X Minus One Voice
Announcer
Captain
Dr. Horst
Kingston
Lustig
Masters
Old Woman
Grandma
Grandpa
Edward

F/X:
ELECTRONIC HIGH PITCH HUM

ANNOUNCER:
Countdown for blastoff. X minus five, minus four, minus three, minus two, X minus one, fire.

F/X:
ROCKETSHIP TAKING OFF

MUSIC UP AND UNDER

ANNOUNCER:
From the far horizons of the unknown come transcribed tales of new dimensions in time and space. These are stories of the future. Adventures in which you'll live, in a million could-be years, on a thousand may-be worlds. The National Broadcasting Company presents (ECHOING) X--- Minus--- One.

MUSIC CRESCENDOS

ANNOUNCER:
Tonight's story, Mars is Heaven.

MUSIC UNDER SPEECH

ANNOUNCER:
When the first space rocket lands on Mars, what will we find? Only the ruins of a dead and deserted planet, or will there be life? Intelligent life in some strange form that we can only imagine. Will we be welcomed with open arms? Or will the Martians treat us as invaders? Only one thing is certain. Some day a giant metal ship will take off from earth to travel through the black velocities, the silent gulfs of space, to descend at last into the darkness of the upper Martian atmospheres. And on that day, man will finally know the answers, the day we first land on Mars.

MUSIC UP AND OUT to STING

F/X:
COMSTAT BEEPING and BOSUN's WHISTLE

[BEEP continues under the following]

MASTERS:
(ANNOUNCING) Now hear this. Now hear this. Approaching critical deceleration. Fasten gravity suits. Stand by to land.

LUSTIG:
There it is. We've intersected the course vector, sir.

CAPTAIN:
All right, Mr. Lustig. Over to manual control.

LUSTIG:
Aye, sir.

CAPTAIN:
Masters, sound general quarters.

MASTERS:
Aye, sir.

F/X:
ALARM for General Quarters

CAPTAIN:
Mr. Lustig, what do you make of the terrain?

LUSTIG:
There seems to be a heavy ground mist, Captain. We won't be able to use the infrared lights.

CAPTAIN:
Then we'll have to come in on radar.

LUSTIG:
Isn't that a little risky, sir? Landing in the dark.

CAPTAIN:
I'd rather run the danger of a blind landing, Lieutenant, than come in without the cover of darkness. Remember we don't know what kind of reception is waiting for us down there.

MASTERS:
Air speed, five hundred. Altitude now, four thousand.

F/X:
BUZZER

CAPTAIN:
Bridge to engine room. Stand by for deceleration. Fire forward tubes one and three. Steady as she goes, Mr. Lustig.

F/X:
LANDING ROCKETS under following

LUSTIG:
As she goes, sir.

MASTERS:
Air speed, one hundred. Altitude, one thousand

LUSTIG:
Radar indicates a level stretch dead ahead, sir.

CAPTAIN:
Skids down.

LUSTIG:
Skids check.

MASTERS:
Altitude five hundred, four, three fifty, three.

CAPTAIN:
Up a point now. All right. Let's set her down.

F/X:
CRAFT LANDING

CREW:
(CHEERING) Yeah, we made it! Etc.

CAPTAIN:
Cut the power. Masters, pipe battle stations.

MASTERS:
Aye, sir. All secure sir.

F/X:
BATTLE STATIONS ALARM

CAPTAIN:
Well, gentlemen, gentlemen we're now on Mars. April 20, 1987. Four thirty-three, Grenwich time. Enter that in the log, Masters.

MASTERS:
Aye, sir.

CAPTAIN:
Well gentlemen it's less than two hours till dawn. As soon as it's light, we'll send out a landing party. Masters, get me an all over hookup.

F/X:
COM BUZZER

MASTERS:
We're all set, Captain.

F/X:
BOSUN'S WHISTLE

CAPTAIN:
(ANNOUNCING with ECHO) Now hear this. All right men. The smoking lamp is lit. Well, we're on Mars. The first manned ship from earth to land here. We don't know what we're going to find. Or what dangers we may face. We're seventeen men on an alien world. It's up to us whether we ever get home again. The next few hours should tell the story. And I want instant obedience to all commands. I'll court marshal the first man who doesn't jump to what he's ordered. And one other thing. We may be on Mars, but this is still a United States Navel vessel. Officers will conduct a personal and weapons inspection in one hour. That's all.

LUSTIG:
An inspection, Captain, now?

CAPTAIN:
Mr. Lustig, we've got an hour and a half to sweat out, before we find out what's outside that airlock. I'd rather have a man worried about his stripes, than about what's waiting outside, on Mars.

MUSIC UP AND OUT

F/X:
BOSUN's WHISTLE

MASTERS:
(ANNOUNCING with ECHO) Now hear this. Lending party report to forward airlock. Captain Black, Lieutenant Kingston, Lieutenant Lustig and Doctor Horst -- Report immediately to forward airlock. It's now landing time, minus five.

LUSTIG:
Well, they're paging us. You ready, Doctor Horst?

HORST:
Yes, Mr. Lustig. As ready as I will ever be.

LUSTIG:
Come on, let's get in the lock.

KINGSTON:
Kingston, Lustig and Mr. Horst reporting in the air lock.

MASTERS:
Very well, sir, the Captain will join you.

F/X:
AIRLOCK OPENS, CLOSEs and AIR SOUND

LUSTIG:
Four minutes to go. I wish the Captain would get here.

HORST:
What difference does it make?

LUSTIG:
I just want to get it over with that's all. Anybody got a cigarette?

HORST:
Yeah, I think you're smoking too much Lieutenant Lustig. Are you nervous?

LUSTIG:
Lay off, will you, Horst.

HORST:
Wondering what's hidden outside underneath that ground mist. I've been giving it some thought. It would be very interesting to find out, a very unusual planet, Mars.

LUSTIG:
Why?

HORST:
It has an atmosphere. A wonderful thing, an atmosphere.

Where you find one, you ah, find life.

LUSTIG:
You mean Martians?

KINGSTON:
What do you think they'll look like?

HORST:
Who knows? Intelligent life can take many forms.

LUSTIG:
You mean they have green skin and eyes on stalks or something?

HORST:
The comic book conception is possible, of course. Or they may have developed far beyond us. Perhaps they have a science that can produce weapons far more dangerous than our atomic missiles.

LUSTIG:
You think we may have to fight our way out?

HORST:
After all, we are invaders.

F/X:
BOSUN's WHISTLE

MASTERS:
(ANNOUNCING) Now hear this. Landing time minus two.

KINGSTON:
All right, all right we heard this. You know what I'd like to find outside that airlock. Good ol' Illinois. Ever been there, Lustig.

LUSTIG:
Uh, only Chicago.

KINGSTON:
You oughtta see my hometown. Green lawns, big white houses.

LUSTIG:
Sounds like my hometown.

KINGSTON:
My grandmother used to have one of those iron deer on the lawn. Every Halloween we'd paint it another color. One time we painted it black and white like a Holstein cow.

LUSTIG:
Where does your family live, Dr. Horst?

HORST:
I have no family. When I was a child they were gassed to death in the Dachau concentration camp.

LUSTIG:
Tough.

HORST:
No, it has its advantages. I have no ties on earth. Nothing to lose now. I imagine I'm the only one on board who is free to enjoy our present, peculiar position.

CAPTAIN:
All right, Masters, you can button it up now.

MASTERS:
Aye, sir.

F/X:
FOOTSTEPS on METAL then sound of AIRLOCK DOOR CLOSING

CAPTAIN:
Well, gentlemen, check your side arms. In one minute we'll be the first men to set foot on Mars. Quite an honor, eh?

HORST:
As long as the medals are not warded posthumously.

CAPTAIN:
Still uneasy, Dr. Horst?

