October 10, 2025 • 29 mins
A surreal sci-fi series exploring speculative concepts, dreams, and philosophical what-ifs. Each episode is a cerebral journey into the mind’s deepest questions.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
My web.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
This is Michael Hanson with a mind web story by
Henry Kuttner. The story is titled Don't Look Now, and
the copyright is nineteen forty eight by Better Publications. The
man in the brown suit was looking at himself in
the mirror behind the bar. The reflection seemed to interest
him even more deeply than the drink between his hands.
(01:15):
He was paying only perfunctorily attention to Lyman's attempts at conversation.
This had been going on for perhaps fifteen minutes before
he finally lifted his glass and took a deep swallow.
Don't look now, Lyman said. The brown man slid his
eyes sidewise toward Lyman, tilted his glass higher and took
another swig. Ice cube slipped down toward his mouth. He
(01:36):
put the glass back on the red brown wooden signal
for a refill. Finally, he took a deep breath and
looked at Lymand. No one look at what There was
one sitting right next to you, Biman said, blinking rather
glazed eyes, and.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
He just went out. You mean you couldn't see him.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
The brown man finished paying for his fresh drink before
he answered, you see who he asks with a fine
mixture of boredom, distaste, and reluctant interest. Perpee, who who?
Who went out? What have I been telling you for
the last ten minutes? Weren't you listening?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Well?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Certainly I was listening, that is yeah, certainly you were
talking about bath tubs, radios, orson, w not orson, h G,
Herbert George but orson. It was just a gag. HG
knew or suspected. I wonder if it was simply intuition
with him. He couldn't have had any proof, but he
he did stop writing science fiction rather suddenly, didn't he.
(02:33):
I bet he knew once though, Know what about the Martians?
All this won't do us a bit of good if
you don't listen, it may not anyway. The trick is
to jump the gun with proof, convincing evidence. Nobody's ever
been allowed to produce the evidence before. You are a reporter,
aren't you holding his glass? The man in the bronze
suit nodded reluctantly, And then you ought to be taking
(02:54):
it all down on a piece of folded paper. I
want everybody to know the whole world. It's important, terribly important.
It explains everything. My life won't be safe unless I
can pass along the information and make people believe it.
Why won't your life be safe because of the Martians,
you fool. They own the world. Then they own my
(03:14):
newspaper too, so I can't print anything they don't like.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I never thought of that.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Lyman considered the bottom of his glass, where two ice
cubes infused into a cold.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
And mutable union.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
They're not omnipotent, though, I'm sure they're vulnerable. Or why
have they always kept under cover? They're afraid of being
found out. That's why if the world had convincing evidence. Look,
people always believe what they read in the newspapers, couldn't you, Ah,
said the brown man with deep significance. Lyman drums sadly
on the bar and murmured, there must be some way,
(03:51):
and perhaps if I had another drink, The brown suited
man tasted his columns, which seemed to stimulat him. Oh,
just what is all this about? Martians? I suppose you
start at the beginning and tell me again, or can't
you remember? Yeah, of course I can remember. I've got
practically total recall. It's something new, very new. I never
(04:12):
could do it before. I can even remember my last
conversation with the Martians. Lyman favored the brown Man with
the glance of cry on, when was that this morning?
I can even remember conversations I had last week this morning.
So what you don't understand? They make us forget. See,
they tell us what to do when we forget about
(04:33):
the conversation. It's a post to, not a suggestion. But see,
we follow their orders just the same. There's the compulsion
though we think we're making our own decisions. Oh, they
own the world, all right, but nobody knows it except me.
How did you find out?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Well?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I got my brain scrambled in a way. I've been
fooling around with supersonic detergents, trying to work out something marketable,
you know, and the gadget went wrong from some standpoints
high frequent see waves.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
It was.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
They went through and through me. They should have been inaudible,
but I could hear them rather well. Actually I could
see them. That's what I mean about my brain being scrambled.
And after that I could see and hear the Martians.
They've geared themselves so they work efficiently on ordinary brains,
and mine isn't ordinary anymore, and they can't hypnotize me either.
They can't command me, but I needn't obey now. I
(05:26):
hope they don't, suspect Maybe they do, Yeah, I guess
they do. How can you tell the way they look
at me? Why do they look at you? Asked the
brown man as he began to reach for a pencil,
and then changed his mind. He took a drink instead. Well,
what are they like?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I'm not sure I can see them all right, but
only when they're dressed up.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Okay, okay. How do they look when they're dressed up?
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Just like anybody? Almost? They dress up in human skins.
Oh not real ones, imitations like the cat's jammer kids
zipped into crocodile suits. Undressed I don't know, I've never
seen one. Maybe they're invisible even to me then, or
maybe they're just camouflaged ants or owls or rats or bats.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Or or anything.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, thanks, or anything, of course. But when they're dressed
up like humans, like the one that was sitting next
to you a while ago when I told you not
to look. That one was invisible. Most of the time,
they aren't everybody, but once in a while, for some reason,
they wait a minute, makes sense? Will you they dress
up in human skins, and then they sit around invisible.
(06:36):
Only now and then the human skins are perfectly good imitations.
Nobody can tell the difference. It's that third eye that
gives them away. When they keep it closed, you'd never
guess it was there. When they want to open it,
they go invisible like that fat And when I see
somebody with a third eye right in the middle of
his forehead, I know he's a Martian and invisible, and
(06:58):
I pretend not to notice him. Then, for all you know,
I'm one of your visible Martians. Oh I hope not
as drunk as I am. I don't think so. I've
been trailing you all day, making sure it's a risk
I have to take a course. They'll go to any length,
any length at all, to make a man give himself away.
