September 3, 2024 • 30 mins
Hope you enjoy this episode of Dimension X! Find all our podcasts and OTR radio stations at theaterofthemind-otr.com - Dimension X was an anthology science-fiction series, originally aired from 1950-1951. This program dealt with more "adult" oriented themes like death, religion and science, war, politics and the moral issues of human being in regards to their place in the universe. Many the episodes were adapted from stories by the prominent science fiction writers of the era, for example, Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury. - Thank you for listening, consider a donation to help keep the OTR radio stations commercial-free: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/jared.day.oldtimeradio - Audio Credit: The Old Time Radio Researchers Group. Licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 - Find all the podcasts here @ Spreaker.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Adventures in time and space told in Future ten. The
National Broadcasting Company, and cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers
(00:29):
of astounding science fiction, bring you Dimension X. The sound
prooved Happy Life Home had cost thirty thousand dollars installed.
It clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep, and
(00:51):
played and.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Sang and was good to them.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Their life purred on from day to day, measured and
controlled by the nucleonic thermostats, the Iridiu spunge servo brains
that made the beds, and washed down the bathroom floors,
and made sure the salt cellars flowed freely without clogging.
Twice a day the house paused, rang a quiet bell,
(01:16):
and turned precisely ninety degrees on its axis in order
that the view from the solaroid living room windows might
be varied to avoid unweed. Of course, the pride of
the house was the nursery. The agent for the company,
it had been most enthusiastic.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
This way right down the hall. All right, we're god well,
it's all automatic. The nursery turns itself on when you
come within.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Ten feet of it.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Soft automaticity. That's the motto of the company.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
All right, now, this is the nursery.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Forty feet by forty feet and thirty feet high, separate
power unit with automatic overload circuit breakers, inspected and approved
by the underwriter's laboratory. The nursery is educational, instructive, entertaining
and therapeutic. The entire control mechanism is adjusted to the
electro and cphalographic key of the child.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
How much does it cost? Thirty thousand fob Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
But that's as much as the whole house. Why no,
But we do want the best for our children.
Speaker 6 (02:20):
Don't we. Oh, yes, we want the best for our children.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
And it was the best.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
The crystalline walls wavered from two to three dimensions, the
pseudo textured composition flooring shifted lightly from brick to dirt
to waving grass, and the ordorophonics waft of descent of
fantasy through the hermetically conditioned and filtered air. The nursery
was the very best. But then they wanted the very
(02:55):
best for the children. The technicians installed the nursery and
the heavy coaxial power cable.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Was run in from the main line.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
The walls sprang the life and the mental control banks
and relays hummed.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
All right, Peter and Wendy, this is your nursery.
Speaker 7 (03:12):
What's so special around a nursery? Dad?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Plenty?
Speaker 4 (03:16):
You just go in and see?
Speaker 7 (03:17):
Do we have to it's up there? You promise you
clean ball with me outside park?
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Go on, kids, try out the nursery. It's better than
any old yard.
Speaker 7 (03:26):
All go on in there. You'll be surprised. She go ahead, Wendy,
I'm scared. Hey, it's nicely here it is. Go on in, Winny.
By the pictures on those walls, they're real, well almost real.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
You can change them any way you like, just by
thinking about it.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
Go on, Inda, Well.
Speaker 7 (03:56):
All right, see Winny, Look why I just thought about it?
They try to let me try and go ahead.
Speaker 6 (04:15):
Just think how that.
Speaker 7 (04:19):
Twenty of us.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Well, dear, there we are.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
They like it, don't they?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Well, why shouldn't they.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
All they have to do is think, and they've got
whatever they want in three dimensions, color, sound, and smell.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Oh, think what it would have been like to have
a nursery like that when you were a kid.
Speaker 6 (04:44):
It's nice that we can give them all the advantages.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Sure, what else are we working for?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Well?
Speaker 4 (04:50):
What do you want to do? This evening?
Speaker 7 (04:51):
We're all the peasants asked to tell them the bridge.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
But oh, we don't have to worry about the kids.
They'll be all right in the nursery.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Come on and Lydia, we deserve a night out.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And in the nursery the walls were a leidoscope of
time and space and imagination. The green forest of Sherwood
and quiet forms of Robin and his merry men gave
way to the roll of the high seas and the
smell of salt in the air. As Sir Henry Morgan
(05:28):
sailed into the harbor at Jamaica.
Speaker 7 (05:29):
It's flag yet, yes, she wanted, it's not.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz followed the yellow.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Brick road round the nursery walls.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Then Hansel and Gretel discovered the gingerbread house, about three
feet from the door, and from a high tower that
stretched into the clouds, the little lame Prince sailed out
over his kingdom, and behind the crystalline quartz walls, the
vacuum tubes and grids and banks mental image tape spun
(06:01):
quietly and efficiently, erasing the line between illusion and reality.
Of course, the electric bill from Consolidated Utilities was tremendous,
but it was worth it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
The house went on.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
The stove hummed happily in the kitchen, making breakfast, dinner,
and supper for four, turning the eggs over lightly and
producing popovers electronically calculated by capacity to a thirty volt
current and specific gravity. The automatic laundry did the shirts
with a medium starch in the collars, except the button
down Oxfords, which had no start at all. The Happy
Life Home breathed contentedly as life proceeded with soft automaticity,
(06:39):
as guaranteed in the brochure and bill of sale.
Speaker 6 (06:43):
George, George, I wish you'd look at the nursery.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
What's wrongs?
Speaker 6 (06:51):
Well, I don't know. Well, I want you to look
at it, that's all. I'll call a psychologist to look
at it.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
What would the psychologists want for a nursery.
Speaker 6 (07:02):
Oh not, George, you know very well what he'd want.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I was in the nursery last week. It's perfectly all right.
Speaker 6 (07:08):
But it's different now.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
What do you mean different?
Speaker 6 (07:12):
I just want you to come and see.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Are the kids there?