HORST:
Captain Black, I've been uneasy ever since I can remember. On earth and on Mars.

CAPTAIN:
Well, thirty seconds. Give me the intercom phone, Lustig.

LUSTIG:
Yes, sir.

F/X:
SWITCH CLICK ON

CAPTAIN:
Masters.

MASTERS:
Aye, sir.

CAPTAIN:
Battle stations are to be manned until we return. If we're not back in two hours, I want no rescue party sent out. Blast off and save the ship, you understand?

MASTERS:
Aye, sir.

F/X:
SWITCH CLICK OFF

CAPTAIN:
All right. Five seconds, four, three, two, one. Lustig, open the outer air lock.

LUSTIG:
Aye ,sir.

F/X:
AIR LOCK OPENING

LUSTIG:
(SNIFFING) It's fresh air!

CAPTAIN:
Let's go.

F/X:
CREW FOOTSTEPS ON METAL

CAPTAIN:
All right now, take it easy. It's too dark to move fast.

LUSTIG:
Quiet isn't it. Not even a wind. Can't see anything through this ground mist.

CAPTAIN:
Quiet. You don't now what's out here. All right come on.

F/X:
FOOTSTEPS on DIRT

F/X:
ROOSTER CROW

LUSTIG:
What the . . .?

CAPTAIN:
Quiet.

LUSTIG:
Captain I could swear that, that sounds like a rooster.

CAPTAIN:
I don't hear it anymore.

HORST:
Very homley but unlikely sound. A rooster crowing on Mars.

CAPTAIN:
Kingston.

KINGSTON:
Aye, sir.

CAPTAIN:
Set that machine gun twenty-five yards to the flank. We'll stay here till the ground mist lifts.

KINGSTON:
Aye, sir.

F/X:
FOOTSTEPS on DIRT running off.

CAPTAIN:
What do you make of the ground, Horst?

HORST:
Grass, plain grass. You can see some large foliage there where the mist's thinned down.

KINGSTON:
What the!

F/X:
MACHINE GUN FIRE

CAPTAIN:
Kingston, hold your fire you fool!

F/X:
Many FOOTSTEPS running on DIRT

KINGSTON:
I hit it Captain!

CAPTAIN:
What?

KINGSTON:
Some kind of wild animal, I hit it. I can see the traces, but it's still standing.

CAPTAIN:
Come on, Horst. Doctor where are you?

HORST:
(off mic) Up ahead, admiring the wild animal.

CAPTAIN:
Careful, Horst. Wait for us.

F/X:
More FOOTSTEPS running on DIRT

HORST:
Don't worry Captain. (LAUGHING) It's an iron deer, a lawn ornament.

CAPTAIN:
Well that, that's impossible.

F/X:
HOLLOW METAL KNOCKING

HORST:
It's hollow. Interesting isn't it. A white washed Victorian iron deer sitting on a lawn in the middle of Mars.

CAPTAIN:
I don't understand.

HORST:
Look around, the mist's lifting.

LUSTIG:
Hey, Captain, look there. It's a house! A regular old fashion house.

KINGSTON:
But, sir, on Mars?

CAPTAIN:
Good Lord. I haven't seen carved scrolls and gingerbread like that in years. Look at that porch swing. The geraniums.

F/X:
ROOSTER CROW

LUSTIG:
There, I told you it was a rooster captain.

CAPTAIN:
Give me the glasses, Lustig. I want to take a look at that front window. Well, there's an upright piano. Some sheet music on it. Lustig, it's "Beautiful Ohio."

LUSTIG:
It can't be, sir.

CAPTAIN:
Horst, do you think that civilization of two planets could be identical?

HORST:
I don't know. That specific style of geraniums is only fifty years old on earth.

CAPTAIN:
Is it logical that they should develop in Mars? How about that porch swing, and that piano, and "Beautiful Ohio." Why, it's impossible.

KINGSTON:
Captain Black, this looks like the town I was born in.

CAPTAIN:
Well, it, it looks like my hometown too.

LUSTIG:
I thought of something, sir! It's the only solution. Maybe we're not the first ship to reach Mars from earth.

CAPTAIN:
Don't be ridiculous, Lustig.

LUSTIG:
Well how else can you explain it? Suppose some scientists got together, they, they invented some spaceship and planted a colony here. That's the only answer.

CAPTAIN:
That's impossible, Lustig. Men's space travel, it couldn't be secret. Do you have any idea what ships cost? What industrialized power's needed? No, there's got to be some logical reason.

HORST:
I think perhaps you might find out, Captain. A light went on in the house.

CAPTAIN:
Kingston, cover that door with the machine gun.

KINGSTON:
Aye, sir.

F/X:
MACHINE GUN LOADING

CAPTAIN:
Come on, Horst. Where're going to ring that doorbell.

F/X:
TWO SETS OF FOOTSTEPS ON GRASS

CAPTAIN:
There's got to be a scientific answer to all this.

F/X:
DOOR BELL

HORST:
There's something moving in there.

CAPTAIN:
Stand back, Horst. Give me a clear shot.

HORST:
You sure a bullet can stop a Martian?

CAPTAIN:
Steady now.

F/X:
DOOR OPENING

OLD WOMAN:
Can I help you?

CAPTAIN:
I, well we . . .

OLD WOMAN:
If you're selling anything, it's much too early.

CAPTAIN:
No, no wait just a minute. What town is this?

OLD WOMAN:
What do you mean, are you census takers?

HORST:
No, no, we're strangers here. We want to know how this town got here.

OLD WOMAN:
Is this a game?

HORST:
No, no it's not a game. We're from Earth.

OLD WOMAN:
From where?

HORST:
From Earth.

OLD WOMAN:
Do you mean out of the ground. Are you sure you're feeling well?

CAPTAIN:
Madam, we came in a flying ship across space. We're from the third planet Earth, this is Mars, now do you understand? Mars.

OLD WOMAN:
You go away now, you hear. I'll call my husband from upstairs, and he'll chase you, go on.

HORST:
But this is Mars, isn't it?

OLD WOMAN:
This is Greenlake, Wisconsin in the United States of America. Bounded on the east by the Atlantic, and on the west by the Pacific, now go away, goodbye.

F/X:
DOOR SLAMS SHUT

CAPTAIN:
Horst! Do you suppose it's really possible? I've gotta find out more about this.

F/X:
BANGS ON DOOR

F/X:
DOOR OPENING

OLD WOMAN:
I told you I'll call my husband, now you go away!

CAPTAIN:
You've gotta tell me one thing first. What year is this?

OLD WOMAN:
Year? 1928, of course, for goodness sake.

F/X:
DOOR SLAMS SHUT

CAPTAIN:
You hear that, Horst? And we know it's 1987, and we know this is Mars.

F/X:
FOOTSTEPS RUNNING AAWAY

CAPTAIN:
Horst, is it possible that we got fouled up? Made some tremendous blunder and circled around and landed back on earth?

HORST:
In 1928?

CAPTAIN:
Well, maybe some switch in time or dimension. Could we have shifted somehow, gone backward in time? Oh, Horst, this won't hold water. It's not logical. We, we checked every mile, we went past the moon out into space we're, we're on Mars. Lustig, out at point! Kingston, in the rear.! Keep that gun at half load!

KINGSTON:
Aye, sir.

CAPTAIN:
Horst, there's got to be some cold, logical solution.

LUSTIG:
Captain!

CAPTAIN:
What?

LUSTIG:
That, that house down the street. The white one with the green shutters.

CAPTAIN:
Lustig, what's the matter?

F/X:
FOOTSTEPS RUNNING AWAY

LUSTIG:
(fading off mic) I never thought I'd, I never thought I'd. Thank God!

CAPTAIN:
Lustig! Lustig! Come back here!