(07:18):
I realize that I can't really trust anybody, but I
had to find someone to talk to, and I, well,
I could be wrong. When a third eye is closed,
I can't tell if it's there. And would you mind
opening your third eye for me? He fixed the dim
gaze on the brown man's forehead. Sorry, some other time
(07:40):
besides them, I don't know you, so look you want
me to splash this across the front page. I gather,
why don't you go see the managing editor. My stories
have to get past the desk and rewrite anyway. I
want to give my secret to the world. The question
is how far will I get expected. They have killed
(08:01):
me the minute I opened my mouth to you, except
that I didn't say anything while they were here.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I don't believe they take us very seriously.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
You know, this must have been going on since the
dawn of history, and by now they've had time to
get careless. They let Fort go pretty far before they
crack down on him. But you notice they were careful
never to let Fort get hold of genuine proof that
would convince people. The brown Man said something under his
breath about a human interest story in a box, and
he asked, what do the Martians do besides hanging around
(08:29):
bars all dressed up. I'm still working on that. It
is an easy to understand they run the world, of course,
But why why if they do run it, They've got
a lot to explain. That's what I mean. From our viewpoint,
there's no sense to it. We do things illogically, but
only because they tell us to. Everything we do almost
(08:52):
is pure illogic pose imp of the perverse. You could
give it another name, beginning with M Martian. I mean,
it's all very well for psychologists to explain why a
murderer wants to confess, but it's still an illogical reaction
unless a Martian commands him to. You can't be hypnotized,
(09:12):
and they're doing anything that violates your moral sense, not
by another human, but see you can by a Martian.
I expect they got the upper hand when we didn't
have any more than ape brains, and they've kept at
it ever since. They evolved as we did and kept
a step ahead, like the sparrow on the eagle's back,
who hitchhiked until the eagle reached the ceiling and then
(09:34):
took off and broke the altitude record. They conquered the world,
but nobody ever knew it, and they've been ruling it
ever since. But take houses, for example, Uncomfortable, things, ugly, inconvenient, dirty,
everything's wrong with them. But when men like Frank Foyd
Wright slip out from under the martians thumb long enough
to suggest something better, look how the people react. They
(09:55):
hate the thought. That's their Martians giving them mortars. Look,
why should the Martians care what kind of houses we live,
and tell me that I don't like to notice skepticism
I detect creeping into this conversation. They care, all right,
no doubt about it. They live in our houses. We
(10:16):
don't build for our convenience. We build under order for
the Martians the way they want it. They're very much
concerned with everything we do, and the more senseless, the
more concerned take wars. Wars don't make any sense from
any human viewpoint. No, nobody really wants wars, but we
go right on having them. From the Martian viewpoint, they're useful.
(10:38):
They give us a spurt in technology, and they reduce
the excess population. And there are lots of other results too,
colonization for one thing, but mainly technology in peace. Stile
of a guy invents jet propulsion. It's too expensive to
develop commercially in wartime, though, It's got to be developed.
Then see, the Martians can use it whenever they want.
They use us the way they'd use tools or limbs.
(11:01):
And nobody ever really wins the war except the Martians.
That makes sense. But it must be nice to be
a Martian?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Up till now, no race ever successfully conquered and ruled another.
The underdog could revolt or absorb if you know you're
being ruled and the rulers vulnerable. But if the world
doesn't know, and it doesn't take radios. Now, there's no
earthly reason why a sane human shouldn't listen to a radio.
But the Martians make us do it. They like it
(11:34):
and take bathtubs. Nobody can sends. Bathtubs are comfortable for us,
but they're fine for Martians. All the impractical things we
keep on using even though we know they're impractical. Typewriter ribbons.
Not even a Martian could enjoy changing a typewriter ribbon.
I don't know why they act as they do. It
(11:55):
looks illogical sometimes, but I feel perfectly sure they've got
sound motives where I remove they make until I get
that worked out, I'm pretty much at a standstill until
I get evidence, you know, proof and help. I've got
to stand to cover till then. I've been doing that,
and I do what they tell me so they won't suspect,
and I pretend to forget what they tell me to forget,
(12:17):
and you've got nothing.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
To worry about.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
When I hear the water running on the tub and
the Martian's splashing around. I pretend I don't hear a thing.
My bed's too short, and I tried last week to
order a special length, but the Martian that sleeps there
told me not to me. He's a runt, like most
of them. That is, I think they're runts. I have
to deduce because you know, you never see them undressed.
But it goes on like that constantly. By the way,
(12:40):
how is your martian? My Martian? Now, listen. I may
be a little bit drunk, but my logic remains unimpaired.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I can still put two and two together. You know. Look,
either you know about.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
The Martians or you don't, And if you do, there's
no point in giving me that what my Martian would take.
I know you have a Martian. Your martian knows you
have a Martian. My martian knows. The point is, do
you know? I think hard? No, No, I haven't got
a Martian. Of course, you've got a Martian, and I
(13:15):
suspect you know it. What would I be doing with
a Martian? What would you be doing without one? I
imagine it's illegal. If they caught you running around without one,
they'd probably put you in a pound or something till claim, Oh,
you've got one, all right, so have I, and so
is he, and he and he and the bartender, of
(13:37):
course they have. But they'll all go back to Mars
tomorrow and then you can see a good doctor.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
You better have another drink.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
He was turning toward the bartender when Lyman, apparently by accident,
leaned close to him and whispered urgently, don't look now.