Speaker 7 (07:15):
No, mage, Alan took them to.
Speaker 6 (07:16):
A show along with her kids. That's why I want
you to look him up before they get back.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
All right, what do you expect me to do. I
don't know. I'm no mechanic.
Speaker 6 (07:25):
This isn't the question of a leaky fauce at George.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
All right, dear, I'm coming.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
The nursery light flicked on as they came down the hall.
The relays clicked, and the tubes warmed, and chemical odor,
banks and pipes bubbled into life as they paused before
the closed door.
Speaker 6 (07:50):
Go ahead, George, open.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
It on all sides in three dimensions stretched, the hot,
tired landscape of an African velt reproduced at the last
stick and pebble and bit of straw. The ceiling above
them became a sky with a hot yellow sun. A
(08:12):
wind blew in from the baked veltland, the hot straw
smell of lion grass, the cool green smell of the
hidden water hole, the great rusty smell of animals, the
smell of dust like red paprika on the hot air.
And now the sounds, the howl of the jackal in
(08:37):
the distance, the thump of distant antelope feet on grassy sod,
and the papery rustling of the great vultures that wheeled
and circled under the yellow burning sun.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Oh, let's get out of this sun. It's a little
too real.
Speaker 6 (08:53):
Oh now, George, you promised you look around.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Well I don't see it.
Speaker 7 (08:58):
Look hear it about you?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Filthy creatures?
Speaker 6 (09:02):
And there there are the lions fall over that way.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yes, I've seen them.
Speaker 7 (09:08):
They're on my way to the water hole. They've just eaten, eaten. Yes,
I can't see what.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Sun too strong for shade you are it's some animals
a zebra or uh, babies are out maybe can you
see it?
Speaker 7 (09:26):
Are you sure?
Speaker 4 (09:26):
It's a little too late to be sure?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Nothing over there but clean ball vultures dropping for what's left?
Speaker 6 (09:35):
George, m did you hear that scream?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
What's green?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Just now?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Sorry?
Speaker 7 (09:40):
I know, become a light. Don't fight you here.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
They're just illusion.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
It was a miracle of mechanical efficiency, the lions prowling
toward them over the tawny belt land, A miracle of
inventive genius.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Every hearth should have one.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
The lions were fifteen feet away, so real, so startlingly real.
You could feel the prickling fur on your hand, and
your mouth was stuffed with a dusty upholstery smell of
their heated pelts, and the yellow of them was in
your eyes like the yellow of an ex was a tapestry,
and the yellows of lions and summer grass, the sound
(10:24):
of the matted lion lungs exhaling on the silent noontide, and.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
The smell of meat from the panting, dripping mouths.
Speaker 7 (10:33):
Georgiana afraid they're so real, They're.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
Only an illusion, Lydia, that's all my house?
Speaker 7 (10:40):
A quick outside, Oh, jud jo, is.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
My poor sweet Lydia's.
Speaker 7 (10:52):
Tursday almost good?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
No no no, no, taking us to come down.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
I could feel it broad.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
No, no, no, get a hold yourself from here.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
They aren't real walls, that's all it is, crystalloid walls.
Speaker 7 (11:06):
They look so real.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yes, yes, Darling, of course they do.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
But it's all dimensional color, reactionary process and metal tape
film behind glass screens. It's all over of aphonics and sonics.
Now here, here, take my handkerchief.
Speaker 6 (11:22):
I'm afraid, George, did you see? Did you feel it's
too real? You got to tell Wendy and Peter not
to read anymore in Africa?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yes, yes, of course, of course.
Speaker 7 (11:31):
Here do you promise?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Sure?
Speaker 6 (11:33):
And locked the nursery a few days.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Oh now, wait a minute, dear, let's keep our sense of.
Speaker 6 (11:39):
Proportion, George, I want you to lot that place up.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Funny. You know how difficult Peter is about that.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
I punished him last week by locking the nursery for
an afternoon. He threw a tank Frum and Wendy too funny.
Speaker 7 (11:49):
They live for the nurse. I tell you, it's got
to be lost. That's all there is to it.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
You need a rest all.
Speaker 7 (11:58):
I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
Maybe I don't have enough to do.
Speaker 7 (12:04):
I have too much time to think.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
All I do is set the menu select or dolls
at the beginning of the week.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
But honey, that's the whole idea. The house is automatic, I.
Speaker 6 (12:13):
Know, But couldn't we turn it off for a couple
of weeks, Just just a couple of weeks and take
a vacation.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
You don't mean that you want to fry eggs for me?
Speaker 6 (12:23):
Yes, I do. I'm doing socks too. I feel like
I don't belong here. The house is wife and mother
and maid. How can I compete with the African velt
and you? George, you don't know what to do with
yourself in the house. When you're home.
Speaker 7 (12:40):
You're drinking too much?
Speaker 6 (12:42):
Am I You feel useless too? Yes, I suppose I do, George,
h Those lions can't get out of there, can they?
Speaker 7 (12:54):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Of course not.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
There now, don't think about it anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
They ate alone.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
He sat idly, watching the dining room table produce warm
dishes of food from its mechanical interior.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
You forgot to catch them, That's funny.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
It wouldn't hurt to lock the children out of the
nursery for a while. It was clear that they'd been
spending too much time in Africa. Oh that sun, he
could still feel around his neck like a hot paw
an a lion's and the smell of blood.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Remarkable how the nursery caught the telepathic.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Emanations of the children's minds and created a life to
fulfill their desires. The children fought zebras, and there were zebras, son, son,
death and death. They were so young, But long before
you knew what death was, you were wishing it on
(14:08):
someone else. But this a long hated African belt, the
awful death in the jaws of a lion.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
And repeat it again and again and again.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
The children came home dutifully at eight thirty.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
Hi, mom hei, pa, oh, Peter, do you want something
to eat? We meet nothing we were just having to do.
Speaker 7 (14:30):
We were full of strawberry ice cream.