HORST:
He's running for that house.

CAPTAIN:
That crazy fool, after him quick!

F/X:
FOOTSTEPS RUNNING AFTER HIM

HORST:
Lustig stop!

CAPTAIN:
Come down off of that porch!

F/X:
BANGING ON DOOR

LUSTIG:
Grampa! Grampa, Grandma!

F/X:
DOOR OPENING

CAPTAIN:
Lustig, what the devil do you think you're doing?

GRANDMA:
Albert!

LUSTIG:
Grandma! Grandpa it is you!

CAPTAIN:
Lustig what is going on here?

GRANDPA:
Albert, it's been so many years.

GRANDMA:
How you've grown, boy.

LUSTIG:
It's so good to see you.

CAPTAIN:
Lieutenant Lustig! Oh!

LUSTIG:
Captain. Grandma, I want you to meet my friends. This is Captain Black. Captain, I want you to meet my Grandfolks.

GRANDPA:
Howdy. Any friend of Albert's is a friend of ours.

LUSTIG:
How long have you been here, Grandma?

GRANDMA:
Oh, a good many years. Ever since we died.

CAPTAIN:
Ever since you what?

LUSTIG:
Yes sir. They've been dead thirty years.

CAPTAIN:
What?

GRANDMA:
Oh, now don't you trouble yourself, it's all right. We're alive again, that's all.

CAPTAIN:
You mean to tell me that Mars is Heaven?

GRANDPA:
Oh, nonsense, no. All we know is, here we're alive again. And who are we to question God's infinite ways?

CAPTAIN:
Lustig, we're going back to the ship.

LUSTIG:
But, Captain, I-I want to talk to my Grandfolks.

CAPTAIN:
Lieutenant Lustig. I don't like any part of this. You'll come back with us if I have to club you and carry you.

LUSTIG:
Aye, sir.

CAPTAIN:
Now let's go! Heaven only knows what they've run up against back at the ship.

MUSIC AND OUT

F/X:
SHIP CREW CELEBRATING

CAPTAIN:
Horst, look at that crowd around the ship!

HORST:
It looks like we're being welcomed with a celebration, Captain.

CAPTAIN:
Celebration! They've abandoned ship! Every port is open, no guards set! You! You Masters!

MASTERS:
Hiya, Captain. Meet my old dad! Dad, that's Captain Black. He's not a bad guy for an officer.

CAPTAIN:
Kingston!

KINGSTON:
What, sir?

CAPTAIN:
Bring that band back. Use force if you have to.

KINGSTON:
Aye, aye... oh, excuse me sir that's my Uncle George.

CAPTAIN:
Kingston!

KINGSTON:
I'll be right back Captain. Uncle George! Uncle George!

CAPTAIN:
What the devil is going on here?

LUSTIG:
Don't you understand, sir? They've all found friends and relatives. They're all here.

HORST:
You're right, Captain, I've found them. The whole crew's out in the crowd.

CAPTAIN:
Well, I gave orders, definite orders!

LUSTIG:
You don't understand, Captain.

CAPTAIN:
I understand mutiny. I don't care how many relatives show up, I'll have discipline.

EDWARD:
John! Johnny! Johnny you old son of a gun.

CAPTAIN:
It's you. Edward.

EDWARD:
Yes.

CAPTAIN:
It can't be!

EDWARD:
Oh, of course it is. Johnny! Johnny you old. (LAUGHING)

CAPTAIN:
Ed! Ed! Dr. Horst, this is my brother Edward.

HORST:
How do you do.

EDWARD:
Hello, sir.

CAPTAIN:
It's wonderful to see you, Edward. Look I've gotta get back to my ship.

EDWARD:
Johnny wait! I almost forgot. Mom's waiting at home.

CAPTAIN:
Mom?

EDWARD:
Yeah and Dad, too.

CAPTAIN:
Mom and Dad are alive? Then, then you're real Ed?

EDWARD:
Well, of course, don't I feel real? How's that huh?

CAPTAIN:
Why Ed! Ed!

EDWARD:
We've got lunch for you, Johnny. Mom's making corn fritters.

CAPTAIN:
Dr. Horst, haven't you found anybody?

HORST:
Oh, no, Captain. I have nobody.

CAPTAIN:
Then you come on home with me. Right Ed?

EDWARD:
Well, uh, sure!

CAPTAIN:
Horst, Horst you wouldn't believe it. But it's been thirty-five years since I've had mom's corn fritters. By George! Thirty-five years.

VIOLIN MUSIC UP AND OUTF/X:
FAMILY LAUGHING

MOM:
And there's plenty more in the kitchen, so don't hold back Johnny. You too, Dr. Horst.

DAD:
Well, Johnny, you're still in the Navy, huh?

CAPTAIN:
That's right, Dad. I'm in command of the ship.

DAD:
We're a whole Navy family, Dr. Horst. All three of our boys in the service.

CAPTAIN:
Ed was the best pilot in the Pacific till . . . What did happen, Ed?

EDWARD:
What's the difference? I'm here now.

CAPTAIN:
Yeah, but...

MOM:
You know it's almost perfect. All we're missing is your brother Will. Then the whole family could be together.

CAPTAIN:
That won't be long mom. Will's in charge of the XR 54. The next rocket coming out to Mars.

DAD:
Well, little Will. When does he leave Johnny?

CAPTAIN:
Well, the take off's scheduled for September.

DAD:
Uh huh.

CAPTAIN:
But it depends on what we report.

ALL THREE:
Oh. Oh yeah.

CAPTAIN:
There's no question about that now huh.

(ALL LAUGHING)
 

EDWARD:
No.

CAPTAIN:
Christmas together again. That'll be something.

DAD:
It sure will. Yes sir-ree. Well, um, this calls for a celebration. How about a little of the old Dandelion wine, eh, Johnny?

MOM:
Father now don't you go giving Johnny too much wine.

(LAUGHING)
 

F/X:
HAPPY FAMILY MUSIC BEGINS

EDWARD:
He's a big boy now mother.

DAD:
Yes sir. Isn't everything just fine. Just fine.

MUSIC OUT

EDWARD:
(SINGING) Oh, I'll be melancholy, too.

(ALL LAUGHING)
 

CAPTAIN:
Play that one again! Will you Ed?

EDWARD:
Oh, sure.

F/X:
PIANO in B/G

MOM:
Well, Dr. Horst, what are you doing sitting over here alone? What do you think of my little family?

HORST:
Very nice.

MOM:
You know I can't understand why you didn't find any folks here, Dr. Horst? It's just a shame everybody else is so happy.

HORST:
Well, I never remembered my family Mrs. Black, all I know is they were gassed at Dachau during the Second World War. When I was liberated I was in delirium for three months. I can not remember anything before then. A psychiatric phenomenon.

MOM:
Oh, that's terrible. Isn't there anything anybody can do?

HORST:
I don't want to remember. I haven't had a pleasant life. I prefer to be free of emotional entanglements. They interfere with a scientific approach.

MOM:
I'm sorry, Dr. Horst.

F/X:
TELEPHONE RINGS LONG THEN THREE SHORTS

MOM:
What?

EDWARD:
Oh, I'll get it.

CAPTAIN:
That's our ring. Long and three shorts. I remember that.

MOM:
Well maybe we better call it a night. You must be getting tired, Johnny.

HORST:
I better be going back to the ship.

DAD:
You understand us. You stay the night, we insist.

MOM:
I just couldn't rest thinking of you all alone on that ship.

HORST:
I'll be all right. Well, good night.

EDWARD:
Oh, oh wait a minute, Dr. Horst. That phone message was for you.

HORST:
Me?

EDWARD:
Yes, that's right. A message from Anna.

HORST:
Anna? I don't . . .

MOM:
Well she must be an old friend, isn't that nice?