And the brown Man glanced at Lyman's white faces reflected
in the mirror before them. It's all right, there, there
are any marsh Lyman gave him a fierce, quick kick
(14:05):
under the edge.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Of the bar. Shut up.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
One just came in, and then he caught the brown
Man's gaze and would elaborate. Unconcerned, he said, so naturally,
there was nothing for me to do but climb up
on the roof after it. It took me ten minutes.
He had to get down the ladder, and just as
we reached the bottom, it gave a bound, climbed up
on my face, sprang from the top of my head,
(14:29):
and there was again on the roof, screaming for me
to get it down. What my cat, of course, what
do you think now? Never mind, don't answer that. Lyman's
face was turned to the brown man, but from the
corners of his eyes he was watching an invisible progress
down the length of the bar, toward a booth at.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
The very back. Now, why did he come in? Eh?
I don't like this. Is he anyone? You know? Is
who that martian? Any chance? Now?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
I suppose not. Yes, it's probably the one that went
out a while ago. I wonder if he went to
make a report and sent this one in. It's possible
it could be. You can talk now, but keep your
voice low and stop squirming. Want him to notice we
can see him. I can't see him. Don't drag me
into this. You and your Martians can fight it out together.
You're making me nervous.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
You know. I gotta go anyway.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
But he didn't move to get off the stool across
Lyman's shoulder. He was stealing glances toward the back of
the bar. And now then he looked at Lyman's face.
Stop watching me, stop watching him? But he'd think you
were a cat? Why a cat? Why should anybody do
I look like a cat? We were talking about cats,
(15:44):
weren't we. Cats can see them quite clearly, even undressed.
I believe they don't like him. Who who doesn't like who?
Home neither likes the other. Cats can see Martians, but
they pretend not to, and that makes the martians man.
I have a theory that cats ruled the world before
martians came. Never mind, forget about cats. This may be
(16:06):
more serious than you think. I happen to know my
martian's taking tonight off, and I'm pretty sure that was
your Martian who went out some time ago. And if
you notice that nobody else in here has his Martian
with him, do you suppose do you suppose it could
be waiting for us outside, Oh god, in the alley
(16:27):
with the cats. I suppose Why don't you stop to
see Emma about cats and be serious for a moment.
What's the matter now? Nothing and nothing. It was just
that he looked at me with you know, let me
get this straight. I take it the Martian is dressed
in is dressed like a human, naturally, but he's invisible
(16:49):
to all eyes but yours. Yeah, he doesn't want to
be visible just now. Besides, besides, you know, I rather
think you can see him a little anyway. The brown
man was perfectly silent for about thirty seconds, he sat
quite motionless, not even the eyes in the.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Drink he helped clinking.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
One might have thought he did not even breathe certainly
he did not blink. What makes you say that? He
asked in enormal voice, after the thirty seconds had run out.
I did I say anything? I wasn't listening. Well, I
think I'll go now. No you won't, not yet, but
(17:32):
come back here, said on now, what was the idea?
Where were you going? Lyman nodded dumbly toward the back
of the bar, indicating either a jukebox or a door
marked man.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I don't feel so good. Maybe I had a little
too much to drink. You know. I guess I'll you're
all right.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
I don't trust you back there with that that invisible
man of yours.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Now you stay right here until he leaves. He's going now.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
His eyes moved with great briskness along the line of
an invisible but rapid progress toward the front door. See
see he's gone. Now let me loose, will you? The
brown man glanced toward the back booth. No, he isn't gone.
I'll sit right where you are. Was Lyman's turn to
(18:20):
remain quite still in a certain sort of way for
a perceptible while the eyes in his drink, however, clinked audibly.
Presently he spoke, his voice was soft, rather soberer than before.
You're right, he's still there. You can see him, can't you.
(18:41):
As he got his back to us. You can see
him then, better than I thought. Maybe maybe there are
more of them here than I thought. They could be anywhere.
They could be sitting beside you anywhere you go, and
you wouldn't even guess him til they'd want to be sure.
They can give you orders and make you forget, but
there must be limits to what they can force you
to do. They can't make a man betray himself. They'd
(19:03):
have to lead him on until he was sure. He
lifted his drink and tipped it steeply above his face.
The ice ran down the slope and bumped coldly against
his lip, but he held it until the last of
the pale, bubbling amber drained into his mouth. He set
the glass in the bar and faced the brown man. Well, well,
(19:25):
it's getting late. Not many people left will wait wait
for what I have something to show you. I don't
want anyone else to see. Lyman surveyed the narrow, smoky room.
As he looked, the last customer besides themselves at the
bar began groping in his pocket, tossed some change on
(19:46):
the mahogany, and went out slowly. Lyman and the brown
Man sat in silence. The bar tender hypened with stolid disinterest. Presently,
a couple in the front booth got up and departed,
quarreling and undertones. Sure anybody left only Lyman did not finish,
(20:10):
but he nodded gently toward the back of the room.
He isn't looking. Let's get this over with. What do
you want to show me? The brown Man took off
his wristwatch and pried up the metal case. Two small,
glossy photograph prints slid up. The brown Man separated them
with a finger. I just want to make make sure
(20:32):
or something.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
First.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
One did you pick me out? And quite a while ago,
he said, you'd been trailing me all day and making sure.
I haven't forgotten that, and you knew I was a reporter.
I suppose you tell me the truth now. It was
the way you looked at things on the subway this morning.
