December 14, 2025 • 29 mins
https://www.solgoodmedia.com - Listen to hundreds of audiobooks, thousands of short stories, and ambient sounds all ad free! "Mind Webs Daily" rekindles the charm of old time radio with a daily infusion of psychological and speculative tales. Each day offers a unique journey into the enigmatic and often eerie realms of the human mind, reminiscent of classic radio storytelling but with a contemporary flair. Perfect for daily listeners who appreciate a blend of nostalgia and modern narrative depth.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Mine. This is Michael Hanson. The mind web story this
time is look Homeward Spaceman by Robert Silverberg, copyright nineteen
fifty seven by Amazing Magazine. I guess this is the street,
(01:04):
Paul thought, I'm back. It annoyed him that, after six
years in space he was no longer quite sure where
his home was. But this was the street, all right.
The memories game flooding back. He remembered the houses of
motel colored stone, the cracked and gnarled sidewalk, the s
(01:26):
gregly sycamore tree that marked his home. A pretty girl
came around the corner. She was wearing softly glowing translucent slacks,
and with her was a big old Dalmatian at the
end of the radio leash. He wondered how she knew him.
She didn't look like much past seventeen, and so she
(01:49):
could have only been eleven or so when he had
gone away. Yet she recognized him at once. He frowned
and reached back into his memory. Mation might be the
old Riley dog, he thought, and then the girl would
be Nancy Riley. Paul approached his house and noted with
(02:10):
amusement that the old woman who lived next door was
still rocking on her porch, looking placidly out at nothing particular.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Oh, Paul, nice weather, isn't it He.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Did not even remember her name, but she knew him.
Something was crazy here. How had all his memories escaped him?
He mounted the familiar steps. He shuffled his feet on
the door mat, as he had been taught to do
long years before, and straightening his hair, squaring his shoulders,
(02:46):
clearing his throat. He rang the bell and waited. He
heard the sound of someone coming to open the door.
Would it be his mother or his brother, he wondered,
Probably his mother most likely wasn't getting around too much anymore.
Once more, he practiced the firm handshake he had been
(03:09):
preparing for his brother. I'll grab old Jim by the
hand and squeezed to the yells. Who's there? Called a
masculine voice, Oh me, if Paul, I've come back for
a furlough? Slowly the door opened. Horror stricken, Paul stared
at the man who had opened the door, and the
(03:32):
man inside calmly returned the glance. They stood there, frozen,
looking at each other. Paul was looking at himself, not
quite himself, he decided. Once the initial shock had worn off.
It was a younger version of himself at the door,
(03:56):
with narrower shoulders, a paler face. Paul was proud of it.
Heavy space tan, A livid white scar across Paul's forehead
did not mark the brow of the other man. He
was shorter, softer looking. Who are you? Said the man
inside the door. I could ask you the same question.
(04:20):
He started to move inside the house, but the other
Paul moved the door closed an inch or two with
an imperceptible gesture. I'm Paul Robinson, Paul said, I used
to live here. I've been in space six years, but
now I'm home. I suppose you tell me now just
(04:43):
what the hell is going on here? Pardon me? The
other Paul said, I am Paul Robinson, and I've never
been away at all. I'll please go away before you
disturb my mother your mutter. Look, I don't know what
kind of joke this is, but I've I've had enough
(05:04):
of it. Now get out of the way. He started
to push his way past the other Paul into the house. Hey, gently, kid,
said a voice from within. Paul stopped. This was a
voice he did recognize. I don't make a scene. Jim,
and he turned, anxious to be near some one he knew.
(05:25):
So far, this innocent returned to his home and held
more terrors than his entire tour of space. Paul rushed
to greet his older brother, but Jim dodged around him
and went to the other pall, And with a swift,
sudden motion, Jim touched his hand to the other Paul's back,
(05:46):
and the other pall stiffened in mid stride.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
A robot.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
A A robot copy of me, yes, said Jim, going
to Paul for the first time. Paul looked at his
older brother, the older brother he had grown up with,
worshiped falk with, finally left behind when they call the
space came. He sees Jim's hand and shook hard till
Jim cried Uncle. At last, Paul relaxed his grip. At last,
(06:22):
At long last, I made you yell, uncle, Jim. Jim shrugged.
Now younger generation always wins. Eventually, Paul, I'm afraid space
has made a man out of you. How long are
you going to be home? I got a two day leave.
A couple days and we ship out again on the
(06:42):
rog'll run. Jim was no longer the powerful giant of
Paul's memories. He had become stooped in six years, so
he was no longer as tall as Paul, and his
forehead was higher, and there was a loneliness in his
eyes that hit Paul hard. Jim had wanted so badly
to go to space, but they had long before decided
(07:06):
that only one of them could go so their mother
wouldn't be left alone. Everyone had thought it would be
Jim to go, but Jim had waited for Paul to
grow up so they could take the test together, and
by then Jim's reflexes weren't what they had once been,
and Paul had easily outscored him. Jim had stayed here
(07:26):
with his mother, just the two of them, in the
old and dingy house of the twentieth century furniture in
the old style of appliances and the ancient sycamore tree,
while Paul had been to the nab Porcian and the
Marriad other bright Stars. The years had been hard on Jim.