Speaker 6 (14:32):
Hot.
Speaker 7 (14:33):
We'll just sit and watch.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Sure, Uh, Peter tell us about the nursery.
Speaker 7 (14:41):
Nursery.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yes, it's all about Africa and everything.
Speaker 7 (14:45):
I don't understand.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Your mother and I were just traveling through Africa with
Rod and Reel.
Speaker 7 (14:51):
There is no African in the nursery.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Oh, come now, Peter, we know better.
Speaker 7 (14:57):
I don't remember any Africa, do you win?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Uh?
Speaker 7 (15:02):
I'm running see huh. Sure he loves that.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Wendy. Come back here, Wendy.
Speaker 7 (15:09):
I should be right back.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Sh She doesn't have to. I've seen it.
Speaker 7 (15:12):
Now, come on, sure, Pop, Wendy will tell us though.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Could they be lying?
Speaker 4 (15:19):
We'll see it in just a moment. They don't open
the door.
Speaker 7 (15:25):
See, daddy, it's Lord of Africa. It's Florida, fucking me
here he go to DMC is in Africa?
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Yes, I see it isn't.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Go to bed. Oh you're heard me go to bed?
Speaker 7 (15:46):
Oh okay, good night mom, you know good night he is.
I'll be right in here.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Here, look look at this Monday.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
This is the corner where the lions.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Where isn't that what's that.
Speaker 6 (16:01):
You picked up?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
It's an old.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Wallet of mine.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
There's a smell of hot grass on it, the smell
of a lion. It's wet with saliva, and it's been.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Showed, George.
Speaker 6 (16:18):
Those smears are blood.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Come on out now, let's go to bed.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
In the middle. So they went to bed, but in
the middle of the night Lydia was still awake, and
she knew her husband was awake.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
George, Hm, how did your wallet get in the nursery.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
When. They must have changed the walls from the African velt. Honey,
I'm gonna keep it locked. Maybe it doesn't good.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
For the children.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
It's supposed to help them work off an ross in
a harmless way.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
I'm starting to wonder.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
We've given the children everything they wanted.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
My father used to say children are like carpets. They
should be stepped on occasionally. We've never lifted a hand.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
They're spoiled, and we're spoiled.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I think I'll have doctor McLean come tomorrow morning and
have a look at Africa.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
Yes, Oh, it isn't Africa now it's Florida, and the yearling.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
I have a feeling it'll be Africa again before then.
Speaker 7 (17:38):
Oh, George, Wendy and Peter ain't a roomer.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Oh they've brought an end of the nurse.
Speaker 7 (17:46):
The scream.
Speaker 6 (17:48):
They sounded familiar for they yes, awfully, Oh, George, although.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
There are automatic some no beds tried very hard. The
two adults couldn't be rocked asleep for another hour.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
A smell of cats was in the night air.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
And in the morning the stove cooked French toasts, and
the dining room table poured the syrup and melted butter.
Speaker 6 (18:28):
Ah.
Speaker 7 (18:29):
Yes, you weren't gonna lock up the nursery for good,
are you?
Speaker 4 (18:34):
That all depends on what on you and your sister.
Speaker 6 (18:38):
We feel that you should have some variety, do you if.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
You interspersed this Africa with a little Sweden or China.
Speaker 7 (18:44):
I thought we were free to play the way we like.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
You are, within reasonable bounds.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
What's wrong with Africa? Daddy?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Oh, so now you admit you've been thinking of Africa.
Speaker 7 (18:57):
I wouldn't want the nursery locked up.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Well.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
As a matter of fact, we're thinking of turning the
whole house off for about a month, sort of camping out.
Speaker 7 (19:06):
And you might have to tie my own shoes instead
of having my shoe tied do it, brush my own
teeth and pumb my own hand, and give myself a bath. Well, Wendy,
it would be fun for change. Don't you think they're no,
would be awful. I didn't like it when you took
out the picture painting last month.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Well that's because I wanted you to learn to paint
by yourself.
Speaker 7 (19:25):
I don't want to do anything but look and listen
and smell. What else is there to do?
Speaker 2 (19:32):
All right?
Speaker 4 (19:33):
All right, go play in Africa?
Speaker 7 (19:37):
Are you gonna shut off the house?
Speaker 4 (19:39):
We're considering it.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
I don't think you're better consider it anymore.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Pop, I won't have any threats from you, son.
Speaker 7 (19:48):
Okay, Pop, Come on, Wendy, let's get back.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
After breakfast, Doctor David McLane was announced by the audio knocker,
and the dining room table, recognizing him as an old friend,
poured an extra cup of.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Coffee light with four lumps.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
I saw the nursery last year, George.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
It looked all right to me.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
You didn't notice anything unusual.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
No, A pattern showed the usual violence, a tendency towards
slight paranoia. All children feel persecuted by their parents, perfectly normal.
I locked the nursery and they broke into it last night.
I let them stay so they could form the patterns
for you to see.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
There it is, HM, well, I suppose we take a
look at it right now.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
They entered without knocking and sent the children out.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
The screams had faded, and the lions were feeding quietly
under the trees.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
I wish I could see what they're eating. He's supposed
some high powered banias. How long has this been going
on a.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Little over a month? It certainly doesn't feel good. I
don't want feelings.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
I want fact.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
George George, as psychologist, never saw a fact in his life.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
He knows about.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Feelings, and this doesn't feel good. My advice to you
is to have the whole room torn down and your
children brought to.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Me every day for the next year a treatment.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Is it that? Man? I'm afraid so you know.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
That's why the nursery was developed, originally to let us
examine the patterns.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Left on the wall by a child's mind.
Speaker 7 (21:57):
But what is it?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
What's wrong with Peter and Wendy.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
It's hard to say.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
I haven't punished them more than average, though I took
away a few gadgets last week. I locked the nursery
to show I meant business.