I'd never seen you before in my life, but I
kept noticing the way you looked at things, the wrong things,
(20:56):
things that weren't there, the way a cat does, and
then you all look away. I got the idea you
could see the Martians too, go on, well, so I
followed you all day. I kept hoping you'd turn out
to be well, somebody I could talk to, because if
I could know that I wasn't the only one I
could see them, then I'd know there was still some
hope left. It's been worse than solitary confinement. I've been
(21:20):
able to see them for three years now, three years,
and I've managed to keep my power a secret, even
from them, and somehow I've managed to keep from killing
myself too. Three years there was always a little hope.
I knew nobody would believe, not without proof, and how
can you get proof. It was only that I kept
telling myself that maybe you could see them too, and
(21:42):
if you could, maybe there would be others, lots of others,
enough so that we might get together and work out
some way of proving to the world. The brown Man's
fingers were moving in Silencey pushed the photograph across the
mahogany wyman pick it up unsteadily. Moonlight. He asked after
a moment. There was a landscape under a deep dark
(22:04):
sky with white clouds, and the tree stood white and
lacy against the darkness. The grass was white as if
with moonlight, and the shadows blurry. No, not moonlight, infrared.
I'm strictly an amateur, but lately I've been experimenting with
infrared film and I had some very unusual results. You see,
(22:27):
I live near the brown Man's finger tapped a certain
quite common object that appeared in the photograph, and something
funny keeps showing up now and then against it, but
only with infrared film. Now I know chlorophyll reflects so
much infrared light that grass and leaves photograph white, the
sky comes out black like this. There are tricks to
(22:49):
using this kind of film. Photograph a tree against the
cloud and you can't tell them a part in the print.
But even photograph through haze and pick out distant objects
at ordinary film wouldn't catch. And sometimes when you focus
on something like this, he tapped the image of a
very common object again, and sometimes you get a very
(23:10):
odd image on the film like that A man with
three eyes. Lyman held a print up to the light
in silence. He took the other one from the bar
and studied it. When he laid them down, he was smiling.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Professor of astrophysics at one of the more important universities
had a very interesting little item in the Times the
other day, name of Spitzer.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
I think.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
He said that if there were life on Mars, and
if Martians had ever visited Earth, there'd be no way.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
To prove it.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Nobody would believe the few men who saw them. Not,
he said, unless the Martians happened to be photographed. Well,
it's happened, You've photographed them. The brown man nodded. He
took up the prince and returned them to his watchcase.
I thought so too, only until the night I couldn't
be sure. I've never seen one fully as you have.
(24:04):
It isn't so much a matter of what you call
getting your brain scrambled with SuperSonics as it is of
just knowing where to look. But I've been seeing part
of them all my life, and so as everybody. It's
that little suggestion of movement you never catch except just
at the edge of your vision, just out of the
corner of your eye, something that's almost there, and when
(24:26):
you look fully at it there's nothing. These photographs showed
me the way. It's not easy to learn, but it
can be done. We're conditioned to look directly at a thing,
the particular thing we want to see clearly, whatever it is.
Perhaps the Martians gave us that conditioning. When we see
a movement at the edge of our range of vision,
it's almost irresistible not to look directly at it, so
(24:47):
it vanishes. Then they can be seen by anybody. I've
learned a lot in a few days since I took
those photographs. You have to train yourself. It's like seeing
the trick picture one that's really a composite after you
study it. Camouflage, you just have to learn how. Otherwise
we can look at them all our lives and never
(25:10):
see them. That camera does, though, yes, the camera does.
I've wondered why nobody ever caught him this way before.
Once you see him on film, they're unmistakable. That third eye. Yeah,
you must have had just the right lighting that thing
and exactly the right focus and all that. The lens
stop down just right. It kind of kind of minor miracle,
(25:32):
that's what it is. It might never happen again exactly
that way, but don't look now. They were silent, furtively,
they watched the mirror. Their eyes slid along toward the
open door of the tavern, and then there was a long,
breathless silence. He looked back at us. He looked at
(25:53):
us that third eye. I don't think they're suspicious yet.
The trick will be to keep under cover until we
can blow this thing wide open. There's got to be
some way to do it, some way that will convince people.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
There's proof. The photographs.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
A competent cameraman ought to be able to figure out
just how you caught that Martian on film and duplicate
the condition it. It's evidence. Evidence can cut both ways.
What I'm hoping is that the Martians don't really like
to kill unless they have to. I'm hoping they won't
kill without proof. But well, there's two of us now,
though we've got to stick together. Both of us have
(26:33):
broken the big rule, don't look now. The bartender was
at the back disconnecting the jukebox, and the brown man said,
we'd better not be seen together unnecessarily. But if we
both come to this bar tomorrow night at nine for
a drink, that wouldn't look suspicious even to them, I suppose,
(26:56):
uh ma, may I have one of those photographs. Why
if one of us had an accident, the other one
would still have the proof enough, maybe to convince the
right people. The brown Man hesitated, nodded shortly, and opened
his watch case again. He gave Lyman one of the pictures. No, here,
(27:17):
hide it, very careful, it's evidence. I'll see you here tomorrow. Meanwhile,
be careful, remember to play safe. They shook hands, firmly,
facing each other in an endless second of final, decisive silence.
Then the brown man turned abruptly and walked out of
the bar. Lyman sat there between two wrinkles in his forehead.
(27:41):
There was a stir and the flicker of lashes unfurling.
The third eye opened slowly and looked after the brown Man.