HORST:
I don't... you sure it's for me? I don't remember any Anna.

EDWARD:
Well, she asked if you were better.

MOM:
Perhaps she's someone who knew you at Dachau.

HORST:
Anna?

EDWARD:
She said she's coming over here first thing in the morning. So, you have to stay over.

HORST:
Yes, but . . .

CAPTAIN:
Well, that settles it, you stay here Horst. You can bunk with me in my old room.

DAD:
Yeah, but Johnny, we thought you'd like to be with Edward.

MOM:
So you could talk the way you used to.

CAPTAIN:
Well we can't put Dr. Horst on the day bed. I think we'd better share the room tonight, be plenty of time for talking Ed.

EDWARD:
Yes, I guess so.

CAPTAIN:
I suppose I better drop back to the ship, you know Ed, security check.

MOM:
But, why do you have to do that here?

CAPTAIN:
I, I don't know Mom. There's no good reason I guess. Suppose we skip it tonight. Well, good night everybody.

MUSIC BEGINS

MOM:
Oh, it's good to have you home, Johnny.

CAPTAIN:
It's good to be home, Mom.

MUSIC ENDS

F/X:
CRICKETS under next Scene

F/X:
TWO BELLS

HORST:
Captain Black, you asleep?

CAPTAIN:
No, no, I've been thinking about what we were expecting. (LAUGHING) Green skin Martians, when all the time it was only Mom and Dad and Edward waiting. It's funny what tricks your imagination can play on you. Well, I guess Mars is Heaven, Horst.

HORST:
You know, I've been thinking about Martians, too. Captain, just suppose, suppose there were Martians, and they saw us land, and suppose they thought of us as invaders. What would be the best weapon they could use against our atom bombs, huh?

CAPTAIN:
I don't see what you're getting at?

HORST:
They would want to disarm us first, huh? To wipe out all suspicion, and make us feel at home. Suppose this house isn't real. Suppose the people are just images. Stolen from our own memories by Martians. Created for us by telepathy, hypnotism.

CAPTAIN:
(LAUGHING) That's the craziest theory I've ever heard.

HORST:
Maybe that's why there was no one for me. Because in all my life, there is no happy memory. No real loved person, not even my mother, I don't remember her. Only the piles of rotten corpses at Dachau. There was no happy emotion for these people to -- recreate.

CAPTAIN:
How about that phone call? Anna?

HORST:
Yes, Anna. I didn't remember who she was, but I do now. I just remembered. When I was freed from Dachau, sick, delirious, I raved about a wonderful kind nurse named Anna who took care of me.

CAPTAIN:
Well, there you are, it's logical she's coming to see you tomorrow.

HORST:
But there was no Anna, I'd been nursed by a man.

CAPTAIN:
What?

HORST:
Anna was only a dream. And there was only one way they could have learned about her. By reading my subconscious mind.

CAPTAIN:
That's impossible, Horst.

HORST:
Why? A whole crew was thinking of home. Suppose the Martians read our minds.

CAPTAIN:
Yes, but if there are Martians . . .?

HORST:
If there are, they have us separated, each man in a different house. Sleeping, trusting, no one at the guns.

CAPTAIN:
I left my pistol downstairs. Do you think there's something to this Horst?

HORST:
It's a perfect trap, Captain. Who would suspect his own mother? His grandparents? How easy. Just a knife in the heart of each sleeping man.

F/X:
CRICKETS STOP

CAPTAIN:
That's impossible Horst, but we've got to get back to the ship.

HORST:
Listen. The crickets have stopped. Come on. We don't know when they change back to ... whatever they really are.

CAPTAIN:
Careful.

F/X:
DOOR CREAKING OPEN

EDWARD:
(his voice has changed to something very ominous.) Where are you going John?

MUSIC UNDER

CAPTAIN:
Ed. We, uh, we wanted a drink of water, that's, that's all Ed.

EDWARD:
(More change) You're not thirsty, John. You don't want a drink.

HORST:
Look out!

EDWARD:
(Even more) You don't want a drink!

HORST:
His face! It's changing. He's a Martian!

CAPTAIN:
Run, Horst, run!

EDWARD:
(Still more) You can't get away, John.

CAPTAIN:
This way Horst! Horst where are you?

HORST:
Ahhhhhh!

MUSIC UP AND OUT

F/X:
COMSTAT BEEPING

CAPTAIN:
Hello! Hello! Can you hear me, Earth!. This is Captain John Black. The XR 53 calling from Mars. I've locked myself in the ship, but they've crippled it. I can't take off or fire the guns, and they're coming for me now, the Martians. I'm all alone here, all the rest are dead. Kingston, Lustig, Dr. Horst, poor Horst he didn't even reach the door.

F/X:
BANGING ON METAL DOOR

CAPTAIN:
Listen! Listen! They're trying to break through the hall. Edward and Mom and Dad and all the folks, but they're changing now. They're melting and changing back into... they're Martians! Can you understand? They're Martians, not men! They made us think that Mars was heaven, and we fell into the trap. Can you hear me earth? You've got to stop the next rocket! Listen, tell my brother Will, tell my brother not to come, they'll trap him too. They'll kill them all! Hello! Hello! Can you hear me earth? This is John Black on Mars. Hello Earth! This is John Black on Mars! Hello Earth! Hello Earth! Hello Earth!

MUSIC UP AND UNDER

ANNOUNCER:
Tonight X Minus One has brought you the science fiction classic, Mars is Heaven. Written by Ray Bradbury, and adapted for radio by Ernest Kinnoy.

MUSIC UP AND UNDER

X-1 ANNOUNCER:
(ECHOING) X--- Minus--- One---

MUSIC OUT
 

Now it was decelerating with metal efficiency in the upper Martian
atmospheres. It was still a thing of beauty and strength. It had moved in the
midnight waters of space like a pale sea leviathan; it had passed the ancient
moon and thrown itself onward into one nothingness following another. The
men within it had been battered,, thrown about, sickened, made well again,
each in his turn. One man had died, but now the remainii~g sixteen, with
their eyes clear in their heads and their faces pressed to the thick glass ports,
watched Mars swing up under them.

“Mars! Mars! Good old Mars, here we are!” cried Navigator Lustig.

“Good old Mars!” said Samuel Hinkston, archaeologist.

“Well,” said Captain John Black.

The ship landed softly. on a lawn of green grass. Outside, upon the
lawn, stood an iron deer. Further up the lawn, a tall brown Victorian house
sat in the quiet sunlight, all covered with scrolls and rococo, its windows
made of blue and pink and yellow and green colored glass. Upon the porch
were hairy geraniums and an old swing which was hooked into the porch
ceiling and which now swung back and forth, back and forth, in a little breeze.

At the top of the house was a cupola with diamond, leaded-glass windows, and
a dunce-cap roof! Through the front window you could see an ancient piano
with yellow keys and a piece of music titled Beautiful Ohio sitting on the
music rest.

Around the rocket in four directions spread the little town, green and
motionless in the Martian spring, There were white houses and red brick
ones, and tall elm trees blowing in the wind, and tall maples and horse
chestnuts. And church steeples with golden bells silent in them.

The men in the rocket looked out and saw this. Then they looked at one
another and then they looked out again. They held on~ to each other’s elbows,
suddenly unable to breathe, it seemed. Their faces grew pale and they blinked
constantly, running from glass port to glass port of the ship.

