64 lines
3.1 KiB
Plaintext
64 lines
3.1 KiB
Plaintext
Fredric Brown's "NIGHTMARE IN GRAY"
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From: Nightmares and Geezenstacks
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He awoke feeling wonderful, with the sun bright and warm upon him
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and spring in the air. He had dozed off - for less than half-an-hour, he
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knew, because the angle of shadows from the benificent sun had changed but
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slightly while he slept - sitting upright upon the park bench; only his
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head had nodded then fallen forward.
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The park was beautiful with the green of spring, softer green than
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summer's, the day was magnificent, and he was young and in love.
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Wondrously in love, dizzily in love. And happily in love; only last night,
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Saturday night, he had proposed to Susan, and she had accepted him, more
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or less. That is, she had not given him a definite yes but she had invited
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him this afternoon to meet her family and had said that she hoped he would
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love them and that they would love him - as she did. If that wasn't
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tantamount to an acceptance, what was? They'd fallen in love at first
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sight, almost, which was why he had yet to meet her family.
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Sweet Susan, of the soft brown hair, with the cute little nose
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that was almost pug, of the faint, tender freckles and the big, soft brown
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eyes.
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She was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to him,
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that could ever happen to anyone.
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Well, it was midafternoon now and that was when Susan had asked
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him to call. He stood up from the bench and, since he found his muscles a
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bit cramped from the nap, yawned luxuriously. Then he started to walk the
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few blocks from the park where he had been killing time to the house he'd
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taken her home to last night, a short walk through the bright sunshine,
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the spring day.
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He climbed the steps and knocked on the door. It opened and for a
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second he thought Susan herself had answered it, but the girl only looked
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like Susan. Her sister, probably; she'd mentioned having a sister only a
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year older than she.
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He bowed and introduced himself, asked for Susan. He thought the
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girl looked at him strangely for a moment. Then she said, "Come in,
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please. She's not here at the moment, but if you'll wait in the parlour
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there-"
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He waited in the parlour there. How odd of her to have gone out.
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Even briefly.
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Then he heard the voice, the voice of the girl who had let him in,
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talking in the hallway outside and, in understandable curiousity, stood up
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and went to the hallway door to listen. She seemed to be talking into a
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telephone.
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"Harry - please come home right away, and bring the doctor with
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you. Yes, it's Grandpa...No, not another heart attack. Like the time
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before when he had amnesia and thought that Grandma was still - No, not
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senile dementia, Harry, just amnesia, but worse this time. Fifty years off
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- his memory is way back before he even married Grandma..."
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Suddenly old, aged fifty years in fifty seconds, he wept silently
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as he leaned against the door...
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With thanks to Mike Pownall, who typed it in for The Pinnacle Club library.
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