(28:11):
You've heard Don't look now. A story by Henry Kuttner,
copyright nineteen forty eight by Better Publications. This is Michael
Hansen Technical operation for this broadcast by Steve Gordon. Mind
Webbs is a production of WHA Radio and Madison, a
service of the University of Wisconsin Extension.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
H
My web.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
This is Michael Hanson with a mind web story by
Henry Kuttner. The story is titled Don't Look Now, and
the copyright is nineteen forty eight by Better Publications. The
man in the brown suit was looking at himself in
the mirror behind the bar. The reflection seemed to interest
him even more deeply than the drink between his hands.
(01:15):
He was paying only perfunctorily attention to Lyman's attempts at conversation.
This had been going on for perhaps fifteen minutes before
he finally lifted his glass and took a deep swallow.
Don't look now, Lyman said. The brown man slid his
eyes sidewise toward Lyman, tilted his glass higher and took
another swig. Ice cube slipped down toward his mouth. He
(01:36):
put the glass back on the red brown wooden signal
for a refill. Finally, he took a deep breath and
looked at Lymand. No one look at what There was
one sitting right next to you, Biman said, blinking rather
glazed eyes, and.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
He just went out. You mean you couldn't see him.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
The brown man finished paying for his fresh drink before
he answered, you see who he asks with a fine
mixture of boredom, distaste, and reluctant interest. Perpee, who who?
Who went out? What have I been telling you for
the last ten minutes? Weren't you listening?
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Well?
Speaker 2 (02:12):
Certainly I was listening, that is yeah, certainly you were
talking about bath tubs, radios, orson, w not orson, h G,
Herbert George but orson. It was just a gag. HG
knew or suspected. I wonder if it was simply intuition
with him. He couldn't have had any proof, but he
he did stop writing science fiction rather suddenly, didn't he.
(02:33):
I bet he knew once though, Know what about the Martians?
All this won't do us a bit of good if
you don't listen, it may not anyway. The trick is
to jump the gun with proof, convincing evidence. Nobody's ever
been allowed to produce the evidence before. You are a reporter,
aren't you holding his glass? The man in the bronze
suit nodded reluctantly, And then you ought to be taking
(02:54):
it all down on a piece of folded paper. I
want everybody to know the whole world. It's important, terribly important.
It explains everything. My life won't be safe unless I
can pass along the information and make people believe it.
Why won't your life be safe because of the Martians,
you fool. They own the world. Then they own my
(03:14):
newspaper too, so I can't print anything they don't like.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I never thought of that.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Lyman considered the bottom of his glass, where two ice
cubes infused into a cold.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
And mutable union.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
They're not omnipotent, though, I'm sure they're vulnerable. Or why
have they always kept under cover? They're afraid of being
found out. That's why if the world had convincing evidence. Look,
people always believe what they read in the newspapers, couldn't you, Ah,
said the brown man with deep significance. Lyman drums sadly
on the bar and murmured, there must be some way,
(03:51):
and perhaps if I had another drink, The brown suited
man tasted his columns, which seemed to stimulat him. Oh,
just what is all this about? Martians? I suppose you
start at the beginning and tell me again, or can't
you remember? Yeah, of course I can remember. I've got
practically total recall. It's something new, very new. I never
(04:12):
could do it before. I can even remember my last
conversation with the Martians. Lyman favored the brown Man with
the glance of cry on, when was that this morning?
I can even remember conversations I had last week this morning.
So what you don't understand? They make us forget. See,
they tell us what to do when we forget about
(04:33):
the conversation. It's a post to, not a suggestion. But see,
we follow their orders just the same. There's the compulsion
though we think we're making our own decisions. Oh, they
own the world, all right, but nobody knows it except me.
How did you find out?
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Well?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I got my brain scrambled in a way. I've been
fooling around with supersonic detergents, trying to work out something marketable,
you know, and the gadget went wrong from some standpoints
high frequent see waves.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
It was.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
They went through and through me. They should have been inaudible,
but I could hear them rather well. Actually I could
see them. That's what I mean about my brain being scrambled.
And after that I could see and hear the Martians.
They've geared themselves so they work efficiently on ordinary brains,
and mine isn't ordinary anymore, and they can't hypnotize me either.
They can't command me, but I needn't obey now. I
(05:26):
hope they don't, suspect Maybe they do, Yeah, I guess
they do. How can you tell the way they look
at me? Why do they look at you? Asked the
brown man as he began to reach for a pencil,
and then changed his mind. He took a drink instead. Well,
what are they like?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I'm not sure I can see them all right, but
only when they're dressed up.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Okay, okay. How do they look when they're dressed up?
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Just like anybody? Almost? They dress up in human skins.
Oh not real ones, imitations like the cat's jammer kids
zipped into crocodile suits. Undressed I don't know, I've never
seen one. Maybe they're invisible even to me then, or
maybe they're just camouflaged ants or owls or rats or bats.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
Or or anything.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Yeah, thanks, or anything, of course. But when they're dressed
up like humans, like the one that was sitting next
to you a while ago when I told you not
to look. That one was invisible. Most of the time,
they aren't everybody, but once in a while, for some reason,
they wait a minute, makes sense? Will you they dress
up in human skins, and then they sit around invisible.
(06:36):
Only now and then the human skins are perfectly good imitations.
Nobody can tell the difference. It's that third eye that
gives them away. When they keep it closed, you'd never
guess it was there. When they want to open it,
they go invisible like that fat And when I see
somebody with a third eye right in the middle of
his forehead, I know he's a Martian and invisible, and
(06:58):
I pretend not to notice him. Then, for all you know,
I'm one of your visible Martians. Oh I hope not
as drunk as I am. I don't think so. I've
been trailing you all day, making sure it's a risk
I have to take a course. They'll go to any length,
any length at all, to make a man give himself away.