“I’ll be damned,” whispered Lustig, rubbing his face with his numb
fingers, his eyes wet. “Ill be thinned, damned, damned.’"
“It can~t be, it just can’t be,” said Samuel Hinkston.
“Lord,” said Captain John Black.
There was a call from the chemist. “Sir, the atmosphere is fine for
breathing, sir.” -
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Black turned slowly. “Are you sure?’
“No doubt of it, sir.”
“Then we’ll go. out,” said Lustig.
“Lord, yes,” said Samuel Hinkston.
“Hold on,” said Captain John Black. “Just a moment, Nobody gave any
orders.”
“But, sir-.-”
“Sir, nothing. How do we know what this is?”
“We know what it is, sir,” said the chemist. “It’s a small town withgood
air in it, sir.”
“And it’s a small town the like of Earth towns,” said Samuel Hinkston,
the archaeologist. “Incredible. j~ can’t be, but it is.”
Captain John Black looked at him, idly. “Do you think
that the civilizations of two planets can progress at the same rate and evolve
in the same way, Hinkston?”
“I wouldn’t have thought so, sir.”
Captain Black stood by the port. “Look out there. The
geraniums. A specialized plant. That specific variety has only been known on
Earth for fifty years. Think of the thousands of years of time it takes to evolve
plants. Then tell me if it is logical that the Martians should have:
one, leaded glass windows; two, cupolas; three, porch swings; four, an
instrument that looks like, a . piano and probably is a piano; and, five, if you
look closely, . if a Martian composer would have published a piece of music
titled, strangely enough, Beautiful Ohio. All of which means that we have an
Ohio River here on Marst”
“It is quite strange, sir.”
“Strange, hell, it’s absolutely impossible, and I suspect the whole bloody
shooting setup. Something’s wrong here, and I’m not leaving the ship until I
know what it is.”
“Oh, sir,” said Lustig.
“Dam it,” said Samuel Hinkston. “Sir, I want to investigate this at first
hand. It may be that there are similar patterns of thought, movement,
civilization on every planet in our system. We may be on the threshold of the
great psychological and metaphysical discovery In our time, sir, don’t you
think?”
“I’m willing to wait a moment,” said Captain. John
Black. -
“It may be, sir, that we are looking upon a phenomenon that, for the
first time, would absolutely prOve the existence of a God, sir.”
“There are many people who are of good faith without such proof, Mr.
Hinkston.”
“I’m one myself, sir. But certainly a thing like this, out there,” said
Hinkston, “could not occur without divine intervention, sir. It fills me with
such terror and elation I’ don’t know whether to laugh or cry, sir.”
“Do neither,. then, until we know what we’re up against.”
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“Up against, sir?” inquired Lustig. “I see that we’re up against nothing.
It’s a good quiet, green town, much like the one I was born in, and I like the
looks of It.”
“When were you born, Lustig?” -
- “In- 1910, sfr.”
“That makes you fifty years old, now, doesn’t it?”
“This being 1960, yes, sir.”
- “And you, Hinkston?”
“1920, sir. In Illinois. And this looks swell to me, sir.”
“This couldn’t be Heaven,” said the captain, ironically. “Though, I must
admit, it looks peaceful and cool, and pretty much like Green Bluff, where I
was born, in 1915.”
lie looked at the chemist. “The air’s all right, is it?”
“Yes, sir.”
‘Well, then, tell you what we’ll do. Lustig, you and Ilinkston and I will
fetch ourselves out to look this town
over. The other 14 men will stay aboard ship. If’ anything untoward happens,
lift ‘the Ship ‘and get the hell out, do you bear what I say, Craner?”
“Yes, sir. The hell out we’ll go, sir. Leaving you?”,
“A loss of three men’s better than a whole ship. If
something bad happens get back to Earth and warn the next Rocket, that’s
Lingle’s Rocket, I think, which will be completed and ready to take off some
time around next Christmas, what he has to meet up with. If there’s
something hostile about Mars we certainly want the next expedition to be well
armed.”
“So are we, sir. We’ve got a regular arsenal with us.”
“Tell the ‘men to stand by the guns, then, as. Lustig and Hinkston and I
go out,”
“Right, sir.”
“Come along, Lustig, Hinkston.”
The three men walked together, down through the levels of the ship.
It was a beautiful spring day. A robin sat on a blossoming apple tree and
sang continuously. Showers of petal snow sifted down when the wind touched
the apple tree, and the blossom smell drifted upon the air. Somewhere in the
town, somebody was playing the piano and the music came and went, came
and went, softly, drowsily. The song was Beautiful Dreamer. Somewhere else,
a phonograph, scratchy and faded, was hissing out a record of Roamin’ In The
Gloamin,’ sung by Harry Lapder.
The three men stood outside the ship. The port closed
behind them. At every window, a face pressed, looking out. The large metal
guns pointed this way and that, ready.
Now the phonograph record being played was: -
“Oh give me a June night
The moonlight and you—”
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Lustig began to tremble. Samuel Hinkston did likewise.
Hinkston’s voice was so feeble and uneven that the captain had to ask
him to repeat what he had said. “I said, sir, that I think I have solved this, all
of this, sir!”
“And what is the solution, Hinkston?”
The soft wind blew. The sky was serene and quiet and somewhere a
stream of water ran through the cool caverns and tree-shadings of a ravine.
Somewhere a horse and wagon trotted and rolled by, bumping.
“Sir, it must be, it has to be, this is the only solution!
Rocket travel began to Mars in the years before the first’
World War, sir!” S
The captain stared at his archaeologist. “No!”
“But, yes, sir! You must admit, look at all of this! How else explain it,
the houses, the lawns, the iron deer, the flowers, the pianos, the music!”
“Hinkston, Hinkston, oh,” and the captain put his hand to his face,
shaking his head, his hand shaking no~v, his lips blue.
“Sir, listen to me.” Hinkston took his elbow persuasively and looked up
into the captain’s face, pleading. “Say that there -were some people in the year
1905, perhaps, who hated wars and wanted to get away from Earth and they
got together, some scientists, in secret, and built a rocket and came out here
to Mars.”
“No, no, Hinkston.”
“Why not? The world was a different place in 1905, they could have kept
-it a secret much more easily.”
“But the work, Hinkston, the work of building a corn.’ plex thing like a
rocket, oh, no, no.” The captain looked at his shoes, looked -at his hands,
looked at the houses, and then at Hinkston.
“And they caine up here, and haturally the houses they built were
similar to Earth houses because they
brought the cultural -~architecture with them, and here it is!”
“And they’ve lived here all these years?” said the captain.
“In peace and quiet, sir, yes. Maybe they made a few trips, to bring
enough people here for one small town, and then stopped, for fear of being
discovered. That’s why the town seems so old-fashioned. I don’t see a thing,
myself, that is older than the year 1927, do you?”
“No, frankly, I don’t, Hinkston.”
“These are our people, sir. This is an American city; it’s definitely not
European!”
“That—that’s right, too, Hinkston.”
“Or maybe, just maybe, sir, rocket travel is older than we think. Perhaps
it started in some part of the world hundreds of years ago, was discovered
and kept secret by a small number of men, and they came to Mars, with only
occasional visits to Earth over the centuries.”
“You make it sound almost reasonable.”
“it is, sir. It has to be. We have the proof here before us, all we have ‘to
do now, is find some people and verify it!”
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“You’re right- there, of course. We can’t just stand here and talk. Did’
you bring your gun?”
“Yes, but we won’t need it.”
“We’ll see about it. Come along, we’ll ring that doorbell and see if
anyone is home.”
Their boots were deadened of all sound in the thick green grass. it
smelled from a fresh mowing. In spite of himself, Captain John Black felt a
great peace come over him. It had been thirty years since he had been in a
small’ town, and the buzzing of spring bees on the air lulled and quieted him,
and the fresh look of things was a balm to the soul.
Hollow echoes sounded from under the boards as they walked across