(07:47):
I'm having a friend drop in tomorrow for dinner before
we go back to ship. Jim. Jack Fenners the fella.
He's my bunk mate on ship, but say he turned
to where the robot was standing. Frozen in the shape
was a word caught on its plastic lips. Tell me, Jim,
what that thing is doing here? It was a nightmare
(08:08):
to find myself answering the door. Well, I bought him
right after you left, Paul, it was pretty rough for
a while. Mother missed you terribly. The first week she
became ill, worrying about you. That there was nothing about
that in her letters, of course, not, we'd never tell you.
I wrote a lot of those letters myself, Paul. She
(08:31):
was so sick that the doctors told me she wouldn't
live unless you came back from space immediately. I didn't
dare ask you to come back. I couldn't do that
to my own brother, and so I had the robot
double maid. I told her that you were back, that
your flight had been called off, or something like that,
and she accepted it. Paul sank into one of the
(08:55):
deep soft chairs and stared at the motionless replica of
himself next to his So all these years, she's thought
that I was right here. And that's why Nancy Riley
said hello to me, and the old woman next door
talked about the weather. Now, what happens then, who's out
(09:17):
the door? You better come down here, mother, I've got
a surprise for you. What are you going to do, Jim?
Suppose she asks me something I don't know. Shouldn't we
hide the robot? No? Now, this is the only way, Paul.
I want her to see both of you together, so
I can tell her the truth after all these years
(09:39):
of pretending she's well. Now she can take it. But
what happens after I go back? Will she still be
willing to accept the robot? I know what I'm doing here?
She is. Paul looked up as his mother appeared. Hello Mother.
(10:00):
He faced her, glad to see her again. She didn't
look much older. She had hardly changed at all. Well,
I'm home. She looked at him, studying the white scar
on his forehead. He suspected, and then looked at the robot,
and then back at him, and finally a.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Gym, Jim, who is this?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
This is Paul, Mother, he's been in space for six years.
I well, I bought this robot right after he left,
so you wouldn't miss him too much. The shadows of
the old house seemed to wrap around the three of
them bleakly. Paul, Yes, Mother, He walked around the room,
(10:47):
getting familiar with the old things, with the smell of
home and the warmth of home.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Do you mean that you have coaxed me?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Jim, Mom, it was necessary.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
You did the right thing. It's good to have you back,
even if I've had you all along. You look wonderfully except.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Well this, yees ay. I got the space cross for that.
Natives on the Neb they resisted our attempts to trade,
and we showed them.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
You were in a fight, paulp Yes.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Mother. It was as if he had been in a
schoolboy tussle, not a struggle with aliens half the sky away.
As he stood there, the memory came flooding vividly back.
He was in the midst of a sweeping field of
bright red vegetation, with sweat pouring off his back and
making his uniform cling. The hot rays of the neb
(11:46):
came down. He was standing alone, watching the wiry green
men advance. His heart was pounding, but he was unafraid.
It was his guard duty and he was going to
stand it. Behind him was the gleaming bulk of the
great ship and its sleeping crew. But the Nebbians came closer.
(12:08):
Get back, It cried roughly. They ignored him. They were thin,
humanoid men with long, grotesque skulls and deep set, terrifying eyes.
They came closer. Paul drew his gun and gestured with it.
Then suddenly one of them leaped, and Paul felt a
nauseous alien smell near him and then around him. He
(12:32):
jabbed upward with the gun, fired and shoved the corpse
fell backward, and then they were all around him, kicking, scratching,
screaming furiously, and Paul shouldered his way through them, took
up his stand at the base of a towering droola tree,
started firing into the gibbering horde. They dropped, but still
(12:53):
kept coming. Then the ammunition was gone, and more than
abbians kept pouring from the forest, laying about him viciously.
With his gun butts, he crushed skulls and smashed alien
faces with savage glee. They swarmed up and around him,
and he felt a claw rip across his forehead. Blood
(13:15):
streamed down into his eyes, and he was blind, but
through the haze he could see his crewmates coming at
last to his rescue. When it was over, he was
a hero, and he hadn't been afraid not half as
afraid as he was back on Earth in his own home.
For no reason that he could discern. A sinister atmosphere
(13:37):
hung over the house, and it worried Paul. He didn't
like it. The situation made him uncomfortable. He sat down
on the staircase next to his mother, hooking one long
leg over the other and pulling up his shiny space graze.