(07:18):
I realize that I can't really trust anybody, but I
had to find someone to talk to, and I, well,
I could be wrong. When a third eye is closed,
I can't tell if it's there. And would you mind
opening your third eye for me? He fixed the dim
gaze on the brown man's forehead. Sorry, some other time
(07:40):
besides them, I don't know you, so look you want
me to splash this across the front page. I gather,
why don't you go see the managing editor. My stories
have to get past the desk and rewrite anyway. I
want to give my secret to the world. The question
is how far will I get expected. They have killed
(08:01):
me the minute I opened my mouth to you, except
that I didn't say anything while they were here.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
I don't believe they take us very seriously.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
You know, this must have been going on since the
dawn of history, and by now they've had time to
get careless. They let Fort go pretty far before they
crack down on him. But you notice they were careful
never to let Fort get hold of genuine proof that
would convince people. The brown Man said something under his
breath about a human interest story in a box, and
he asked, what do the Martians do besides hanging around
(08:29):
bars all dressed up. I'm still working on that. It
is an easy to understand they run the world, of course,
But why why if they do run it, They've got
a lot to explain. That's what I mean. From our viewpoint,
there's no sense to it. We do things illogically, but
only because they tell us to. Everything we do almost
(08:52):
is pure illogic pose imp of the perverse. You could
give it another name, beginning with M Martian. I mean,
it's all very well for psychologists to explain why a
murderer wants to confess, but it's still an illogical reaction
unless a Martian commands him to. You can't be hypnotized,
(09:12):
and they're doing anything that violates your moral sense, not
by another human, but see you can by a Martian.
I expect they got the upper hand when we didn't
have any more than ape brains, and they've kept at
it ever since. They evolved as we did and kept
a step ahead, like the sparrow on the eagle's back,
who hitchhiked until the eagle reached the ceiling and then
(09:34):
took off and broke the altitude record. They conquered the world,
but nobody ever knew it, and they've been ruling it
ever since. But take houses, for example, Uncomfortable, things, ugly, inconvenient, dirty,
everything's wrong with them. But when men like Frank Foyd
Wright slip out from under the martians thumb long enough
to suggest something better, look how the people react. They
(09:55):
hate the thought. That's their Martians giving them mortars. Look,
why should the Martians care what kind of houses we live,
and tell me that I don't like to notice skepticism
I detect creeping into this conversation. They care, all right,
no doubt about it. They live in our houses. We
(10:16):
don't build for our convenience. We build under order for
the Martians the way they want it. They're very much
concerned with everything we do, and the more senseless, the
more concerned take wars. Wars don't make any sense from
any human viewpoint. No, nobody really wants wars, but we
go right on having them. From the Martian viewpoint, they're useful.
(10:38):
They give us a spurt in technology, and they reduce
the excess population. And there are lots of other results too,
colonization for one thing, but mainly technology in peace. Stile
of a guy invents jet propulsion. It's too expensive to
develop commercially in wartime, though, It's got to be developed.
Then see, the Martians can use it whenever they want.
They use us the way they'd use tools or limbs.
(11:01):
And nobody ever really wins the war except the Martians.
That makes sense. But it must be nice to be
a Martian?
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Why not?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Up till now, no race ever successfully conquered and ruled another.
The underdog could revolt or absorb if you know you're
being ruled and the rulers vulnerable. But if the world
doesn't know, and it doesn't take radios. Now, there's no
earthly reason why a sane human shouldn't listen to a radio.
But the Martians make us do it. They like it
(11:34):
and take bathtubs. Nobody can sends. Bathtubs are comfortable for us,
but they're fine for Martians. All the impractical things we
keep on using even though we know they're impractical. Typewriter ribbons.
Not even a Martian could enjoy changing a typewriter ribbon.
I don't know why they act as they do. It
(11:55):
looks illogical sometimes, but I feel perfectly sure they've got
sound motives where I remove they make until I get
that worked out, I'm pretty much at a standstill until
I get evidence, you know, proof and help. I've got
to stand to cover till then. I've been doing that,
and I do what they tell me so they won't suspect,
and I pretend to forget what they tell me to forget,
(12:17):
and you've got nothing.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
To worry about.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
When I hear the water running on the tub and
the Martian's splashing around. I pretend I don't hear a thing.
My bed's too short, and I tried last week to
order a special length, but the Martian that sleeps there
told me not to me. He's a runt, like most
of them. That is, I think they're runts. I have
to deduce because you know, you never see them undressed.
But it goes on like that constantly. By the way,
(12:40):
how is your martian? My Martian? Now, listen. I may
be a little bit drunk, but my logic remains unimpaired.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
I can still put two and two together. You know. Look,
either you know about.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
The Martians or you don't, And if you do, there's
no point in giving me that what my Martian would take.
I know you have a Martian. Your martian knows you
have a Martian. My martian knows. The point is, do
you know? I think hard? No, No, I haven't got
a Martian. Of course, you've got a Martian, and I
(13:15):
suspect you know it. What would I be doing with
a Martian? What would you be doing without one? I
imagine it's illegal. If they caught you running around without one,
they'd probably put you in a pound or something till claim, Oh,
you've got one, all right, so have I, and so
is he, and he and he and the bartender, of
(13:37):
course they have. But they'll all go back to Mars
tomorrow and then you can see a good doctor.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
You better have another drink.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
He was turning toward the bartender when Lyman, apparently by accident,
leaned close to him and whispered urgently, don't look now.
