I " - ' 'A CLOUDY PAST
A Short Short Story By
j A1 Stein
I can remember most of it now. Al
j though the majority of that lost year is
| still foggy, the best parts come back to
! ray mind. I wasn’t really aware that I
I was leaving the place until I found my
I self on the large air ship preparing to
i go back to a world I was no stranger in.
j I remember sitting there in the stra
j ight backed seat of the ship, trying to
\ recall the highlights and the nostalgic
i moments of the year I was leaving.
First I remembered the weather, lousy
weather. In fact it was the worst I had
| ever seen. Then second, which should
I have really been first, I recalled all
| those women. Big women, little women,
j tall women, short women, heavy women,
j skinny wommen, pretty women, and - well
»| there's really no such thing as an ugly
j woman, I guess that was the part I re
j membered best of all.
•j The planes engines had me in a trance
j that day, almost hypnotized. I can re
[ call very clearly looking at the area
| that last time as the air ship lifted
! its heavy streamlined body from the gro
| und. I saw the main area of the whole
| area. It was bleak, but it would always
^ be there. It almost knocked me over the
™ first time I saw it, but I finally got
; used to it. No stores, no trees, hardly
I any grass at all not a piece of good old
j granite stone on the whole celestial
j rock. The weather was the lousiest, I
I guess that was due to the nearneo3 of
i the moon. As the plane tipped its nose
! to the island I said good bye to all the
j good food, all my good friends, and tho
j ught I might even return someday, that
i is if the government would offer me a
j better position. More pay was what I
! really needed.
The plane skidded quickly over an old
| dead crater and I thought of the space
I between the place I was leaving and the
i place I was going to. It wasn’t a place
: I was going to, it was another world,
j A world where they had cars by the mill
continued top of the page
ions, and people in civilian clothes.
Where every day on the streets you could
see boys and girls walking happily along
arm in arm. A world where there were
huge marathon sporting events and six
teen or seventeen channels on a T.V. set
and, oh T.V. phones too. Yes, that was
my world. Although the people would
probably have changed, the country would
nft have. Even in the year I was gone,
science had advanced beyond all planned
boundries. Everything was push button
now, so they told me in the letters I
received on ray letter scope. (That5s
how they replaced the P.O.V. mail ser
vice.)
As the space ship passed a small flo
ating body I thought of how I would tell
ray grandchildren about my year on the
(rock)., I could hear myself saying to
them, as the ship set itself down on my
homeland Venus, nYes, your grandpapa was
assistant warden at the women5s reforma
tory on Venus5 s Number Four Satellite
Prison.55 I just know they will appreci
ate that fact.
SPORTS
QUIZ
1. Who compiled the longest batting
streak in the National League during the
1957 season?
2. Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics
smashed every rebound-record in the NBA
during the past season. Who held the
record for most rebounds and high aver
age-per-game before Russell?
3o Since its beginning, there has
been only one year in the American Lea
gue that did not produce a 20-gane win
ner among the pitchers.What year was it?
4o Who hurled the only opening day
no-hit game in the major leagues?
5. Who won the 1957 Kentucky Derby?
Answers to Sports Quiz on page S
Happy thought for the daytIf you were
rich you couidnH eat any more and would
get just as tired*