Saturday, April 7, 2018

The Whole Town's Sleeping

That's the title of a story by Ray Bradbury. One of his more devilish pieces.

It's also the truth. Even in fairly big cities, most people are asleep by a certain hour. So if you're awake, you're aware of an eerie silence, and every small noise.

Occasionally a car will go by. Someone's on their way to somewhere. But you don't know them, probably. You can fill in the blanks, though.

2 comments:

susan said...

She put her hand out to the light switch and stopped.
“What?” she asked. “What, what?”
Behind her in the living room, someone
cleared his throat.


Yikes. I don't remember having read this story before but it really is a good one. Bradbury was a master at composing sinister plots in the midst of a fantasy world of ordinary small town American life.

The fascinating thing about being awake late at night is that things that are only ordinary in daytime take on a mysterious quality.

Ben said...

Yeah, going back to Bradbury just about never disappoints me. He makes all these little scenes come vividly alive. I don't know if you remember seeing him on Groucho's show but it's a treat.

That's true. Diurnal seems to be our default state, so the sight and feel of things in the nighttime is elevated.