Speaker 7 (22:09):
George.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
You've let this room replace you and your wife and
your children's affections. This room is their real father and mother,
and now you come along and want to shut it.
You can feel a hatred coming out of that sky.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
George.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Turn everything off, the nursery, the automatic kitchen, the whole
confounded automatic house. Start now, But won't the shot be
too much for the children. I don't want them going
any deeper. Let's get out of here.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
I never liked these rooms. Get mean nurse whose lions
look real, don't they?
Speaker 3 (22:46):
I don't suppose it's anyway that what that they could
become real? Certainly not some flaw in the machinery. Tamp no, no, no,
I don't imagine.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
The room was like.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Nothing ever likes to die.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Even a room. I wonder if it hates me for
dining com Ironoia is thick today? Hello? Is this your Scott?
Speaker 4 (23:17):
It stained?
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Ron?
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Say that's good, that's lilias come on to me. If
he was boxing out here, go ahead, well let's watch.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah, it's off.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
The two children were in hysterics. They screamed and kicked
and through things. They yelled and sobbed and swore and
jump on the furniture weeping.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
It's off and it stays off.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
The old house dive as of now, the more I
see of the mess we put ourselves in, the more
at sackons me. We've been contemplaing our electrical mechanical navels
for two longs. We need air, fresh, unfiltered, unconditioned air.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
He marched around the house, cutting switches and pulling fuses.
The stave was disconnected with a roast lamb in the autumn.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
And a flat jacket filled the air.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
The heaters of the shoe shiners, the shoelacers, the body
scrubbers and swabbers, and massages. He pulled the plugs and
short it up and controlled one after the other.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
The house became full of electronic corpses.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
It was a mechanical cemetery, so silent, none of the humming,
hidden energy of the machines waiting to function at the
tap of a button. And by the still dining room table,
it's radiantic in besides dead and currentless.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Peter wailed at the house.
Speaker 7 (25:04):
Don't let him do it, don't let pop kill everything.
I hate you, Bob, I hate.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
Peter please don't get you anywhere. I will you.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
We did.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
We worked for a long while. Now we're gonna start
really living.
Speaker 7 (25:18):
Daddy, just want a.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
Minute of the nursery, then one mor George, George, can't
hurt you?
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Go all right, all right?
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Only shut up one minute?
Speaker 7 (25:30):
Next the end, forever, Geez, Thanks, Papa, Thanks.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Then we're going on a vacation.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Doctor McLean is coming in a half hour to help
us out.
Speaker 7 (25:43):
Lydia, turn on the nursery, I remember, kid, It'll be
just for one minute. Oh boy, come on, come on,
day just one minute.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Remember when I put those suitcases, Lydia.
Speaker 6 (25:58):
Don't don't shout, George, I'm right here.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Oh h did did you leave them alone in the nurse?
Speaker 6 (26:03):
Well, I've got to get ready, George. Oh that awful Africa?
What can we see her?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Well?
Speaker 4 (26:09):
And then how we'll be on our way to ourway.
What prompted us to buy a nightmare like that, pride?
Speaker 6 (26:15):
I guess we had the.
Speaker 7 (26:17):
Money and we were foolish.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
I guess we'd better get them out of there before
they get involved with those beasts again.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
What joy? Come on quick whenny Wendy media, what's the matter?
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Hurry up?
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Open the nursery.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Wendy, Peter, we'll be out anywhere whenny MEETERA Peter.
Speaker 7 (26:46):
The door.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Open the door, they've locked it from the outside. Peter,
Peter roping up.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Peter.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
I don't get ridiculous, children, It's time to go.
Speaker 7 (27:04):
Heady, open the door here and it's out.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Peter opened the door.
Speaker 7 (27:09):
It's time to go. Open the door. Short here the lamb.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Peter, you hear me, open this door all around up
god son, tell me you hear me.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
When doctor David McLean came a half hour later, he
found the two children in the nursery, sitting in the
center of the open glade, eating a picnic lunch. Beyond
them was the water hole in the yellow feltland. Above
was the hot sun. Doctor mc lane saw at a
distance the lions fighting and clawing, and then settling down
(28:06):
the feet in silence under the shady trees.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Hi kid, worry your mam and dead?
Speaker 7 (28:14):
Oh still be here directly.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Good good, We've got to get going.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
He squinted at the lions with his hands up to
his eyes. How they were done feeding?
Speaker 1 (28:27):
They moved to the water hole to drink. A shadow
flickered as the vultures dropped down from the blazing.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Sky to finish what the lions had.
Speaker 7 (28:37):
Left, Doctor McLane. Doctor McLane, huh eh, what have a
cup of tea?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
You've just heard another adventure into the unknown world of the.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Future, the world of.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
How soon we actually build a spaceship to conquer the
stars depends upon many factors, not the least of which
is a man, the overwhelming desire to create such a ship,
and the power to have it done. Next week we
tell the story of such a man, as Demention X
brings you Nelson Bonds.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
The vital Factor.
Speaker 8 (29:37):
Demension X is presented transcribed each week by the National
Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Street Dan Smith, publishers of
the magazine Astounding Science Fiction. Today, Dementia X has presented
the velt written for radio by Ernest Canoi from Ray
Bradbury is the Illustrated Man. Included in the cast were
Leslie Woods and Build Quinn as the parents, John Laser
(29:57):
and David Anderson as the children.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
Your host was normal music by Albert German.
Speaker 8 (30:02):
Dimension X is produced by William Welch and directed by
Fred Way
Adventures in time and space told in Future ten. The
National Broadcasting Company, and cooperation with Street and Smith, publishers
(00:29):
of astounding science fiction, bring you Dimension X. The sound
prooved Happy Life Home had cost thirty thousand dollars installed.
It clothed and fed and rocked them to sleep, and
(00:51):
played and.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Sang and was good to them.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Their life purred on from day to day, measured and
controlled by the nucleonic thermostats, the Iridiu spunge servo brains
that made the beds, and washed down the bathroom floors,
and made sure the salt cellars flowed freely without clogging.
