UNIT 3 FICTION


Ray Bradbury was a science fi ction author who published the following short story in May 1950. He originally set the story in what was then the future (1985), but it was later adapted for modern audiences.


August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains


In the living room the voice-clock sang, Tick-tock, seven o’clock, time to get up, time to get up, seven o’clock! as if it were afraid that nobody would. The morning house lay empty. The clock ticked on, repeating and repeating its sounds into the emptiness. Seven-nine, breakfast time, seven-nine!


In the kitchen the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from its warm interior eight pieces of perfectly browned toast, eight eggs sunnyside up, sixteen slices of bacon, two coffees, and two cool glasses of milk.


‘Today is August 4, 2026,’ said a second voice from the kitchen ceiling, ‘in the city of Allendale, California.’ It repeated the date three times for memory’s sake. ‘Today is Mr. Featherstone’s birthday. Today is the anniversary of Tilita’s marriage. Insurance is payable, as are the water, gas, and light bills.’


Somewhere in the walls, relays clicked, memory tapes glided under electric eyes.


Eight-one, tick-tock, eight-one o’clock, off to school, off to work, run, run, eight-one! But no doors slammed, no carpets took the soft tread of rubber heels. It was raining outside. The weather box on the front door sang quietly: ‘Rain, rain, go away; rubbers, raincoats for today …’ And the rain tapped on the empty house, echoing.


Outside, the garage chimed and lifted its door to reveal the waiting car. After a long wait the door swung down again.


At eight-thirty the eggs were shrivelled and the toast was like stone. An aluminum wedge scraped them into the sink, where hot water whirled them down a metal throat which digested and fl ushed them away to the distant sea. The dirty dishes were dropped into a hot washer and emerged twinkling dry.


Nine-fi fteen, sang the clock, time to clean.


Out of warrens in the wall, tiny robot mice darted. The rooms were acrawl with the small cleaning animals, all rubber and metal. They thudded against chairs, whirling their mustached runners, kneading the rug nap, sucking gently at hidden dust. Then, like mysterious invaders, they popped into their burrows. Their pink electric eyes faded. The house was clean.


Ten o’clock. The sun came out from behind the rain. The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. This was the one house left standing. At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles.


Ten-fi fteen. The garden sprinklers whirled up in golden founts, fi lling the soft morning air with scatterings of brightness. The water pelted windowpanes, running down the charred west side where the house had been burned evenly free of its white paint. The entire west face of the house was black, save for fi ve places. Here the silhouette in paint of a man mowing a lawn. Here, as in a photograph, a woman bent to pick fl owers. Still farther over, their images burned on wood in one titanic instant, a small boy, hands fl ung into the air; higher up, the image of a thrown ball, and opposite him a girl, hands raised to catch a ball which never came down.


139


C


D


1


–


9


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