the porch and stood before the screen door. Inside, they could see a bead
curtain hung across the hall entry, and a crystal chandelier and a Maxfleld
Parrish painting framed on one wall over a comfortable Morris, Chair. The
house smelled old, and of the attic, and infinitely comfortable. You could hear
the tinkle of
ice rattling in a lemonade pitcher~ In a distant kitchen, because of the day,
someone was preparing a soft, lemon
drieL - -
Captain’ John Black rang the bell.
Footsteps, dainty and thin, came along the hail and a kind-faced lady of
some forty years, dressed in the sort of dress you might expect in the year
1909, peered out at them.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
“Beg your pardon,” said Captain Black, uncertainly.
“But we’re looking for, that is, could you help us, I mean.” He stopped. She
looked out at him with dark wondering eyes.
“If you’re selling something,” she said, “I’m much too
busy and I haven’t time.” She turned to go.
“No, wail,” he cried bewilderedly. “What town is this?”
She looked him up and down as if he were crazy.
“What do you mean, what town is it? How could you be in a town and not
know what town it was?”
The captain looked as if he wanted to go sit under a shady apple tree. “I
beg your pardon,” he said, “But we’re strangers here. We’re from Earth, and
we want to know how this town got here and you’ got here.”
“Are you census takers?” she asked.
“No,” be said. -
“What do you want then?” she demanded.
“Well,” said the captain.
“Well?” she asked. -‘
“How long has this town been here?” he wondered.
“It was built in 1868,” she snapped at them. “Is this a game?”
“No, not a game,” cried the captain. “Oh, God,” - be said. “Look here.
We’re from Earthi”
“From where?” she said.
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‘Prom Earth!” he said. -
“Where’s that?” she said.
“From Earth,” he cried. ‘ -
“Out of the ground, do you mean?”
“No, from the planet Earth!” he almost shouted.
“Here,” J~e insisted, “come out on the porôh and I’ll
show you.” , -
“No,” she said, “I won’t come out there, you are all evidently quite mad
from the sun.”
Lustig and Hinkston stood behind the captain. Hinkston now spoke up.
“Mrs.,” he said. ‘We came in a flying ship across space, among the stars. We
came from the third planet from the sun, Earth, to tb-is planet, which is Mars.
Now do you understand, Mrs.?”
“Mad from the sun,” she said, taking hold of the door. “Go away now,
before I call my husband who’s upstairs taking a nap, and he’ll beat you all
with his fists.”
“But—” said Hinkston. “This is Mars, is it not?”
“This,” explained the woman, as if she were addressing a child, “is
Green Lake, Wisconsin, on the continent of America, surrounded by the
Pacific and ~Atlantic Oceans, on a place called the world, or sometimes, the
Earth. Go away now. Good-bye!”
She slammed the door. -
-The three men stood before the door with their hands up in the air toward it,
as if pleading with her to open it once more.
They looked at one another.
- “Let’s knock the door down,” said Lustig.
“We can’t,” sighed the captain.
“Why not?”
“She didn’t do anything bad, did she? We’re the strangers here. This is
private property. Good God, Hinkstonl” He went and sat down on the
porchstep.
“What, sir?”
Did it ever strike you, that maybe we got ourselves, somehow, some
way, fouled up. And, by accident, came back and landed on Earth!”
“Oh, sir, oh, sir, oh oh, sir.” And Hinkston sat down numbly and
thought about it.
Lustig stood up in the sunlight. “How could we have done that?”
“I don’t know, just let me think.”
}Iinkston said, “But we checked every mile of the way, and we saw Mars
and our chronometers said so many miles ‘gone, and we went past the moon
and out into space and here we are, on Mars. I’m sure we’re on Mars, ‘ sir.”
Lustig said, “But, suppose that, by accident, in space,
in time, or something, we landed on a planet in space, in another time.
Suppose this is Earth, thirty or fifty yeara ago? Maybe we got lost in the
dimensions, do you think?”
“Oh, go away, Lustig.” -‘
“Are the men in the ship keeping an eye on us, Hink..
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ston?” , -
“At their guns, sir.”
Lustig went to the door, rang the bell. When the door opened again, he
asked, ‘What year is this?’ -
“1926, of, course!” cried the woman, furiously, and slammed the door
again.
“Did you bear that?” Lustig ran back to them, wildly, “She said 1926! We
- have gone back in time. This iv Earth!”
Lu~tig sat down and the three men let the wonder and terror of the
thought afflict them. Their hands stirred fitfully on their knees. The wind
blew, nodding the locks of hair on their heads.
The captain stood up, brushing off his pants. “I never thought it would
be like this. It scares the hell out of me. How ‘can a thing like this happen?”
“Will anybody in the whole town believe us?” won~. dered Hinkston.
“Are we playing around with something dangerous? Time, I mean. Shouldn’t
we just take off and go home?”
“No. We’ll try another house.”
They walked three houses down to a little white cot.. tage under an oak
tree. “I like to be as logical as I can’ get,” said the captain, He nodded at the
town. “How does this sound to you, Hinkston? Suppose, as you- said
originally, that rocket travel occurred years ago. And when the Earth people
had lived here a numbet of years they began to get homesick for Earth. First a
mild neuro.. sis about it, then a full-fledged psychosis. Then, threatened
insanity. What would you do, as a psychiatrist, if fated with such a problem?”
- -
Hinkston thought. “Well, I think I’d re-arrange the civilization on Mars
so it resembled Earth more and more each day. If there was any way of
reproducing every plant, every road and every lake, and even an ocean, I
would do so. Then I would, by some vast crowd hyp
nosis, theoretically anyway, convince everyone in a town this size that this
really was Earth, not Mars at all.”
“Good enough, Hinkston. I think we’re on the right track now. That
woman in that house back there, just’ minks she’s living on Earth. It protects
‘her sanity. She
and all the others in this town are the patients of the greatest experiment in
migration and hypnosis you will ever lay your eyes on in your life.” -
“That’s it, sir!” cried Lustig.
“Well,” the captain sighed. “Now we’re getting some-
- where. I feel better. It all sounds a bit more logical now. This talk about time
and going back and forth and traveling in time turns my stomach upside
down. But, this way—”- He actually smiled for the first time in a month.
“Well. It looks as if we’ll be fairly welcome here.”
“Or, will we, sir?” said Lustig. “After all, like the Pilgrims, these people
came here to escape Earth. Maybe they won’t be too happy to see us, sir
Maybe they’ll try to drive us ~out or kill us?”
‘We have superior weapons if that should happen. Anyway, all we can
do is try. This next house now. Up we go.”
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But they had hardly crossed the lawn when Lustig stopped and looked
off across the town, down the quiet, dreaming afternoon street. “Sir,” he said.
“What is it, Lustig?” asked the captain.
“Oh, sir, sir, what I see, what I do see now before me, oh, oh—” said
Lustig, and he began to cry. His fingers came up, twisting and trembling, and
his face was all wonder and joy and incredulity. He sounded as if any moment
he might go quite insane with happiness. He looked down the street and he
began to run, stumblin& awkwardly, falling, picking himself up, and running
on. “Oh, God, God, thank you, God! Thank you!”
- “Don’t let him get away!” The captain broke into a run.
Now Lustig was running at full speed, shouting. He turned into a yard
half way down the little shady side street and leaped up upon the porch of a
large green house with an iron rooster on the rooL
Re was beating upon the door, shouting and hollering and crying whàn
Hinkston and the captain ran up and stood in the yard,
The door opened. Lustig yanked the screen wide and in a high wail of
discovery and happiness, cried out, “Grandma! Grandpa!” -
Two old people stood in the dooEway, their faces light. lug up.
“Albert!” Their voices piped and they rushed out to embrace and pat
him on the back and move around him, “Albert, oh, Albert, it’s been so many
years! How you’ve grown, boy, how big you ate, boy, oh, Albert boy, how are
you!”
“Grandma, Grandpa!” sobbed Albert Lustig. “Good to see you! You look