Twice a day the house paused, rang a quiet bell,
(01:16):
and turned precisely ninety degrees on its axis in order
that the view from the solaroid living room windows might
be varied to avoid unweed. Of course, the pride of
the house was the nursery. The agent for the company,
it had been most enthusiastic.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
This way right down the hall. All right, we're god well,
it's all automatic. The nursery turns itself on when you
come within.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Ten feet of it.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Soft automaticity. That's the motto of the company.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
All right, now, this is the nursery.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Forty feet by forty feet and thirty feet high, separate
power unit with automatic overload circuit breakers, inspected and approved
by the underwriter's laboratory. The nursery is educational, instructive, entertaining
and therapeutic. The entire control mechanism is adjusted to the
electro and cphalographic key of the child.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
How much does it cost? Thirty thousand fob Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
But that's as much as the whole house. Why no,
But we do want the best for our children.
Speaker 6 (02:20):
Don't we. Oh, yes, we want the best for our children.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
And it was the best.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
The crystalline walls wavered from two to three dimensions, the
pseudo textured composition flooring shifted lightly from brick to dirt
to waving grass, and the ordorophonics waft of descent of
fantasy through the hermetically conditioned and filtered air. The nursery
was the very best. But then they wanted the very
(02:55):
best for the children. The technicians installed the nursery and
the heavy coaxial power cable.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Was run in from the main line.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
The walls sprang the life and the mental control banks
and relays hummed.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
All right, Peter and Wendy, this is your nursery.
Speaker 7 (03:12):
What's so special around a nursery? Dad?
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Plenty?
Speaker 4 (03:16):
You just go in and see?
Speaker 7 (03:17):
Do we have to it's up there? You promise you
clean ball with me outside park?
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Go on, kids, try out the nursery. It's better than
any old yard.
Speaker 7 (03:26):
All go on in there. You'll be surprised. She go ahead, Wendy,
I'm scared. Hey, it's nicely here it is. Go on in, Winny.
By the pictures on those walls, they're real, well almost real.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
You can change them any way you like, just by
thinking about it.
Speaker 6 (03:52):
Go on, Inda, Well.
Speaker 7 (03:56):
All right, see Winny, Look why I just thought about it?
They try to let me try and go ahead.
Speaker 6 (04:15):
Just think how that.
Speaker 7 (04:19):
Twenty of us.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Well, dear, there we are.
Speaker 6 (04:30):
They like it, don't they?
Speaker 4 (04:31):
Well, why shouldn't they.
Speaker 3 (04:33):
All they have to do is think, and they've got
whatever they want in three dimensions, color, sound, and smell.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Oh, think what it would have been like to have
a nursery like that when you were a kid.
Speaker 6 (04:44):
It's nice that we can give them all the advantages.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
Sure, what else are we working for?
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Well?
Speaker 4 (04:50):
What do you want to do? This evening?
Speaker 7 (04:51):
We're all the peasants asked to tell them the bridge.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
But oh, we don't have to worry about the kids.
They'll be all right in the nursery.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Come on and Lydia, we deserve a night out.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
And in the nursery the walls were a leidoscope of
time and space and imagination. The green forest of Sherwood
and quiet forms of Robin and his merry men gave
way to the roll of the high seas and the
smell of salt in the air. As Sir Henry Morgan
(05:28):
sailed into the harbor at Jamaica.
Speaker 7 (05:29):
It's flag yet, yes, she wanted, it's not.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz followed the yellow.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Brick road round the nursery walls.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Then Hansel and Gretel discovered the gingerbread house, about three
feet from the door, and from a high tower that
stretched into the clouds, the little lame Prince sailed out
over his kingdom, and behind the crystalline quartz walls, the
vacuum tubes and grids and banks mental image tape spun
(06:01):
quietly and efficiently, erasing the line between illusion and reality.
Of course, the electric bill from Consolidated Utilities was tremendous,
but it was worth it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
The house went on.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
The stove hummed happily in the kitchen, making breakfast, dinner,
and supper for four, turning the eggs over lightly and
producing popovers electronically calculated by capacity to a thirty volt
current and specific gravity. The automatic laundry did the shirts
with a medium starch in the collars, except the button
down Oxfords, which had no start at all. The Happy
Life Home breathed contentedly as life proceeded with soft automaticity,
(06:39):
as guaranteed in the brochure and bill of sale.
Speaker 6 (06:43):
George, George, I wish you'd look at the nursery.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
What's wrongs?
Speaker 6 (06:51):
Well, I don't know. Well, I want you to look
at it, that's all. I'll call a psychologist to look
at it.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
What would the psychologists want for a nursery.
Speaker 6 (07:02):
Oh not, George, you know very well what he'd want.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I was in the nursery last week. It's perfectly all right.
Speaker 6 (07:08):
But it's different now.
Speaker 4 (07:10):
What do you mean different?
Speaker 6 (07:12):
I just want you to come and see.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Are the kids there?
Speaker 7 (07:15):
No, mage, Alan took them to.
Speaker 6 (07:16):
A show along with her kids. That's why I want
you to look him up before they get back.
Speaker 4 (07:21):
All right, what do you expect me to do. I
don't know. I'm no mechanic.
Speaker 6 (07:25):
This isn't the question of a leaky fauce at George.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
All right, dear, I'm coming.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
The nursery light flicked on as they came down the hall.
The relays clicked, and the tubes warmed, and chemical odor,
banks and pipes bubbled into life as they paused before
the closed door.
Speaker 6 (07:50):
Go ahead, George, open.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
It on all sides in three dimensions stretched, the hot,
tired landscape of an African velt reproduced at the last
stick and pebble and bit of straw. The ceiling above
them became a sky with a hot yellow sun. A
(08:12):
wind blew in from the baked veltland, the hot straw
smell of lion grass, the cool green smell of the
hidden water hole, the great rusty smell of animals, the
smell of dust like red paprika on the hot air.