And the brown Man glanced at Lyman's white faces reflected
in the mirror before them. It's all right, there, there
are any marsh Lyman gave him a fierce, quick kick
(14:05):
under the edge.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Of the bar. Shut up.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
One just came in, and then he caught the brown
Man's gaze and would elaborate. Unconcerned, he said, so naturally,
there was nothing for me to do but climb up
on the roof after it. It took me ten minutes.
He had to get down the ladder, and just as
we reached the bottom, it gave a bound, climbed up
on my face, sprang from the top of my head,
(14:29):
and there was again on the roof, screaming for me
to get it down. What my cat, of course, what
do you think now? Never mind, don't answer that. Lyman's
face was turned to the brown man, but from the
corners of his eyes he was watching an invisible progress
down the length of the bar, toward a booth at.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
The very back. Now, why did he come in? Eh?
I don't like this. Is he anyone? You know? Is
who that martian? Any chance? Now?
Speaker 2 (15:01):
I suppose not. Yes, it's probably the one that went
out a while ago. I wonder if he went to
make a report and sent this one in. It's possible
it could be. You can talk now, but keep your
voice low and stop squirming. Want him to notice we
can see him. I can't see him. Don't drag me
into this. You and your Martians can fight it out together.
You're making me nervous.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
You know. I gotta go anyway.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
But he didn't move to get off the stool across
Lyman's shoulder. He was stealing glances toward the back of
the bar. And now then he looked at Lyman's face.
Stop watching me, stop watching him? But he'd think you
were a cat? Why a cat? Why should anybody do
I look like a cat? We were talking about cats,
(15:44):
weren't we. Cats can see them quite clearly, even undressed.
I believe they don't like him. Who who doesn't like who?
Home neither likes the other. Cats can see Martians, but
they pretend not to, and that makes the martians man.
I have a theory that cats ruled the world before
martians came. Never mind, forget about cats. This may be
(16:06):
more serious than you think. I happen to know my
martian's taking tonight off, and I'm pretty sure that was
your Martian who went out some time ago. And if
you notice that nobody else in here has his Martian
with him, do you suppose do you suppose it could
be waiting for us outside, Oh god, in the alley
(16:27):
with the cats. I suppose Why don't you stop to
see Emma about cats and be serious for a moment.
What's the matter now? Nothing and nothing. It was just
that he looked at me with you know, let me
get this straight. I take it the Martian is dressed
in is dressed like a human, naturally, but he's invisible
(16:49):
to all eyes but yours. Yeah, he doesn't want to
be visible just now. Besides, besides, you know, I rather
think you can see him a little anyway. The brown
man was perfectly silent for about thirty seconds, he sat
quite motionless, not even the eyes in the.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Drink he helped clinking.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
One might have thought he did not even breathe certainly
he did not blink. What makes you say that? He
asked in enormal voice, after the thirty seconds had run out.
I did I say anything? I wasn't listening. Well, I
think I'll go now. No you won't, not yet, but
(17:32):
come back here, said on now, what was the idea?
Where were you going? Lyman nodded dumbly toward the back
of the bar, indicating either a jukebox or a door
marked man.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
I don't feel so good. Maybe I had a little
too much to drink. You know. I guess I'll you're
all right.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
I don't trust you back there with that that invisible
man of yours.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Now you stay right here until he leaves. He's going now.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
His eyes moved with great briskness along the line of
an invisible but rapid progress toward the front door. See
see he's gone. Now let me loose, will you? The
brown man glanced toward the back booth. No, he isn't gone.
I'll sit right where you are. Was Lyman's turn to
(18:20):
remain quite still in a certain sort of way for
a perceptible while the eyes in his drink, however, clinked audibly.
Presently he spoke, his voice was soft, rather soberer than before.
You're right, he's still there. You can see him, can't you.
(18:41):
As he got his back to us. You can see
him then, better than I thought. Maybe maybe there are
more of them here than I thought. They could be anywhere.
They could be sitting beside you anywhere you go, and
you wouldn't even guess him til they'd want to be sure.
They can give you orders and make you forget, but
there must be limits to what they can force you
to do. They can't make a man betray himself. They'd
(19:03):
have to lead him on until he was sure. He
lifted his drink and tipped it steeply above his face.
The ice ran down the slope and bumped coldly against
his lip, but he held it until the last of
the pale, bubbling amber drained into his mouth. He set
the glass in the bar and faced the brown man. Well, well,
(19:25):
it's getting late. Not many people left will wait wait
for what I have something to show you. I don't
want anyone else to see. Lyman surveyed the narrow, smoky room.
As he looked, the last customer besides themselves at the
bar began groping in his pocket, tossed some change on
(19:46):
the mahogany, and went out slowly. Lyman and the brown
Man sat in silence. The bar tender hypened with stolid disinterest. Presently,
a couple in the front booth got up and departed,
quarreling and undertones. Sure anybody left only Lyman did not finish,
(20:10):
but he nodded gently toward the back of the room.
He isn't looking. Let's get this over with. What do
you want to show me? The brown Man took off
his wristwatch and pried up the metal case. Two small,
glossy photograph prints slid up. The brown Man separated them
with a finger. I just want to make make sure
(20:32):
or something.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
First.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
One did you pick me out? And quite a while ago,
he said, you'd been trailing me all day and making sure.
I haven't forgotten that, and you knew I was a reporter.
I suppose you tell me the truth now. It was
the way you looked at things on the subway this morning.
