible.

All right, now. Anybody who’s read The Early Asimov, Before the Golden Age or, most of all, In Memory Yet Green knows exactly what’s going on here. It’s Asimov who was humiliated in his high school writing class, and it’s Asimov who longs to be able to show off just how well he ended up doing. And it’s Asimov who knows that, on some level, he really did deserve the abuse he got.

For that reason alone this is a must-read. As a story it’s about par for a George and Azazel tale, but the subject matter makes it worthwhile.

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