I uh have a two day leave?
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Oh fine, Paul. It's good to have you even for
a little while. Come on, you must be hungry, you know, Paul,
all these years I loved that machine like it was
my own son. I never knew the difference. Science is
(14:20):
a wonderful thing, isn't it. Where are you going when
you ship out tomorrow?
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Serious? First by overdrive and then the Porsi, and then
back to the NAB for a little clean up action,
and then on to Riduel for a while. Oh mom,
I'm having a bunk made of mine here for dinner tomorrow.
Before we go back, you'll tell you about the NED, Paul. Yes, mother, Paul,
(14:46):
do you.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Have to go back to space? What I mean it? Paul?
When you leave tomorrow, I'll have only the robot again.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I'll know he's not real anyway, He'll only be half
of my son. Don't want the little boy always. I
want the man who's been to space. Stay here with us.
I'll fix up your room the way you used to
have it. All your books, your records, the desk, arrange
the old way. Even that luminous bed spread that you
(15:16):
liked six years in space ought to be enough.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Paul glared angrily at his brother. Why did Jim have
to tell her the truth? Why not keep up the pretense.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
I want you to give up space. I don't want
a robot substitute anymore. I want my son.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
You can't ask that of me. Mom. It's it's my
life out there. I can't give it up now and
tie myself down on Earth. I've laughed Earth for good.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Stay here with me, Paul, Not not even for you.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
It's not fair of you to ask me to give
up something like that. Space is everything to me.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
But you like it here, Paul, You forget space In
a month, I.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Wish I hadn't come home at all. He walked to
the window. The sun was just beginning to drop in
the sky, and the distant spaceport was painted a dull
orange by the dying day. He looked at the silver
red ships with their noses pointed to the skies. Why
do you want to tie me down? I don't want
(16:30):
you to suffer.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I know, I know.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
It's the same old story. You've always been selfish, Paul.
You've let your brother make every sacrifice for you, and
you've never really shown any gratitude. You never wanted to
obey me either. My wishes just meant nothing to you.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
He looked from one figure to the other in anguish.
Why were they torturing him? Why had this whole home
coming been such a nightmare. I can't let you do
this to me. Paul walked toward the door and quickly
strode through, passing the unconcerned robot, slamming the door hard.
(17:13):
He reached the porch, paused and stared bitterly at the quiet,
small town streets, wondering why they were doing this to him.
It was harder to find your mother than a whole
world full of green danebians. If I had known this
would happen, Paul, or forget it, Jim, I didn't know.
(17:36):
Skip it, Jim. I know why you didn't. You want
me to stay here so you can go away somewhere,
don't you. You're afraid to leave mother alone with Robot's son,
so you want to trap me into taking your place here. Well,
no game, Jim. You've chosen your lot and you've got
it for keeps, and that's not it at all. You
(17:56):
don't understand, Paul. I don't want to leave home. I
can't leave. I've found myself hand and foot. I've lived
here all my life. This house is like a shell
to me. By now I'm thirty five, Paul, I'm setting
my ways and well, I can't break out. I can't
tell you how much everything in this house means to me, Paul. Mother,
(18:17):
the books, the furniture, even the robot. I can't tell you.
Missus Robinson had made a lavish breakfast, all the things
she remembered Paul loved, but they ate in stony silence.
Paul kept his eyes on his plate, and she brought
him the food without saying anything. Abruptly, he got up
(18:39):
and went to his old room. He wandered around and
it gotting acquainted again with the things he had loved
years before, playing one of his favorite records, sitting in
his favorite chair. Then he came back down. Oh, Mother,
Why don't you have an electronic duster?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
This gives me something to do when I'm bored. What
time is your bunk mate getting.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Here, Fenner? Oh well, I don't really know. He was
in will Mett visiting his family, and you will probably
get through here pretty soon. Blast office tomorrow morning at eight,
and we have to be on board ship tonight at
twenty two sharp.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
That means that you have to leave here about half
past twenty to get to the spaceport on time.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Doesn't it My room look wonderful, mom? It's just the
way it always did.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Thought you'd like it.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
You sleep well, Oh the best. Nothing like sleeping at
home after six years of spaceship cuts.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
No, no, nothing like it.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
They were silent. The doorbell finally ended the silence when
it had grown almost too tight to bear. Paul opened
the door and Jack Fenner burst through. He was a short,
wiry man, broadly with thin space handed features and a
keen pointed nose. He wore a pair of rumpled space grays.