I'd never seen you before in my life, but I
kept noticing the way you looked at things, the wrong things,
(20:56):
things that weren't there, the way a cat does, and
then you all look away. I got the idea you
could see the Martians too, go on, well, so I
followed you all day. I kept hoping you'd turn out
to be well, somebody I could talk to, because if
I could know that I wasn't the only one I
could see them, then I'd know there was still some
hope left. It's been worse than solitary confinement. I've been
(21:20):
able to see them for three years now, three years,
and I've managed to keep my power a secret, even
from them, and somehow I've managed to keep from killing
myself too. Three years there was always a little hope.
I knew nobody would believe, not without proof, and how
can you get proof. It was only that I kept
telling myself that maybe you could see them too, and
(21:42):
if you could, maybe there would be others, lots of others,
enough so that we might get together and work out
some way of proving to the world. The brown Man's
fingers were moving in Silencey pushed the photograph across the
mahogany wyman pick it up unsteadily. Moonlight. He asked after
a moment. There was a landscape under a deep dark
(22:04):
sky with white clouds, and the tree stood white and
lacy against the darkness. The grass was white as if
with moonlight, and the shadows blurry. No, not moonlight, infrared.
I'm strictly an amateur, but lately I've been experimenting with
infrared film and I had some very unusual results. You see,
(22:27):
I live near the brown Man's finger tapped a certain
quite common object that appeared in the photograph, and something
funny keeps showing up now and then against it, but
only with infrared film. Now I know chlorophyll reflects so
much infrared light that grass and leaves photograph white, the
sky comes out black like this. There are tricks to
(22:49):
using this kind of film. Photograph a tree against the
cloud and you can't tell them a part in the print.
But even photograph through haze and pick out distant objects
at ordinary film wouldn't catch. And sometimes when you focus
on something like this, he tapped the image of a
very common object again, and sometimes you get a very
(23:10):
odd image on the film like that A man with
three eyes. Lyman held a print up to the light
in silence. He took the other one from the bar
and studied it. When he laid them down, he was smiling.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Professor of astrophysics at one of the more important universities
had a very interesting little item in the Times the
other day, name of Spitzer.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
I think.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
He said that if there were life on Mars, and
if Martians had ever visited Earth, there'd be no way.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
To prove it.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Nobody would believe the few men who saw them. Not,
he said, unless the Martians happened to be photographed. Well,
it's happened, You've photographed them. The brown man nodded. He
took up the prince and returned them to his watchcase.
I thought so too, only until the night I couldn't
be sure. I've never seen one fully as you have.
(24:04):
It isn't so much a matter of what you call
getting your brain scrambled with SuperSonics as it is of
just knowing where to look. But I've been seeing part
of them all my life, and so as everybody. It's
that little suggestion of movement you never catch except just
at the edge of your vision, just out of the
corner of your eye, something that's almost there, and when
(24:26):
you look fully at it there's nothing. These photographs showed
me the way. It's not easy to learn, but it
can be done. We're conditioned to look directly at a thing,
the particular thing we want to see clearly, whatever it is.
Perhaps the Martians gave us that conditioning. When we see
a movement at the edge of our range of vision,
it's almost irresistible not to look directly at it, so
(24:47):
it vanishes. Then they can be seen by anybody. I've
learned a lot in a few days since I took
those photographs. You have to train yourself. It's like seeing
the trick picture one that's really a composite after you
study it. Camouflage, you just have to learn how. Otherwise
we can look at them all our lives and never
(25:10):
see them. That camera does, though, yes, the camera does.
I've wondered why nobody ever caught him this way before.
Once you see him on film, they're unmistakable. That third eye. Yeah,
you must have had just the right lighting that thing
and exactly the right focus and all that. The lens
stop down just right. It kind of kind of minor miracle,
(25:32):
that's what it is. It might never happen again exactly
that way, but don't look now. They were silent, furtively,
they watched the mirror. Their eyes slid along toward the
open door of the tavern, and then there was a long,
breathless silence. He looked back at us. He looked at
(25:53):
us that third eye. I don't think they're suspicious yet.
The trick will be to keep under cover until we
can blow this thing wide open. There's got to be
some way to do it, some way that will convince people.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
There's proof. The photographs.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
A competent cameraman ought to be able to figure out
just how you caught that Martian on film and duplicate
the condition it. It's evidence. Evidence can cut both ways.
What I'm hoping is that the Martians don't really like
to kill unless they have to. I'm hoping they won't
kill without proof. But well, there's two of us now,
though we've got to stick together. Both of us have
(26:33):
broken the big rule, don't look now. The bartender was
at the back disconnecting the jukebox, and the brown man said,
we'd better not be seen together unnecessarily. But if we
both come to this bar tomorrow night at nine for
a drink, that wouldn't look suspicious even to them, I suppose,
(26:56):
uh ma, may I have one of those photographs. Why
if one of us had an accident, the other one
would still have the proof enough, maybe to convince the
right people. The brown Man hesitated, nodded shortly, and opened
his watch case again. He gave Lyman one of the pictures. No, here,
(27:17):
hide it, very careful, it's evidence. I'll see you here tomorrow. Meanwhile,
be careful, remember to play safe. They shook hands, firmly,
facing each other in an endless second of final, decisive silence.
Then the brown man turned abruptly and walked out of
the bar. Lyman sat there between two wrinkles in his forehead.
(27:41):
There was a stir and the flicker of lashes unfurling.
The third eye opened slowly and looked after the brown Man.
(28:11):
You've heard Don't look now. A story by Henry Kuttner,
copyright nineteen forty eight by Better Publications. This is Michael
Hansen Technical operation for this broadcast by Steve Gordon. Mind
Webbs is a production of WHA Radio and Madison, a
service of the University of Wisconsin Extension.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
H
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