Avon Fantasy Reader No. 14 — page 65: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Sill Small Voice by Clue G. B. Aachson It ts unusual for the Avon Fantasy Reaper to bty an original these days, and even more unusual to buy an original by an author who, as far as we know, never made a sale before. We saw this little gem in a small privately printed fan magazine from Northern Ireland. The author ts, we understand, a young Scotsman and we do not know tf he intends taking up writing as a career. If he did, we would say that he was the first successful disciple of the Ray Bradbury school. The touch is there in these 73 few hundred words that reflect the Bradbury sense of the unexpected. ELL, it’s like we made it, Young Jim.” “Yes, Dad, it looks like we did it.” “My, will you look at that! All that water, and why d’you suppose it’s so green?” “Yes, I wonder why? So they were canals, after all. Straight as a die, as fac as you can see. My!” “Well, Young Jim. Better get busy on that air analysis, and then we can stretch our legs awhile.” Father and son stood in the airlock, side by side, on the threshold of a strange new world, and it was such an awesome feeling that neither of them said anything at all, and then together they stepped forward out of the ship onto the strange new soil. When they were outside, the tension broke, and they both laughed a little without knowing why, and the boy knelt suddenly and said, “Look, Dad, see what makes everything so red. Such a tiny, beautiful little plant and hardly any roots at all.” And the father said, “Say, just look at these leaves; they must have a million points, and each one perfect as a snowflake.” Then they remembered that they had a ceremony to perform, so they got out the big green UNO flag on its aluminum pole, and the small shiny camera on its tripod, and the boy took a picture of his father, and the father took one of his son, and then they both stood by the flag while the automatic shutter whirred and clicked. They looked very self-conscious, and the father said, “By gosh, I never felt so many kinds of a darn’ fool in all my life!” After that, they went for a little walk, not far, because the sun was already almost on the horizon, and while it was setting they came back and had theic 63 comiclsooks.com