(20:09):
You must be missus Robinson Gunners always talking about you Gunner? Yeah,
didn't he tell you? That's what we named him after
the the NAB business. He didn't tell us much about
the Nab. Fenner glanced at Jim. Oh, hi, you must
be Gunner's brother, Jim, the one that taught him how
to use a gun. That's right, Paul frowned. You mean
(20:34):
he didn't tell you about the Nab, the first man
in our ship to win a space crossed And he
didn't tell you why when those Dnabbans came out and
see held him off single handed with two handguns till
his amal ran out, and then he used the guns
as clubs till we got out to help him.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Well, you didn't tell me, Paul.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I didn't want to upset you. You mean he didn't
know your son was a hero. What hell, Gunner? You
weren't so modest on ship every time? Wait? Jack, but
you told that story from one end of space to
the other. Paul, I don't think you ever even took
the metal off. I'll bet you took showers with that
thing pinned to your skin. You're so proud of it.
(21:14):
So here I hear o, Paul, you didn't say much
about it. Paul deliberately ignored his brother's question and turned
the fener. How's your family, Jack, Well, there's not much
of it. You know, just my aunt, my kid brother.
But my brother just passed his number one. He'll be
shipping out for a centauri next month. My aunt's going
(21:37):
to be all alone. Then. It's it's rough when you
have someone in space like that and you're all alone
at home, like my aunt except for cats, that is,
she's got two big Persians. They're going to be like
children for now that my brother's leaving. Say, missus Robinson,
why don't you ring up my aunt and get together sometime.
I think you like her. Here's a number. This is
(22:00):
Grace Spenner over in. Will Mett call her up sometime
and she loves having guests, and she'll love having Gunner's
mother especially.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Thank you, Jack.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I will get in touch with her. But you must
be awfully hungry.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Jack. Let's have dinner now and talk later.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah, it'll be fine. You know I've been hearing about
your cooking all all the way from the nab back
after the meal, with the sun well below the horizon,
Fenner stood up, stretched contentedly, and said, well, I hate
to rush off like this, but I got another stop
before I get back to the ship. Thanks a lot
(22:40):
for everything, Missus Robinson. I sure intend to take you
up on that repeat invitation next time we're down earth.
So long, Jim. Then he turned to Paul. Well, I
guess I'll be seeing you at twenty two board chip gunner.
See you then, No, you won't what You're not transferring,
(23:02):
are you? No, I'm pensioning out. I decided to stay
here at home, Jack. I've had my fling in space
and now I'm going to settle down. You gotta be kidding.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
You're not going back.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Nope, yes, said Jim. Yes, it's all a little joke.
You see, Paul just wanted to see what your reaction
would be. He told me about this before he's going
And he kicked Paul in the legs reptitiously hard, and
(23:41):
Paul barely managed to conceal a WinCE. He flicked a
glance that Jim. Jim was shaking his head in the
way that Paul understood. Yeah, just a little joke. Of
course I'm going back, but I'm willing to stay, he thought.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Of course you're going back, he rose, Never quit, do they.
You'll have to finish the job under neb and then
stop by here for another couple of meals, and I'll
be waking now you'd better start packing your things. You
wouldn't want to be late for blast off.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Sun up came, and the ships and the far off
spaceport gleamed bright against the cloudless blue sky. Missus Robinson
stared through the open window, squinting a little because the
spaceport was so far away and hard to see in
the morning light. She turned Jim was standing behind her.
(24:43):
She looked past him at the empty apartments at Paul's,
a deserted room with the pajamas lying crumpled on the bed.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Our little game is over.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
I'm glad, I'm I'm glad to who Jim said. It
was interesting watching Paul react. His face dropped a mile
when his double answered the door. But he's not the
same old, selfish Paul anymore. He's grown up. I thought
(25:19):
he was at first, but he met it when he
said he was quitting. He had me worried for a minute.
Suppose he had kept to it and actually stayed here
with us.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Well, it would have complicated things terribly, would have destroyed
our nice routine completely.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Oh well, suppose we.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Go downstairs and get the poor robot working again. You'll
be off his stiff after two days. Of being shut off.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
They went downstairs, mother and son and Jim took out
the key and activated the Paul robot. The robot finished
the word he had to say and stretched his limbs. Here.
Now the family is complete again. It's good to be moving,
(26:14):
said the Paul robot.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Uh, you'd better renew my charge to Jim. I'll be
running down any day now.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
He opened the panel in her back and touched the
key to the charging stud. Here, you are enough energy
to keep you going for weeks. Mother cue. He put
his arms around his mother and his brother. Now we
can get back into our regular family routine again until
(26:47):
the next time Paul has a furlough, and then we
can play the game again. He looked at the Paul
robot and the Mother robot and the It was the
four walls that bounded his little world. It was good
to have the mother and brother and the home he
(27:08):
loved all the rest of his life. He smiled warmly
and thought of poor Paul fighting for his life on
those hot, uncomfortable planets. Jim drew them closer to him.
I can't tell you how much you how much you
(27:29):
mean to me, both of you. You have heard look
(28:41):
Homeward Spaceman, a story by Robert Silverberg, copyright nineteen fifty
seven by Amazing Magazine. I'm Michael Hanson. Reading with me
was Jay Fitz. Technical operation for this program by Mike Burns.