fine, fine! Oh, fine.” He held them, turned them, kissed them, hugged them,
cried on them, held them out again, blinked at the little old people.- The, sun
was in the sky, the wind blew, the grass was green, the screen door stood
open.
“Come in, lad, come in, there’s lemonade for you,fresh, lots of- it!”
“Grandma, Grandpa, good to see you! I’ve got- friends down here!
Here!” Lustig turned and waved wildly at the captain and Hinkston, who, all
during the adventure on the porch, had stood in’ the shade of a tree, holding
onto each other. “Captain, captain, come up, come up, I want you to meet my
grandfolks!”
“Howdy,” said the folks. “Any- friend of Albert’s is ours, too! Don’t
stand there with your mouths openi Come on!”
In the living room of the old house it was cool and a grandfather clock
ticked high and long and bronzed in one corner. There were soft pillows on
large couches and walls filled with books and a rug cut in a thick rose pattern
and antimacassars pinned to furniture, and lemonade in the hand, sweating,
and cool on the thirsty tonguo. “Here’s to our health.” Grandma tipped her
glass to her porcelain teeth. - -
“How long you been here, Grandma?” said Lustig.
“A good many years,” she said, tartly. “Ever since we died.”
“Ever since you what?” asked Captain John Black, putting his drink
down. - -
“Oh, yes,” Lustig looked at his captain. “They’ve been dead thirty years.”
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“And you sit there, calmly!” cried the captain.
“Tush,” said the old woman, and winked glitteringly
- at John Black. “Who are we to question what happens?
Here we are. What’s life, anyways? Who does what for why and where? All we
know is here we are, alive again, and no questions -asked. A second chance.”
She toddled over and held out her -thin wrist to Captain John Black.
“FeeL” He felt.~ “Solid, ain’t I?” she ask~ed. He nodded.
“You hear my voice, don’t you?” she inquired. Yes, he did. “Well, then,” she
said in triumph, “why go around questioning?”
“Well,” said the captain, “it’s simply that we never thought we’d find a
thing like this on Mars.”
“And now you’ve found it. I dare say there’s lots on every planet that’ll
show you God’s infinite ways.”
9s this Heaven?” asked Hinkston.
“Nonsense, no. It’s a world and we get a second chance. Nobody told us
why. But then nobody told us why we were on Earth, either. That other Earth,
I mean. The one you came from. How do we know there wasn’t another before
that one?”
“A good question,” said the captain.
The captain stood up and slapped his hand on his leg in an off-hand
fashion. “We’ve got to be going. It’s been nice. Thank you for the drinks.”
He stopped. He turned and looked toward the door, startled. ‘ -
Par away, in the sunlight, there was a sound of voices, a crowd, a
shouting and a great hello.
“What’s that?” asked Hinkston.
“We’ll soon find out!” And Captain John Black was out the front door
abruptly, jolting across the green lawn and into the street of the Martian
town.
He stood looking at the ship. The ports were open and his crew were
streaming out, waving their hands. A crowd of people had gathered and in
and through and among these people the members of the crew were running,
talking, laughing, shaking hands. People did little dances. People swarmed.
The rocket lay - empty and abandoned.
A brass band exploded in the sunlight, flinging off a gay tune from
upraised tubas and trumpets. There was a bang of drums and a shrill of fifes.
Little girls with golden hair jumped up and down. Little boys shouted,
“Hoorayl” And fat men passed around ten-cent cigars. The mayor of the town
made a speech. Then, each member of the crew with a mother on one -arm, a
father or sister on the other, was spirited off down the street, into little
cottages or big mansions and doors slammed shut.
The wind rose in the clear spring sky and all was silent. The brass band
had banged off around a corner leaving the rocket to shine and dazzle alone
in the sunlight.
“Abandoned!” cried the captain. “Abandoned the ship, they did! I’ll have
their skins; by God! They had orders!”
“Sir,” said Lustig. “Don’t be too -hard on them. Those were all old
relatives and friends.”
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“That’s no excuse!” - -
“Think how they felt, captain, seeing familiar faces outside the ship!” -
“I would have obeyed orders! I would havo~!’ The captain’s mouth
remained open.
Striding along the sidewalk - under the Martian sun, tall, smiling, eyes
blue, face tan, came a young man of
some twenty-six years. -
“John!” the man cried, and broke into a run.
“What?” said Captain .John Black. He swayed. -
“John, you old beggar, you!”
The man ran up and gripped his hand and slapped him
on the back. -
“It’s you,” said John Black.
“Of course, who’d you think it was!” -
“Edward!” The captain appealed now to Lustig and
Hinkston, holding the stranger’s hand. “This is my brothet -
Edward. Ed, meet my men, Lustig, Hinkstont My
brother!” - - -
They tugged at each other’s hands and arms and then finally embraced.
“Ed!” “John, you old bum, you!” “You!re locking fine, Ed, but, Ed, what .is
this? You haven’t ,changed over the years. You died, I remember, when you
were twenty-six, and 1 was nineteen, oh God,
so many years ago, and here you are, and, Lord, what goes on, what goes on?”
Edward Black gave him a brotherly knock on the chin.
“Mom’s waiting,” he said.
“Mom?”
“And Dad, too.”
- “And Dad?” The- captain ;lmost fell to earth as if hit upon the chest with a
mighty weapon. He walked stiffly and awkwardly, out of coordination. He
stuttered and whispered and talked only one or two words at a time.
“Mom alive? Dad? Where?”
“At the old house on Oak Knoll Avenue.” -
“The old house.” The captain stared in delighted amazement. “Did you
hear that, Lustig, Hinkstou?”
~‘I know it’s hard for you to belióve.”
“But alive. Real.”
“Don’t I feel real?” The strong arm, the firm grip, the white smile. The
light, curling hair.
Hinkaton was gone. He had seen his own house down the street and was
running for it. Lustig was grinning.
“Now you understand, sir, what happened to everybody on the ship. They
couldn’t help themselves.”
“Yes. Yes,” said the captain, eyes shut. “Yes.” He put out his hand.
“When I open my eyes, you’ll be gone.” He opened his eyes. “You’re still here.
God, Edward, you look fine!” - - -
“Come along, lunch is waiting for you. I told Mom.” Lustig said, “Sir, Ui
be with my grandfolks if you want me.” -
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“What? Oh, fine, Lustig. Later, then.”
Edward grabbed his arm and marched him. “You need support.” -
“I do. My knees, all funny. My stomach, loose. God.”
“There’s the house. Remember it?” -
“Remember it? Hell! I bet I can beat you to the front porch!” -
They ran. The wind roared over Captain John Black’s ears. The earth
roared -under his feet. He saw the golden figure of Edward Black pull ahead
of him in the amazing dream of reality. He saw the house rush- forward, the
door open, the screen swing back. “Beat you!” cried Edward,
- bounding up the steps. “I’m an old man,” panted the captam,
“and you’re still young. But, then, you always beat me, I remember!”
In the doorway, Mom, pink, and plump and bright. And behind her,
pepper grey, Dad, with his pipe in his hand.
“Mom, Dad!”
He ran up -the steps like a child, to meet them.
It was a fine long afternoon. They finished lunch and they sat in the
living room and he told them all about his rocket and his being captain and
they nodded and smiled upon him and Mother was just the same, and Dad bit
the end off a cigar and lighted it in his old fashion. Mom brought in some iced
tea in the middle of the afternoon. Then, there was a big turkey dinner at
night and time flowing oil. When the drumsticks were sucked clean and lay
brittle upon the plates, the captain leaned back in his chair and exhaled his
deep contentment. Dad poured him a small glass of dry sherry. It was. seventhirty
in the evening. Night was in all the trees and coloring the sky, and the
lamps were halos of dim light in the gentle house. From all the other houses
down the streets came sounds of music; pianos playing, laughter.
Mom put a record on the victrola and she and Captain John Black bad a
- dance. She was wearing the same perfume he remembered from the
summer when she and Dad had been killed in the train accident. She was very
