There is only one way, Morley, Bishop said, talking to his friend. There is only one thing that will crack this planet and that is humility.
And Earthmen are not humble creatures.
Long ago they forgot the meaning of humility.
But here it’s different.
Here you have to be different.
You start out by saying, I don’t know.
Then you say, I want to know.
Then you say, I’ll work hard to learn.
Maybe, Bishop thought, that’s why they brought us here, so that the one of us in every thousand who has a chance of learning would get that chance to learn. Maybe they are watching, hoping that there may be more than one in every thousand. Maybe they are more anxious for us to learn than we are to learn. For they may be lonely in a galaxy where there are no others like them.
Could it be that the ones at this hotel were the failures, the ones who had never tried, or who might have tried and could not pass.
And the others—the one out of every thousand—where were they?
He could not even guess.
There were no answers.
It was all superstition.
It was a premise built upon a pipedream—built on wishful thinking.
He’d wake up in the morning and know that it was wrong.
He’d go down to the bar and have a drink with Maxine or with Monty and laugh at himself for the things that he’d dreamed up.
School, he’d told himself. But it wouldn’t be a school—at least not the kind of school he’d ever known before.
I wish it could be so, he thought.
The cabinet said, “You’d better get on to bed, sir.”
“I suppose I should,” said Bishop. “It’s been a long, hard day.”
“You’ll want to get up early,” said the cabinet, “so you aren’t late to school.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
During his fifty-five-year career, CLIFFORD D. SIMAK produced some of the most iconic science fiction stories ever written. Born in 1904 on a farm in southwestern Wisconsin, Simak got a job at a small-town newspaper in 1929 and eventually became news editor of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, writing fiction in his spare time.
Simak was best known for the book City, a reaction to the horrors of World War II, and for his novel Way Station. In 1953 City was awarded the International Fantasy Award, and in following years, Simak won three Hugo Awards and a Nebula Award. In 1977 he became the third Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and before his death in 1988, he was named one of three inaugural winners of the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
DAVID W. WIXON was a close friend of Clifford D. Simak’s. As Simak’s health declined, Wixon, already familiar with science fiction publishing, began more and more to handle such things as his friend’s business correspondence and contract matters. Named literary executor of the estate after Simak’s death, Wixon began a long-term project to secure the rights to all of Simak’s stories and find a way to make them available to readers who, given the fifty-five-year span of Simak’s writing career, might never have gotten the chance to enjoy all of his short fiction. Along the way, Wixon also read the author’s surviving journals and rejected manuscripts, which made him uniquely able to provide Simak’s readers with interesting and thought-provoking commentary that sheds new light on the work and thought of a great writer.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
These are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 the Estate of Clifford D. Simak
All stories reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“The Money Tree” © 1958 by Mercury Press, Inc. © 1986 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Venture Science Fiction, v. 2, no. 4, July, 1958. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“Shotgun Cure” © 1960 by Mercury Press, Inc. © 1988 by the Estate of Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, v. 20, no. 1, Jan., 1961. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“Paradise” © 1946 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. © 1974 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, v. 37, no. 4, June, 1946. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“The Gravestone Rebels Ride by Night!” © 1944 by Popular Publications, Inc. © 1972 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Big-Book Western Magazine, v. 14, no. 3, Oct., 1944. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“How-2” © 1954 by Galaxy Publishing Corporation. © 1982 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction, v. 9, no. 2, November, 1954. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“The Shipshape Miracle” © 1962 by Digest Productions Corporation. © 1990 by the Estate of Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in If, v. 12, no. 6, January, 1963. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“Rim of the Deep” © 1940 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. © 1968 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Astounding Science-Fiction, v. 25, no. 3, May, 1940. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“Eternity Lost” © 1949 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. © 1977 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, v. 43, no. 5, July, 1949. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“Immigrant” © 1954 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. © 1982 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, v. 53, no. 1, March, 1954. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
Introduction © 2017 by David W. Wixon
Cover design by Jason Gabbert
978-1-5040-4519-3
Published in 2017 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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THE COMPLETE SHORT FICTION OF CLIFFORD D. SIMAK
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