Mindwebs is a production of WHA Radio Madison
Mine. This is Michael Hanson. The mind web story this
time is look Homeward Spaceman by Robert Silverberg, copyright nineteen
fifty seven by Amazing Magazine. I guess this is the street,
(01:04):
Paul thought, I'm back. It annoyed him that, after six
years in space he was no longer quite sure where
his home was. But this was the street, all right.
The memories game flooding back. He remembered the houses of
motel colored stone, the cracked and gnarled sidewalk, the s
(01:26):
gregly sycamore tree that marked his home. A pretty girl
came around the corner. She was wearing softly glowing translucent slacks,
and with her was a big old Dalmatian at the
end of the radio leash. He wondered how she knew him.
She didn't look like much past seventeen, and so she
(01:49):
could have only been eleven or so when he had
gone away. Yet she recognized him at once. He frowned
and reached back into his memory. Mation might be the
old Riley dog, he thought, and then the girl would
be Nancy Riley. Paul approached his house and noted with
(02:10):
amusement that the old woman who lived next door was
still rocking on her porch, looking placidly out at nothing particular.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Oh, Paul, nice weather, isn't it He.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Did not even remember her name, but she knew him.
Something was crazy here. How had all his memories escaped him?
He mounted the familiar steps. He shuffled his feet on
the door mat, as he had been taught to do
long years before, and straightening his hair, squaring his shoulders,
(02:46):
clearing his throat. He rang the bell and waited. He
heard the sound of someone coming to open the door.
Would it be his mother or his brother, he wondered,
Probably his mother most likely wasn't getting around too much anymore.
Once more, he practiced the firm handshake he had been
(03:09):
preparing for his brother. I'll grab old Jim by the
hand and squeezed to the yells. Who's there? Called a
masculine voice, Oh me, if Paul, I've come back for
a furlough? Slowly the door opened. Horror stricken, Paul stared
at the man who had opened the door, and the
(03:32):
man inside calmly returned the glance. They stood there, frozen,
looking at each other. Paul was looking at himself, not
quite himself, he decided. Once the initial shock had worn off.
It was a younger version of himself at the door,
(03:56):
with narrower shoulders, a paler face. Paul was proud of it.
Heavy space tan, A livid white scar across Paul's forehead
did not mark the brow of the other man. He
was shorter, softer looking. Who are you? Said the man
inside the door. I could ask you the same question.
(04:20):
He started to move inside the house, but the other
Paul moved the door closed an inch or two with
an imperceptible gesture. I'm Paul Robinson, Paul said, I used
to live here. I've been in space six years, but
now I'm home. I suppose you tell me now just
(04:43):
what the hell is going on here? Pardon me? The
other Paul said, I am Paul Robinson, and I've never
been away at all. I'll please go away before you
disturb my mother your mutter. Look, I don't know what
kind of joke this is, but I've I've had enough
(05:04):
of it. Now get out of the way. He started
to push his way past the other Paul into the house. Hey, gently, kid,
said a voice from within. Paul stopped. This was a
voice he did recognize. I don't make a scene. Jim,
and he turned, anxious to be near some one he knew.
(05:25):
So far, this innocent returned to his home and held
more terrors than his entire tour of space. Paul rushed
to greet his older brother, but Jim dodged around him
and went to the other pall, And with a swift,
sudden motion, Jim touched his hand to the other Paul's back,
(05:46):
and the other pall stiffened in mid stride.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
A robot.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
A A robot copy of me, yes, said Jim, going
to Paul for the first time. Paul looked at his
older brother, the older brother he had grown up with,
worshiped falk with, finally left behind when they call the
space came. He sees Jim's hand and shook hard till
Jim cried Uncle. At last, Paul relaxed his grip. At last,
(06:22):
At long last, I made you yell, uncle, Jim. Jim shrugged.
Now younger generation always wins. Eventually, Paul, I'm afraid space
has made a man out of you. How long are
you going to be home? I got a two day leave.
A couple days and we ship out again on the
(06:42):
rog'll run. Jim was no longer the powerful giant of
Paul's memories. He had become stooped in six years, so
he was no longer as tall as Paul, and his
forehead was higher, and there was a loneliness in his
eyes that hit Paul hard. Jim had wanted so badly
to go to space, but they had long before decided
(07:06):
that only one of them could go so their mother
wouldn't be left alone. Everyone had thought it would be
Jim to go, but Jim had waited for Paul to
grow up so they could take the test together, and
by then Jim's reflexes weren't what they had once been,
and Paul had easily outscored him. Jim had stayed here
(07:26):
with his mother, just the two of them, in the
old and dingy house of the twentieth century furniture in
the old style of appliances and the ancient sycamore tree,
while Paul had been to the nab Porcian and the
Marriad other bright Stars. The years had been hard on Jim.