And now the sounds, the howl of the jackal in
(08:37):
the distance, the thump of distant antelope feet on grassy sod,
and the papery rustling of the great vultures that wheeled
and circled under the yellow burning sun.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Oh, let's get out of this sun. It's a little
too real.
Speaker 6 (08:53):
Oh now, George, you promised you look around.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Well I don't see it.
Speaker 7 (08:58):
Look hear it about you?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Filthy creatures?
Speaker 6 (09:02):
And there there are the lions fall over that way.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yes, I've seen them.
Speaker 7 (09:08):
They're on my way to the water hole. They've just eaten, eaten. Yes,
I can't see what.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Sun too strong for shade you are it's some animals
a zebra or uh, babies are out maybe can you
see it?
Speaker 7 (09:26):
Are you sure?
Speaker 4 (09:26):
It's a little too late to be sure?
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Nothing over there but clean ball vultures dropping for what's left?
Speaker 6 (09:35):
George, m did you hear that scream?
Speaker 2 (09:37):
What's green?
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Just now?
Speaker 2 (09:39):
Sorry?
Speaker 7 (09:40):
I know, become a light. Don't fight you here.
Speaker 4 (09:45):
They're just illusion.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
It was a miracle of mechanical efficiency, the lions prowling
toward them over the tawny belt land, A miracle of
inventive genius.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Every hearth should have one.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
The lions were fifteen feet away, so real, so startlingly real.
You could feel the prickling fur on your hand, and
your mouth was stuffed with a dusty upholstery smell of
their heated pelts, and the yellow of them was in
your eyes like the yellow of an ex was a tapestry,
and the yellows of lions and summer grass, the sound
(10:24):
of the matted lion lungs exhaling on the silent noontide, and.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
The smell of meat from the panting, dripping mouths.
Speaker 7 (10:33):
Georgiana afraid they're so real, They're.
Speaker 4 (10:36):
Only an illusion, Lydia, that's all my house?
Speaker 7 (10:40):
A quick outside, Oh, jud jo, is.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
My poor sweet Lydia's.
Speaker 7 (10:52):
Tursday almost good?
Speaker 2 (10:53):
No no no, no, taking us to come down.
Speaker 6 (10:59):
I could feel it broad.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
No, no, no, get a hold yourself from here.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
They aren't real walls, that's all it is, crystalloid walls.
Speaker 7 (11:06):
They look so real.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yes, yes, Darling, of course they do.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
But it's all dimensional color, reactionary process and metal tape
film behind glass screens. It's all over of aphonics and sonics.
Now here, here, take my handkerchief.
Speaker 6 (11:22):
I'm afraid, George, did you see? Did you feel it's
too real? You got to tell Wendy and Peter not
to read anymore in Africa?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yes, yes, of course, of course.
Speaker 7 (11:31):
Here do you promise?
Speaker 4 (11:32):
Sure?
Speaker 2 (11:33):
Sure?
Speaker 6 (11:33):
And locked the nursery a few days.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Oh now, wait a minute, dear, let's keep our sense of.
Speaker 6 (11:39):
Proportion, George, I want you to lot that place up.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Funny. You know how difficult Peter is about that.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
I punished him last week by locking the nursery for
an afternoon. He threw a tank Frum and Wendy too funny.
Speaker 7 (11:49):
They live for the nurse. I tell you, it's got
to be lost. That's all there is to it.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
You need a rest all.
Speaker 7 (11:58):
I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 6 (12:02):
Maybe I don't have enough to do.
Speaker 7 (12:04):
I have too much time to think.
Speaker 6 (12:06):
All I do is set the menu select or dolls
at the beginning of the week.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
But honey, that's the whole idea. The house is automatic, I.
Speaker 6 (12:13):
Know, But couldn't we turn it off for a couple
of weeks, Just just a couple of weeks and take
a vacation.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
You don't mean that you want to fry eggs for me?
Speaker 6 (12:23):
Yes, I do. I'm doing socks too. I feel like
I don't belong here. The house is wife and mother
and maid. How can I compete with the African velt
and you? George, you don't know what to do with
yourself in the house. When you're home.
Speaker 7 (12:40):
You're drinking too much?
Speaker 6 (12:42):
Am I You feel useless too? Yes, I suppose I do, George,
h Those lions can't get out of there, can they?
Speaker 7 (12:54):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Of course not.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
There now, don't think about it anymore.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
They ate alone.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
He sat idly, watching the dining room table produce warm
dishes of food from its mechanical interior.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
You forgot to catch them, That's funny.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
It wouldn't hurt to lock the children out of the
nursery for a while. It was clear that they'd been
spending too much time in Africa. Oh that sun, he
could still feel around his neck like a hot paw
an a lion's and the smell of blood.
Speaker 4 (13:43):
Remarkable how the nursery caught the telepathic.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Emanations of the children's minds and created a life to
fulfill their desires. The children fought zebras, and there were zebras, son, son,
death and death. They were so young, But long before
you knew what death was, you were wishing it on
(14:08):
someone else. But this a long hated African belt, the
awful death in the jaws of a lion.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
And repeat it again and again and again.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
The children came home dutifully at eight thirty.
Speaker 6 (14:24):
Hi, mom hei, pa, oh, Peter, do you want something
to eat? We meet nothing we were just having to do.
Speaker 7 (14:30):
We were full of strawberry ice cream.
Speaker 6 (14:32):
Hot.
Speaker 7 (14:33):
We'll just sit and watch.
Speaker 4 (14:35):
Sure, Uh, Peter tell us about the nursery.
Speaker 7 (14:41):
Nursery.
Speaker 4 (14:42):
Yes, it's all about Africa and everything.
Speaker 7 (14:45):
I don't understand.
Speaker 4 (14:48):
Your mother and I were just traveling through Africa with
Rod and Reel.
Speaker 7 (14:51):
There is no African in the nursery.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Oh, come now, Peter, we know better.
