A Pleasure to Burn (42 page)
“A story about a man and wife who live in a little house on a little street in the year 2155, maybe,” said Melton. “This is ad lib, understand. But this man and wife are faced with a terrible war. Super-Plus Hydrogen bombs, censorship, death, in that year andâhere's the gimmickâthey escape into the past, followed by a man who they think is evil, but who is only trying to show them what their Duty is.”
William dropped his glass to the floor.
Mr. Melton continued. “And this couple take refuge with a group of film people whom they learn to trust. Safety in numbers, they say to themselves.”
Susan felt herself slip down into a chair. Everyone was watching the director. He took a little sip of wine. “Ah, that's a fine wine. Well, this man and woman, it seems, don't realize how important they are to the future. The man, especially, is the keystone to a new bomb metal. So the Searchers, let's call them, spare no trouble or expense to find, capture and take home the man and wife, once they get them totally alone, in a hotel room, where no one can see. Strategy. The Searchers work alone, or in groups of eight. One trick or another will do it. Don't you think it would make a wonderful film, Susan? Don't you, Bill?” He finished his drink.
Susan sat with her eyes straight ahead.
“Have a drink?” said Mr. Melton.
William's gun was out and fired, three times, and one of the men fell, and the others ran forward. Susan screamed. A hand was clamped to her mouth. Now the gun was on the floor and William was struggling with the men holding him.
Mr. Melton said, “Please,” standing there where he had stood, blood showing on his fingers. “Let's not make matters worse.”
Someone pounded on the hall door.
“Let me in!”
“The manager,” said Mr. Melton, dryly. He jerked his head. “Everyone, let's move!”
“Let me in. I'll call the police!”
Susan and William looked at each other quickly, and then at the door.
“The manager wishes to come in,” said Mr. Melton. “Quick!”
A camera was carried forward. From it shot a blue light which encompassed the room instantly. It widened out and the people of the party vanished, one by one.
“Quickly!”
Outside the window in the instant before she vanished, Susan saw the green land and the purple and yellow and blue and crimson walls and the cobbles flowing like a river, a man upon a burro riding into the warm hills, a boy drinking orange pop. She could feel the sweet liquid in her throat; she could see a man standing under a cool plaza tree with a guitar, could feel her hand upon the strings. And, far away, she could see the sea, the blue and tender sea; she could feel it roll her over and take her in.
And then she was gone. Her husband was gone.
The door burst wide. The manager and his staff rushed in.
The room was empty.
“But they were just here! I saw them come in, and nowâ gone!” cried the manager. “The windows are covered with iron grating; they couldn't get out that way!”
In the late afternoon, the priest was summoned and they opened the room again and aired it out, and had him sprinkle holy water through each corner and give it his cleansing.
“What shall we do with these?” asked the charwoman.
She pointed to the closet, where there were sixty-seven bottles of chartreuse, cognac, crème de cacao, absinthe, vermouth, tequila, 106 cartons of Turkish cigarettes, and 198 yellow boxes of fifty-cent pure Havana-filler cigars â¦
RAY BRADBURY
is the author of more than three dozen books, including
Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He has written for the theater, TV, and cinema, including the Emmy Awardâwinning teleplay, The Halloween Tree, and the screenplay for John Huston's Moby Dick.
The winner of the 2004 National Medal of Arts, the 2007 Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, and numerous other honors, Bradbury lives in Los Angeles.
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NOVELS
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The Martian Chronicles
Fahrenheit 451
Something Wicked This Way Comes
From the Dust Returned
Ahmed and the Oblivion Machines: A Fable
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SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
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Dark Carnival
The Golden Apples of the Sun
R is for Rocket
The Machineries of Joy
The Autumn People
The Vintage Bradbury
S is for Space
Twice 22
I Sing the Body Electric
Long After Midnight
The Small Assassin
The Mummies of Guanajuato
Beyond 1984: Remembrance of Things Future
This Attic Where the Meadow Greens
The Ghosts of Forever
The Last Circus and the Electrocution
The Stories of Ray Bradbury
The Complete Poems of Ray Bradbury
The Love Affair
Dinosaur Tales
A Memory of Murder
The Climate of Palettes
Classic Stories 1
Classic Stories 2
Yestermorrow
Quicker Than the Eye
Ray Bradbury Collected Short Stories
Bradbury Stories
A Sound of Thunder and Other Stories
The Dragon Who Ate His Tail
Summer Morning, Summer Night
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The Essence of Creative Writing
Zen in the Art of Writing
The God in Science Fiction
An Illustrated Life
Photographs and
illustrations: pp i and ix © Diane Miller/ iStockphoto, pp ii, vii, 23, and 89:©
Andriy Myahkov/iStockphoto, pp v and 353 © Aleksander Trankov/iStockphoto, Flame icon
© andres/iStockphoto; Match icon © Yuriy Chaban/ iStockphoto
Portions of
A Pleasure to
Burn: Fahrenheit 451 Stories
were previously published in the collection
Match to Flame
and the chapbook
The Dragon Who Ate His
Tail
.
A hardcover edition of this book was published by
Subterranean Press in March 2010.
A PLEASURE TO BURN
. Copyright
© 2010 by Ray Bradbury. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright
Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive,
nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may
be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced
into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic
or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of
HarperCollins e-books.
F
IRST
H
ARPER
P
ERENNIAL
EDITION
PUBLISHED
2011.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication
Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-0-06-207102-6
Epub Edition ©
June 2013 ISBN: 9780062071033
11 12 13 14 15
OV
/
RRD
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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