(07:47):
I'm having a friend drop in tomorrow for dinner before
we go back to ship. Jim. Jack Fenners the fella.
He's my bunk mate on ship, but say he turned
to where the robot was standing. Frozen in the shape
was a word caught on its plastic lips. Tell me, Jim,
what that thing is doing here? It was a nightmare
(08:08):
to find myself answering the door. Well, I bought him
right after you left, Paul, it was pretty rough for
a while. Mother missed you terribly. The first week she
became ill, worrying about you. That there was nothing about
that in her letters, of course, not, we'd never tell you.
I wrote a lot of those letters myself, Paul. She
(08:31):
was so sick that the doctors told me she wouldn't
live unless you came back from space immediately. I didn't
dare ask you to come back. I couldn't do that
to my own brother, and so I had the robot
double maid. I told her that you were back, that
your flight had been called off, or something like that,
and she accepted it. Paul sank into one of the
(08:55):
deep soft chairs and stared at the motionless replica of
himself next to his So all these years, she's thought
that I was right here. And that's why Nancy Riley
said hello to me, and the old woman next door
talked about the weather. Now, what happens then, who's out
(09:17):
the door? You better come down here, mother, I've got
a surprise for you. What are you going to do, Jim?
Suppose she asks me something I don't know. Shouldn't we
hide the robot? No? Now, this is the only way, Paul.
I want her to see both of you together, so
I can tell her the truth after all these years
(09:39):
of pretending she's well. Now she can take it. But
what happens after I go back? Will she still be
willing to accept the robot? I know what I'm doing here?
She is. Paul looked up as his mother appeared. Hello Mother.
(10:00):
He faced her, glad to see her again. She didn't
look much older. She had hardly changed at all. Well,
I'm home. She looked at him, studying the white scar
on his forehead. He suspected, and then looked at the robot,
and then back at him, and finally a.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Gym, Jim, who is this?
Speaker 1 (10:23):
This is Paul, Mother, he's been in space for six years.
I well, I bought this robot right after he left,
so you wouldn't miss him too much. The shadows of
the old house seemed to wrap around the three of
them bleakly. Paul, Yes, Mother, He walked around the room,
(10:47):
getting familiar with the old things, with the smell of
home and the warmth of home.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Do you mean that you have coaxed me?
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Jim, Mom, it was necessary.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
You did the right thing. It's good to have you back,
even if I've had you all along. You look wonderfully except.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Well this, yees ay. I got the space cross for that.
Natives on the Neb they resisted our attempts to trade,
and we showed them.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
You were in a fight, paulp Yes.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Mother. It was as if he had been in a
schoolboy tussle, not a struggle with aliens half the sky away.
As he stood there, the memory came flooding vividly back.
He was in the midst of a sweeping field of
bright red vegetation, with sweat pouring off his back and
making his uniform cling. The hot rays of the neb
(11:46):
came down. He was standing alone, watching the wiry green
men advance. His heart was pounding, but he was unafraid.
It was his guard duty and he was going to
stand it. Behind him was the gleaming bulk of the
great ship and its sleeping crew. But the Nebbians came closer.
(12:08):
Get back, It cried roughly. They ignored him. They were thin,
humanoid men with long, grotesque skulls and deep set, terrifying eyes.
They came closer. Paul drew his gun and gestured with it.
Then suddenly one of them leaped, and Paul felt a
nauseous alien smell near him and then around him. He
(12:32):
jabbed upward with the gun, fired and shoved the corpse
fell backward, and then they were all around him, kicking, scratching,
screaming furiously, and Paul shouldered his way through them, took
up his stand at the base of a towering droola tree,
started firing into the gibbering horde. They dropped, but still
(12:53):
kept coming. Then the ammunition was gone, and more than
abbians kept pouring from the forest, laying about him viciously.
With his gun butts, he crushed skulls and smashed alien
faces with savage glee. They swarmed up and around him,
and he felt a claw rip across his forehead. Blood
(13:15):
streamed down into his eyes, and he was blind, but
through the haze he could see his crewmates coming at
last to his rescue. When it was over, he was
a hero, and he hadn't been afraid not half as
afraid as he was back on Earth in his own home.
For no reason that he could discern. A sinister atmosphere
(13:37):
hung over the house, and it worried Paul. He didn't
like it. The situation made him uncomfortable. He sat down
on the staircase next to his mother, hooking one long
leg over the other and pulling up his shiny space graze.
I uh have a two day leave?
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Oh fine, Paul. It's good to have you even for
a little while. Come on, you must be hungry, you know, Paul,
all these years I loved that machine like it was
my own son. I never knew the difference. Science is
(14:20):
a wonderful thing, isn't it. Where are you going when
you ship out tomorrow?
