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?
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Yes, it is gone. That unity. The sense of community. Our spirit and love for one another, frail and wilting. A ghost of times past. It’s chilling to think what life could be like for our children and their children. When our remembrances of the past are wicked away and transported elsewhere.