You're All Alone (illustrated)

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July, 1950

Volume 12, Number 7

Custom eBook created by

Jerry eBooks

June, 2014

After WWII, William Sloan Associates began publishing novel length fantasy in book form and Leiber resumed work on the novel, hoping to sell it to them. However, by the time he expanded it to 75,000 words four years later, William Sloan Associates had discontinued publishing fantasy due to poor sales.

Shortly thereafter, Leiber sent the finished novel to the editors of
Fantastic Adventures
, who agreed to buy it if Leiber could cut it to 40,000 words. Instead Leiber set the 75,000 word manuscript aside, went back to his original 1943 plan for a 40,000 word short novel and recreated it as a parallel text. It was published by
Fantastic Adventures
in July 1950 as
You’re All Alone
.

The 75,000 word version was eventually purchased by Universal Publishers and Distributors in 1953 for publication as one half of a paperback double. Because of the way the contract was worded, the publisher could make any changes it wanted without Leiber’s consent. The result was that the text was slightly changed and the title was changed to
The Sinful Ones
. In addition, the publisher added “sexed up” chapter titles like “The Strip Tease” and “Bleached Prostitute” and “sexed up” a few love scenes in the book.

In 1972, Ace reprinted the 40,000 word version and two other novelettes in a collection also titled
You’re All Alone
.

Sometime in the late 1970s, Leiber repurchased the rights to the 75,000 word version and it was reprinted by Pocket in October 1980. Leiber left the 1953 titles, but restored the mangled text from memory since the original manuscript had been lost. He also rewrote the sex scenes to bring the language up to date. The Gregg Press edition, which came out in December 1980, reprinted the Pocket version.

JUST BEFORE Carr Mackay caught sight of the frightened girl, the world went dead on him. You’ve all had the experience. Suddenly the life drains out of everything. Familiar faces become pink patterns. Commonplace objects look weird. All sounds are loud and unnatural. Of course it lasts only a few moments, but it can be pretty disturbing.

It was pretty disturbing to Carr. Outwardly nothing in the big employment office had changed. The other interviewers were mostly busy with their share of the job-hunters who trickled into the Loop, converged on General Employment, and then went their ways again. There was the usual rat-ta-tat-tat of typing, the click of slides from the curtained cubicle where someone was getting an eye-test, and in the background Chicago’s unceasing mutter, rising and falling with the passing el trains.

But to Carr Mackay it was all meaningless., The job-hunters seemed like ants trailing into and out of a hole. Big Tom Elvested at the next desk nodded at him, but that didn’t break the spell. It was as if an invisible hand had been laid on his shoulder and a cold voice had said, “You think it all adds up to something, brother. It doesn’t.”

It was then that the frightened girl came into the waiting room and sat down in one of the high-backed wooden benches. Carr watched her through the huge glass panel that made everything in the waiting room silent and slightly unreal. Just a slim girl in a cardigan. College type, with dark hair falling untidily to her shoulders. And nervous—in fact, frightened. Still, just another girl. Nothing tremendously striking about her.

And yet . . . the life flooded back into Carr’s world as he watched her.

Suddenly she sat very still, looking straight ahead. Another woman had come into the waiting room. A big blonde, handsome in a posterish way, with a stunningly perfect hair-do. Yet her tailored suit gave her a mannish look and there was something queer about her eyes. She stood looking around. She saw the frightened girl. She started toward her.

The phone on Carr’s desk buzzed.

As he picked it up, he noticed that the big blonde had stopped in front of the frightened girl and was looking down at her. The frightened girl seemed to be trying to ignore her.

“That you, Carr?” came over the phone.

He felt a rush of pleasure. “Hello, Marcia dear,” he said quickly.

The voice over the phone sank to an exciting whisper. “Forgotten our date tonight?”

“Of course not, dear,” Carr assured her.

There was a faint laugh and then the phone voice purred, “That’s right, darling. If anybody starts forgetting dates, it will be me. I like to agonize my men.”

Carr felt his heart go from happy to uneasy. As he tried to figure out how to take Marcia’s spur-scratch lightly, his gaze went back to the little drama beyond the glass wall. The big blonde had sat down beside the frightened girl and seemed to be stroking her hand. The frightened girl was still staring straight ahead—-desperately, Carr thought.

“Did I hurt your feelings, Carr?” the phone voice inquired innocently.

“Of course not, dear.”

“Because there aren’t any other men—now—and I’m looking forward to tonight as something very special.”

“I’ll pick you up at seven,” he said.

“That’s right. Remember to look nice.”

“I will.” Then he asked in a lower voice, “Look, do you really mean it about tonight being something very special.”

But his question was cut off by a “ ’By now, darling,” and a click. Carr prepared to feel agonized as well as bored by the tail end of the afternoon—(If only Marcia weren’t so beautiful, or so tormenting!)—when a flurry of footsteps made him look up.

The frightened girl was approaching his desk.

The big blonde had followed her as far as the door in the glass wall and was watching her from it.

THE FRIGHTENED girl sat down in the applicant’s chair, but she didn’t look him in the eye. She nervously gathered her wool jacket at the throat.

He twitched her a smile. “I don’t believe I have your application folder yet, Miss . . .?”

The frightened girl did not answer. To put her at ease, Carr rattled on, “Not that it matters. We can talk over things while we wait for the clerk to bring it.”