This is a nice story by Ray Bradbury. As I reread this story, I couldn’t help but relive the “news” that enters my feeds on a daily basis. It sounds so familiar. It’s just hard to believe that this story was written in the 1950’s. I do hope that you appreciate this story like I do.

THE LUGGAGE STORE

Ray Bradbury

It  was   a   very  remote  thing,  when  the  luggage-store

proprietor heard  the  news  on the night radio, received all the

way from  Earth  on  a  light-sound beam. The proprietor felt how

remote it was.

There was going to be a war on Earth.

…

      He went out to peer into the sky.

Yes,  there   it   was.   Earth,  in  the  evening  heavens,

following the  sun  into  the  hills.  The words on the radio and

that green star were one and the same.

“I don’t believe it,” said the proprietor.

“It’s because  you’re  not  there,”  said  Father Peregrine,

who had stopped by to pass the time of evening.

“What do you mean, Father?”

“It’s like  when  I  was  a boy,” said Father Peregrine. “We

heard about  wars  in  China.  But we never believed them. It was

too  far   away.  And  there  were  too  many  people  dying.  It

was impossible.  Even  when  we saw the motion pictures we didn’t

believe it.  Well,  that’s how it is now. Earth is China. It’s so

far away  it’s  unbelievable.  It’s not here. You can’t touch it.

You can’t  even  see  it.  All  you  see  is  a  green light. Two

billion people  living  on  that  light?  Unbelievable!  War?  We

don’t hear the explosions.”

“We will,”  said  the  proprietor.  “I  keep  thinking about

all those  people  that  were  going  to  come to Mars this week.

What was  it?  A  hundred  thousand  or  so coming up in the next

month or so. What about _them_ if the war starts?”

“I imagine they’ll turn back. They’ll be needed on Earth.”

“Well,” said  the  proprietor,  “I’d  better  get my luggage

dusted off.  I  got  a  feeling  there’ll be a rush sale here any

time.”

“Do you  think  everyone  now  on Mars will go back to Earth

if this _is_ the Big War we’ve all been expecting for years?”

“It’s a  funny  thing,  Father, but yes, I think we’ll _all_

go  back.   I   know,   we   came   up  here  to  get  away  from

things–politics,  the   atom   bomb,   war,   pressure   groups,

prejudice, laws–I  know.  But  it’s  still  home there. You wait

and see.  When  the  first  bomb  drops  on America the people up

here’ll start  thinking.  They  haven’t  been  here  long enough.

A couple  years  is  all.  If  they’d been here forty years, it’d

be different,  but  they  got  relatives  down  there,  and their

home towns.  Me,  I  can’t  believe  in  Earth  any more; I can’t

imagine it  much.  But  I’m  old.  I don’t count. I might stay on

here.”

“I doubt it.”

“Yes, I guess you’re right.”

They  stood   on  the  porch  watching  the  stars.  Finally

Father Peregrine  pulled  some  money  from his pocket and handed

it to  the  proprietor.  “Come  to think of it, you’d better give

me a new valise. My old one’s in pretty bad condition. . . .”

Conclusion

It’s a very short story.

Do you really think that if you were living off in a far away nation, and war broke out on American soil, that you would leave and return to America?

I don’t.

I’m in China. America is thrashing and snarling. It is going bat-shit-crazy and the LAST thing that I want to do is return to that cesspool of greedy ignorant psychopathic monsters.

Never the less, this story was written at a different time, in a different place, and the values reflected in this story has long since disappeared from the world. It’s all gone like whispers and vapor.

Do you want more?

I have more posts in my Ray Bradbury Index here…

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