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Serious? First by overdrive and then the Porsi, and then
back to the NAB for a little clean up action,
and then on to Riduel for a while. Oh mom,
I'm having a bunk made of mine here for dinner tomorrow.
Before we go back, you'll tell you about the NED, Paul. Yes, mother, Paul,
(14:46):
do you.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Have to go back to space? What I mean it? Paul?
When you leave tomorrow, I'll have only the robot again.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
I'll know he's not real anyway, He'll only be half
of my son. Don't want the little boy always. I
want the man who's been to space. Stay here with us.
I'll fix up your room the way you used to
have it. All your books, your records, the desk, arrange
the old way. Even that luminous bed spread that you
(15:16):
liked six years in space ought to be enough.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Paul glared angrily at his brother. Why did Jim have
to tell her the truth? Why not keep up the pretense.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
I want you to give up space. I don't want
a robot substitute anymore. I want my son.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
You can't ask that of me. Mom. It's it's my
life out there. I can't give it up now and
tie myself down on Earth. I've laughed Earth for good.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Stay here with me, Paul, Not not even for you.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
It's not fair of you to ask me to give
up something like that. Space is everything to me.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
But you like it here, Paul, You forget space In
a month, I.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Wish I hadn't come home at all. He walked to
the window. The sun was just beginning to drop in
the sky, and the distant spaceport was painted a dull
orange by the dying day. He looked at the silver
red ships with their noses pointed to the skies. Why
do you want to tie me down? I don't want
(16:30):
you to suffer.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
I know, I know.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
It's the same old story. You've always been selfish, Paul.
You've let your brother make every sacrifice for you, and
you've never really shown any gratitude. You never wanted to
obey me either. My wishes just meant nothing to you.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
He looked from one figure to the other in anguish.
Why were they torturing him? Why had this whole home
coming been such a nightmare. I can't let you do
this to me. Paul walked toward the door and quickly
strode through, passing the unconcerned robot, slamming the door hard.
(17:13):
He reached the porch, paused and stared bitterly at the quiet,
small town streets, wondering why they were doing this to him.
It was harder to find your mother than a whole
world full of green danebians. If I had known this
would happen, Paul, or forget it, Jim, I didn't know.
(17:36):
Skip it, Jim. I know why you didn't. You want
me to stay here so you can go away somewhere,
don't you. You're afraid to leave mother alone with Robot's son,
so you want to trap me into taking your place here. Well,
no game, Jim. You've chosen your lot and you've got
it for keeps, and that's not it at all. You
(17:56):
don't understand, Paul. I don't want to leave home. I
can't leave. I've found myself hand and foot. I've lived
here all my life. This house is like a shell
to me. By now I'm thirty five, Paul, I'm setting
my ways and well, I can't break out. I can't
tell you how much everything in this house means to me, Paul. Mother,
(18:17):
the books, the furniture, even the robot. I can't tell you.
Missus Robinson had made a lavish breakfast, all the things
she remembered Paul loved, but they ate in stony silence.
Paul kept his eyes on his plate, and she brought
him the food without saying anything. Abruptly, he got up
(18:39):
and went to his old room. He wandered around and
it gotting acquainted again with the things he had loved
years before, playing one of his favorite records, sitting in
his favorite chair. Then he came back down. Oh, Mother,
Why don't you have an electronic duster?
Speaker 3 (19:00):
This gives me something to do when I'm bored. What
time is your bunk mate getting.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Here, Fenner? Oh well, I don't really know. He was
in will Mett visiting his family, and you will probably
get through here pretty soon. Blast office tomorrow morning at eight,
and we have to be on board ship tonight at
twenty two sharp.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
That means that you have to leave here about half
past twenty to get to the spaceport on time.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Doesn't it My room look wonderful, mom? It's just the
way it always did.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Thought you'd like it.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
You sleep well, Oh the best. Nothing like sleeping at
home after six years of spaceship cuts.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
No, no, nothing like it.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
They were silent. The doorbell finally ended the silence when
it had grown almost too tight to bear. Paul opened
the door and Jack Fenner burst through. He was a short,
wiry man, broadly with thin space handed features and a
keen pointed nose. He wore a pair of rumpled space grays.
(20:09):
You must be missus Robinson Gunners always talking about you Gunner? Yeah,
didn't he tell you? That's what we named him after
the the NAB business. He didn't tell us much about
the Nab. Fenner glanced at Jim. Oh, hi, you must
be Gunner's brother, Jim, the one that taught him how
to use a gun. That's right, Paul frowned. You mean
(20:34):
he didn't tell you about the Nab, the first man
in our ship to win a space crossed And he
didn't tell you why when those Dnabbans came out and
see held him off single handed with two handguns till
his amal ran out, and then he used the guns
as clubs till we got out to help him.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Well, you didn't tell me, Paul.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
I didn't want to upset you. You mean he didn't
know your son was a hero. What hell, Gunner? You
weren't so modest on ship every time? Wait? Jack, but
you told that story from one end of space to
the other. Paul, I don't think you ever even took
the metal off. I'll bet you took showers with that
thing pinned to your skin. You're so proud of it.