Speaker 7 (14:57):
I don't remember any Africa, do you win?
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Uh?
Speaker 7 (15:02):
I'm running see huh. Sure he loves that.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
Wendy. Come back here, Wendy.
Speaker 7 (15:09):
I should be right back.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Sh She doesn't have to. I've seen it.
Speaker 7 (15:12):
Now, come on, sure, Pop, Wendy will tell us though.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Could they be lying?
Speaker 4 (15:19):
We'll see it in just a moment. They don't open
the door.
Speaker 7 (15:25):
See, daddy, it's Lord of Africa. It's Florida, fucking me
here he go to DMC is in Africa?
Speaker 4 (15:37):
Yes, I see it isn't.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Go to bed. Oh you're heard me go to bed?
Speaker 7 (15:46):
Oh okay, good night mom, you know good night he is.
I'll be right in here.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Here, look look at this Monday.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
This is the corner where the lions.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Where isn't that what's that.
Speaker 6 (16:01):
You picked up?
Speaker 2 (16:02):
It's an old.
Speaker 4 (16:03):
Wallet of mine.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
There's a smell of hot grass on it, the smell
of a lion. It's wet with saliva, and it's been.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Showed, George.
Speaker 6 (16:18):
Those smears are blood.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Come on out now, let's go to bed.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
In the middle. So they went to bed, but in
the middle of the night Lydia was still awake, and
she knew her husband was awake.
Speaker 6 (16:52):
George, Hm, how did your wallet get in the nursery.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
When. They must have changed the walls from the African velt. Honey,
I'm gonna keep it locked. Maybe it doesn't good.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
For the children.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
It's supposed to help them work off an ross in
a harmless way.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
I'm starting to wonder.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
We've given the children everything they wanted.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
My father used to say children are like carpets. They
should be stepped on occasionally. We've never lifted a hand.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
They're spoiled, and we're spoiled.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
I think I'll have doctor McLean come tomorrow morning and
have a look at Africa.
Speaker 6 (17:31):
Yes, Oh, it isn't Africa now it's Florida, and the yearling.
Speaker 4 (17:35):
I have a feeling it'll be Africa again before then.
Speaker 7 (17:38):
Oh, George, Wendy and Peter ain't a roomer.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
Oh they've brought an end of the nurse.
Speaker 7 (17:46):
The scream.
Speaker 6 (17:48):
They sounded familiar for they yes, awfully, Oh, George, although.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
There are automatic some no beds tried very hard. The
two adults couldn't be rocked asleep for another hour.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
A smell of cats was in the night air.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
And in the morning the stove cooked French toasts, and
the dining room table poured the syrup and melted butter.
Speaker 6 (18:28):
Ah.
Speaker 7 (18:29):
Yes, you weren't gonna lock up the nursery for good,
are you?
Speaker 4 (18:34):
That all depends on what on you and your sister.
Speaker 6 (18:38):
We feel that you should have some variety, do you if.
Speaker 4 (18:40):
You interspersed this Africa with a little Sweden or China.
Speaker 7 (18:44):
I thought we were free to play the way we like.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
You are, within reasonable bounds.
Speaker 6 (18:49):
What's wrong with Africa? Daddy?
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Oh, so now you admit you've been thinking of Africa.
Speaker 7 (18:57):
I wouldn't want the nursery locked up.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Well.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
As a matter of fact, we're thinking of turning the
whole house off for about a month, sort of camping out.
Speaker 7 (19:06):
And you might have to tie my own shoes instead
of having my shoe tied do it, brush my own
teeth and pumb my own hand, and give myself a bath. Well, Wendy,
it would be fun for change. Don't you think they're no,
would be awful. I didn't like it when you took
out the picture painting last month.
Speaker 4 (19:22):
Well that's because I wanted you to learn to paint
by yourself.
Speaker 7 (19:25):
I don't want to do anything but look and listen
and smell. What else is there to do?
Speaker 2 (19:32):
All right?
Speaker 4 (19:33):
All right, go play in Africa?
Speaker 7 (19:37):
Are you gonna shut off the house?
Speaker 4 (19:39):
We're considering it.
Speaker 7 (19:41):
I don't think you're better consider it anymore.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
Pop, I won't have any threats from you, son.
Speaker 7 (19:48):
Okay, Pop, Come on, Wendy, let's get back.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
After breakfast, Doctor David McLane was announced by the audio knocker,
and the dining room table, recognizing him as an old friend,
poured an extra cup of.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Coffee light with four lumps.
Speaker 4 (20:23):
I saw the nursery last year, George.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
It looked all right to me.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
You didn't notice anything unusual.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
No, A pattern showed the usual violence, a tendency towards
slight paranoia. All children feel persecuted by their parents, perfectly normal.
I locked the nursery and they broke into it last night.
I let them stay so they could form the patterns
for you to see.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
There it is, HM, well, I suppose we take a
look at it right now.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
They entered without knocking and sent the children out.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
The screams had faded, and the lions were feeding quietly
under the trees.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
I wish I could see what they're eating. He's supposed
some high powered banias. How long has this been going
on a.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Little over a month? It certainly doesn't feel good. I
don't want feelings.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
I want fact.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
George George, as psychologist, never saw a fact in his life.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
He knows about.
Speaker 3 (21:36):
Feelings, and this doesn't feel good. My advice to you
is to have the whole room torn down and your
children brought to.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Me every day for the next year a treatment.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Is it that? Man? I'm afraid so you know.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
That's why the nursery was developed, originally to let us
examine the patterns.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Left on the wall by a child's mind.
Speaker 7 (21:57):
But what is it?
Speaker 2 (21:58):
What's wrong with Peter and Wendy.
Speaker 4 (22:01):
It's hard to say.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
I haven't punished them more than average, though I took
away a few gadgets last week. I locked the nursery
to show I meant business.
