Ray Bradbury Fullscreen The Martian Chronicles (1950)

“If this is a recording,” announced Walter Gripp, “I’ll come over and blow the place up.”

“This isn’t a record,” said the woman’s voice. “Hello!

Oh, hello, there is someone alive!

Where are you?”

She gave a delighted scream.

Walter almost collapsed.

“You!”

He stood up jerkily, eyes wild.

“Good lord, what luck, what’s your name?”

“Genevieve Selsor!”

She wept into the receiver.

“Oh, I’m so glad to hear from you, whoever you are!”

“Walter Gripp!”

“Walter, hello, Walter!”

“Hello, Genevieve!”

“Walter.

It’s such a nice name.

Walter, Walter!”

“Thank you.”

“Walter, where are you?”

Her voice was so kind and sweet and fine. He held the phone tight to his ear so she could whisper sweetly into it.

He felt his feet drift off the floor. His cheeks burned.

“I’m in Marlin Village,” he said. “I — ”

Buzz.

“Hello?” he said.

Buzz.

He jiggled the hook.

Nothing.

Somewhere a wind had blown down a pole.

As quickly as she had come, Genevieve Selsor was gone.

He dialed, but the line was dead.

“I know where she is, anyway.”

He ran out of the house.

The sun was rising as he backed a bettle-car from the stranger’s garage, filled its backseat with food from the house, and set out at eighty miles an hour down the highway, heading for New Texas City.

A thousand miles, he thought.

Genevieve Selsor, sit tight, you’ll hear from me!

He honked his horn on every turn out of town.

At sunset, after an impossible day of driving, he pulled to the roadside, kicked off his tight shoes, laid himself out in the seat, and slid the gray Homburg over his weary eyes.

His breathing became slow and regular.

The wind blew and the stars shone gently upon him in the new dusk.

The Martian mountains lay all around, millions of years old.

Starlight glittered on the spires of a little Martian town, no bigger than a game of chess, in the blue hills.

He lay in the half-place between awakeness and dreams.

He whispered. Genevieve.

Oh, Genevieve, sweet Genevieve, he sang softly, the years may come, the years may go.

But Genevieve, sweet Genevieve… . There was a warmth in him.

He heard her quiet sweet cool voice singing.

Hello, oh, hello, Walter!

This is no record.

Where are you, Walter, where are you?