(21:14):
So here I hear o, Paul, you didn't say much
about it. Paul deliberately ignored his brother's question and turned
the fener. How's your family, Jack, Well, there's not much
of it. You know, just my aunt, my kid brother.
But my brother just passed his number one. He'll be
shipping out for a centauri next month. My aunt's going
(21:37):
to be all alone. Then. It's it's rough when you
have someone in space like that and you're all alone
at home, like my aunt except for cats, that is,
she's got two big Persians. They're going to be like
children for now that my brother's leaving. Say, missus Robinson,
why don't you ring up my aunt and get together sometime.
I think you like her. Here's a number. This is
(22:00):
Grace Spenner over in. Will Mett call her up sometime
and she loves having guests, and she'll love having Gunner's
mother especially.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Thank you, Jack.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
I will get in touch with her. But you must
be awfully hungry.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Jack. Let's have dinner now and talk later.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yeah, it'll be fine. You know I've been hearing about
your cooking all all the way from the nab back
after the meal, with the sun well below the horizon,
Fenner stood up, stretched contentedly, and said, well, I hate
to rush off like this, but I got another stop
before I get back to the ship. Thanks a lot
(22:40):
for everything, Missus Robinson. I sure intend to take you
up on that repeat invitation next time we're down earth.
So long, Jim. Then he turned to Paul. Well, I
guess I'll be seeing you at twenty two board chip gunner.
See you then, No, you won't what You're not transferring,
(23:02):
are you? No, I'm pensioning out. I decided to stay
here at home, Jack. I've had my fling in space
and now I'm going to settle down. You gotta be kidding.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
You're not going back.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Nope, yes, said Jim. Yes, it's all a little joke.
You see, Paul just wanted to see what your reaction
would be. He told me about this before he's going
And he kicked Paul in the legs reptitiously hard, and
(23:41):
Paul barely managed to conceal a WinCE. He flicked a
glance that Jim. Jim was shaking his head in the
way that Paul understood. Yeah, just a little joke. Of
course I'm going back, but I'm willing to stay, he thought.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Of course you're going back, he rose, Never quit, do they.
You'll have to finish the job under neb and then
stop by here for another couple of meals, and I'll
be waking now you'd better start packing your things. You
wouldn't want to be late for blast off.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Sun up came, and the ships and the far off
spaceport gleamed bright against the cloudless blue sky. Missus Robinson
stared through the open window, squinting a little because the
spaceport was so far away and hard to see in
the morning light. She turned Jim was standing behind her.
(24:43):
She looked past him at the empty apartments at Paul's,
a deserted room with the pajamas lying crumpled on the bed.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Our little game is over.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
I'm glad, I'm I'm glad to who Jim said. It
was interesting watching Paul react. His face dropped a mile
when his double answered the door. But he's not the
same old, selfish Paul anymore. He's grown up. I thought
(25:19):
he was at first, but he met it when he
said he was quitting. He had me worried for a minute.
Suppose he had kept to it and actually stayed here
with us.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Well, it would have complicated things terribly, would have destroyed
our nice routine completely.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Oh well, suppose we.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Go downstairs and get the poor robot working again. You'll
be off his stiff after two days. Of being shut off.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
They went downstairs, mother and son and Jim took out
the key and activated the Paul robot. The robot finished
the word he had to say and stretched his limbs. Here.
Now the family is complete again. It's good to be moving,
(26:14):
said the Paul robot.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
Uh, you'd better renew my charge to Jim. I'll be
running down any day now.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
He opened the panel in her back and touched the
key to the charging stud. Here, you are enough energy
to keep you going for weeks. Mother cue. He put
his arms around his mother and his brother. Now we
can get back into our regular family routine again until
(26:47):
the next time Paul has a furlough, and then we
can play the game again. He looked at the Paul
robot and the Mother robot and the It was the
four walls that bounded his little world. It was good
to have the mother and brother and the home he
(27:08):
loved all the rest of his life. He smiled warmly
and thought of poor Paul fighting for his life on
those hot, uncomfortable planets. Jim drew them closer to him.
I can't tell you how much you how much you
(27:29):
mean to me, both of you. You have heard look
(28:41):
Homeward Spaceman, a story by Robert Silverberg, copyright nineteen fifty
seven by Amazing Magazine. I'm Michael Hanson. Reading with me
was Jay Fitz. Technical operation for this program by Mike Burns.
Mindwebs is a production of WHA Radio Madison
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.