Speaker 7 (22:09):
George.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
You've let this room replace you and your wife and
your children's affections. This room is their real father and mother,
and now you come along and want to shut it.
You can feel a hatred coming out of that sky.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
George.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Turn everything off, the nursery, the automatic kitchen, the whole
confounded automatic house. Start now, But won't the shot be
too much for the children. I don't want them going
any deeper. Let's get out of here.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
I never liked these rooms. Get mean nurse whose lions
look real, don't they?
Speaker 3 (22:46):
I don't suppose it's anyway that what that they could
become real? Certainly not some flaw in the machinery. Tamp no, no, no,
I don't imagine.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
The room was like.
Speaker 4 (23:04):
Nothing ever likes to die.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Even a room. I wonder if it hates me for
dining com Ironoia is thick today? Hello? Is this your Scott?
Speaker 4 (23:17):
It stained?
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Ron?
Speaker 4 (23:20):
Say that's good, that's lilias come on to me. If
he was boxing out here, go ahead, well let's watch.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Yeah, it's off.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
The two children were in hysterics. They screamed and kicked
and through things. They yelled and sobbed and swore and
jump on the furniture weeping.
Speaker 4 (23:58):
It's off and it stays off.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
The old house dive as of now, the more I
see of the mess we put ourselves in, the more
at sackons me. We've been contemplaing our electrical mechanical navels
for two longs. We need air, fresh, unfiltered, unconditioned air.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
He marched around the house, cutting switches and pulling fuses.
The stave was disconnected with a roast lamb in the autumn.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
And a flat jacket filled the air.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
The heaters of the shoe shiners, the shoelacers, the body
scrubbers and swabbers, and massages. He pulled the plugs and
short it up and controlled one after the other.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
The house became full of electronic corpses.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
It was a mechanical cemetery, so silent, none of the humming,
hidden energy of the machines waiting to function at the
tap of a button. And by the still dining room table,
it's radiantic in besides dead and currentless.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Peter wailed at the house.
Speaker 7 (25:04):
Don't let him do it, don't let pop kill everything.
I hate you, Bob, I hate.
Speaker 4 (25:09):
Peter please don't get you anywhere. I will you.
Speaker 7 (25:13):
We did.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
We worked for a long while. Now we're gonna start
really living.
Speaker 7 (25:18):
Daddy, just want a.
Speaker 6 (25:20):
Minute of the nursery, then one mor George, George, can't
hurt you?
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Go all right, all right?
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Only shut up one minute?
Speaker 7 (25:30):
Next the end, forever, Geez, Thanks, Papa, Thanks.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Then we're going on a vacation.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Doctor McLean is coming in a half hour to help
us out.
Speaker 7 (25:43):
Lydia, turn on the nursery, I remember, kid, It'll be
just for one minute. Oh boy, come on, come on,
day just one minute.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
Remember when I put those suitcases, Lydia.
Speaker 6 (25:58):
Don't don't shout, George, I'm right here.
Speaker 4 (26:00):
Oh h did did you leave them alone in the nurse?
Speaker 6 (26:03):
Well, I've got to get ready, George. Oh that awful Africa?
What can we see her?
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Well?
Speaker 4 (26:09):
And then how we'll be on our way to ourway.
What prompted us to buy a nightmare like that, pride?
Speaker 6 (26:15):
I guess we had the.
Speaker 7 (26:17):
Money and we were foolish.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
I guess we'd better get them out of there before
they get involved with those beasts again.
Speaker 7 (26:22):
What joy? Come on quick whenny Wendy media, what's the matter?
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Hurry up?
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Open the nursery.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Wendy, Peter, we'll be out anywhere whenny MEETERA Peter.
Speaker 7 (26:46):
The door.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
Open the door, they've locked it from the outside. Peter,
Peter roping up.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
Peter.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
I don't get ridiculous, children, It's time to go.
Speaker 7 (27:04):
Heady, open the door here and it's out.
Speaker 4 (27:07):
Peter opened the door.
Speaker 7 (27:09):
It's time to go. Open the door. Short here the lamb.
Speaker 3 (27:14):
Peter, you hear me, open this door all around up
god son, tell me you hear me.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
When doctor David McLean came a half hour later, he
found the two children in the nursery, sitting in the
center of the open glade, eating a picnic lunch. Beyond
them was the water hole in the yellow feltland. Above
was the hot sun. Doctor mc lane saw at a
distance the lions fighting and clawing, and then settling down
(28:06):
the feet in silence under the shady trees.
Speaker 4 (28:10):
Hi kid, worry your mam and dead?
Speaker 7 (28:14):
Oh still be here directly.
Speaker 4 (28:17):
Good good, We've got to get going.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
He squinted at the lions with his hands up to
his eyes. How they were done feeding?
Speaker 1 (28:27):
They moved to the water hole to drink. A shadow
flickered as the vultures dropped down from the blazing.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Sky to finish what the lions had.
Speaker 7 (28:37):
Left, Doctor McLane. Doctor McLane, huh eh, what have a
cup of tea?
Speaker 2 (29:01):
You've just heard another adventure into the unknown world of the.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Future, the world of.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
How soon we actually build a spaceship to conquer the
stars depends upon many factors, not the least of which
is a man, the overwhelming desire to create such a ship,
and the power to have it done. Next week we
tell the story of such a man, as Demention X
brings you Nelson Bonds.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
The vital Factor.
Speaker 8 (29:37):
Demension X is presented transcribed each week by the National
Broadcasting Company in cooperation with Street Dan Smith, publishers of
the magazine Astounding Science Fiction. Today, Dementia X has presented
the velt written for radio by Ernest Canoi from Ray
Bradbury is the Illustrated Man. Included in the cast were
Leslie Woods and Build Quinn as the parents, John Laser
(29:57):
and David Anderson as the children.
Speaker 4 (29:59):
Your host was normal music by Albert German.
Speaker 8 (30:02):
Dimension X is produced by William Welch and directed by
Fred Way
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