real in his arms as they danced lightly to the music. -
“I’ll wake in the morning,” said the captain. “And I’ll
be in my rocket in space, and this will be gone.”
“No, no, don’t think that,” she cried, softly, pleadingly~ “We’re here.
Don’t question. God is good to- us. Let’s be happy.”
The record ended with a - hissing.
“You’re tired, son,” said Dad. He waved his pipe. “You and Ed go on
upstairs. Your old bedroom is waiting for you.” . - -
“The old one?”
“The brass bed and all,” laughed Edward.
“But I should report mymen in.”
“Why?” Mother was logicaL
“Why? Well, I don’t know. No reason, I guess. No,.
none at all. What’s the difference?” He shook his head.
“I’m not being very logical these days,” -
“Good night, son.” She kissed his cheek. “‘Night, Mom.”
“Sleep tight, son.” Dad shook his hand.
“Same to you, Pop.” - “It’s good to have you home.”
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“It’s good to be home.”
He left the land of cigar smoke and perfume and books
and gentle light and ascended the stairs, talking, talking with Edward.
Edward pushed a door open and there was the yellow brass bed and the old
semaphore banners from college days and a -very musty raccoon coat which
he petted with strange, muted affection. “It’s too much,” he said faintly. “Like
-being in a thunder- shower without an umbrella. Fm soaked to the skin with
emotion. I’m numb. I’m tired.” -
“A night’s sleep between cool clean sheets for you, my bucko.” Edward
slapped wide the snowy linens and flounced the pillows. Then he put up a
window and let the night blooming jasmine float in. There was moonlight and
the sound of distant dancing and whispering.
“So this is Mars,” said the captain undressing.
“So this is Mars.” Edward undressed in idle, leisurely moves, drawing
his shirt off over his head, revealing golden shoulders and the good muscular
neck. -
- The lights were out, they were into bed, side by side, as in the days, how
many decades ago? The captain lolled and was nourished by the night wind
pushing the lace curtains out upon the dark room air. Among the trees, upon
a lawn, someone had cranked up a portable phonograph and now it was
playing softly, “I’ll be loving you, always,- with a love that’s true, always.”
The thought of Anna came to his mind. “Is Anna here?”
His brother, lying straight out in the moonlight from the window,
waited and then said, “Yes. She’s out of town. But she’ll be here in the
morning.” -
The captain shut his eyes. “I want to see Anna very
much?’ -
The room was square and quiet except for their breathing. “Good night,
Ed.”
A pause. “Good night, John.”
He lay peacefully, letting his thoughts float. For the —
first time the stress of the day was -moved aside, all of the excitement was
calmed. He could think logically now. It had all been emotion. The bands
playing, the sight - of familiar faces, the sick pounding of your heart. But—
now... -
How? He thought. How was all this made? And why? For what purpose?
Out of the goodness of some kind God? Was God, then, really that fine and
thoughtful of his children? -How and why and what for? -
He thought of the various theories advanced in the first heat of the
afternoon by Hinkston and Lustig. He let all kinds of new theories drop in
lazy pebbles down through his mind, as through a dark water, nOw, turning,
throwing out dull flashes of white light. Mars. Earth. Mom.
Dad Edward. Mars. Martians.
Who had - lived here a thousand years ago on Mars? Martians? Or had
this always been like this? Martians. He repeated the word quietly, inwardly. -
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He laughed out loud, - almost. He had the ridiculous theory, all of a
sudden. It gave him a kind of àhilled feeling. It was really nothing to think of,
of course. Highly. improbable. Silly. Forget it. Ridiculous.
But, he thought, Just suppose. Just suppose now, that there were
Martians living on Mars and they saw our ship coming and -saw us inside our
ship and hated - us. Suppose, now, just for the hell of it, that they wanted to
destroy us, as invaders, as unwanted ones, and - they wanted to do it in a very
clever way, so that we would be taken- off guard. Well, what would the best
weapon be that a Martian could use against Earthmen with atom
weapons? -
The answer was interesting. Telepathy, hypnosis, mem. ory and
imagination. -
Suppose all these houses weren’t real at all, - this bed not real, but only
figments of my own imagination, given substance by telepathy and hypnosis
by the Martians.
Suppose these houses are really some other shape, a Martian shape,
but, -by playing on my desires and wants, these Martians have made this seem
like my old home town, my old house, to lull me out of my suspicions?
What better way to fool a man, by his own emotions.
And suppose those two people in the next room, asleep, are not my
mother and- father at all. But two Martians, incredibly brilliant, with -the
ability to keep me under this dreaming hypnosis all of the time?
And that brass band, today? What a clever plan it would be. First, fool
Lustig, then fool Hinkston, then gather a crowd around -the rocket ship and
wave. And
- all the men in the ship, seeing mothers, aunts, uncles, sweethearts dead ten,
twenty years ago, naturally, disregardi~g orders, would rush- out and
abandon the ship. What more ~~atural?- What more unsuspecting? What
more simple? A man doesn’t ask too many questions when his mother is
suddenly brought back to life; he’s much too happy. And - the brass band
played and everybody was taken off to private homes. And here we all are,
tonight, in various houses, in various beds, with no weapons to protect us,
and the rocket lies in the moonlight, empty. And wouldn’t it be horrible and
terrifying to discover that all of this was part of some -great clever plan by the
Martians to divide and conquer us, and kill us. Some time during the night,
perhaps, my brother here on this bed, wifi change form, melt, shift, and
become a oneeyed, green and yellow-toothed Martian. It would be very simple
for hIm just - to -turn over in bed and put a
- knife into my heart. And in all those other houses down the street a dozen
other brothers or fathers suddenly melting away and taking out knives and
doing things to the unsuspecting, sleeping men of Earth. -
His hands were shaking under the covers. His body was cold, -Suddenly
it was not a theory. Suddenly he was very afraid. He lifted- himself in bed an4
listened. The night was very quiet. The music had stopped. The wind had died.
His brother (?) lay sleeping beside him.
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Very carefully he lifted the sheets, rolled them back. He slipped from - -
bed and was walking softly across the room when his brother’s voice said,
“Where are you going?”
“What?” -
His brother’s voice was quite cold. “I said, where do you think you’re
going?”
“For a drink of water.”
“But you’re not thirsty.”
“Yes, yes, I ani.” -
“No, you’re not.” -
Captain John Black broke and ran across the room.
He screamed. He screamed twice. - He never reached- the door.
In the morning, the brass band played a mournful dirge. From every
house in the street came little solemn processions bearing long boxes and
along the sun-filled street, weeping and changing, caine the grandmas and
grandfathers and mothers and sisters and brothers, walking -to the
churchyard, where there were open holes - dug freshly and new- tombstones
installed. Seventeen - holes in all, and seventeen tombstones. Three of the
tombstones said, CAPTAIN JOHN BLACK, ALBERT LUSTIG, and SAMUEL
IflNKSTON. - - -
The mayor made a little sad speech, his face sometimes looking like the
mayor, sometimes looking like some
thing else. -- - - -
Mother and Father Black were there, with Brother Edward, and they
‘cried, their faces melting now - from a familiar face into something else. - -
Grandpa and Grandma Lustig were there, weeping~ their faces. also
shifting- like wax, - shivering as a- thing does in waves of heat on a summer
day. - -
The coffins were lowered. Somebody murmured -about
“the unexpected and sudden deaths of seventeen fine men during the night—
”. - - - -
Earth was shoveled in on the coffIn tops. -
After the funeral the brass band slammed and banged into town and the
crowd stood around and waved and shouted as the rocket was torn to pieces
and strewn about and blown up. - -
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