Long After Midnight

Long After Midnight
Ray Douglas Bradbury

A classic collection of Ray Bradbury’s short fiction, available in ebook for the first time.In twenty-two stories of amazing range and variety, Ray Bradbury once again works his special magic, sounding out life's mysteries in the past, present, and the future.

LONG AFTER MIDNIGHT

Ray Bradbury

Dedication (#ulink_29c0a4fc-14c8-5a41-bd55-20e7d8d28f27)

This book, with love, is dedicated to William F. Nolan, amazing collector, fantastic researcher, dear friend.

Table of Contents

Cover (#u856996d6-8091-54a9-b390-42101c167e2a)

Title Page (#u56c6c7c4-ecd7-5a09-adfe-d9a5b1943185)

Dedication (#ulink_076f982b-ce17-518a-8c8f-0dc5a382e2e1)

The Blue Bottle (#ulink_eba30627-f705-54c6-8111-9e207896ab21)

One Timeless Spring (#ulink_a9a839c9-ca57-58e0-adb4-5124067d50b3)

The Parrot Who Met Papa (#ulink_83e81882-71ac-5246-9e3d-37211da4679c)

The Burning Man (#ulink_7de68c92-19f3-5085-b57c-ff703d4dea18)

A Piece of Wood (#ulink_ffecb488-4429-5610-b5bf-63026b8f4e17)

The Messiah (#ulink_2dbc6555-ca04-5c67-a141-04b5b394546c)

G.B.S.—Mark V (#litres_trial_promo)

The Utterly Perfect Murder (#litres_trial_promo)

Punishment Without Crime (#litres_trial_promo)

Getting Through Sunday Somehow (#litres_trial_promo)

Drink Entire: Against the Madness of Crowds (#litres_trial_promo)

Interval in Sunlight (#litres_trial_promo)

A Story of Love (#litres_trial_promo)

The Wish (#litres_trial_promo)

Forever and the Earth (#litres_trial_promo)

The Better Part of Wisdom (#litres_trial_promo)

Darling Adolf (#litres_trial_promo)

The Miracles of Jamie (#litres_trial_promo)

The October Game (#litres_trial_promo)

The Pumpernickel (#litres_trial_promo)

Long After Midnight (#litres_trial_promo)

Have I Got a Chocolate Bar for You! (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

The Blue Bottle (#ulink_dbb5abd9-ebd5-532b-bc8a-c551c688a47a)

The sundials were tumbled into white pebbles. The birds of the air now flew in ancient skies of rock and sand, buried, their songs stopped. The dead sea bottoms were currented with dust which flooded the land when the wind bade it reenact an old tale of engulfment. The cities were deep laid with granaries of silence, time stored and kept, pools and fountains of quietude and memory.

Mars was dead.

Then, out of the large stillness, from a great distance, there was an insect sound which grew large among the cinnamon hills and moved in the sun-blazed air until the highway trembled and dust was shook whispering down in the old cities.

The sound ceased.

In the shimmering silence of midday, Albert Beck and Leonard Craig sat in an ancient landcar, eyeing a dead city which did not move under their gaze but waited for their shout:

“Hello!”

A crystal tower dropped into soft dusting rain.

“You there!”

And another tumbled down.

And another and another fell as Beck called, summoning them to death. In shattering flights, stone animals with vast granite wings dived to strike the courtyards and fountains. His cry summoned them like living beasts and the beasts gave answer, groaned, cracked, leaned up, tilted over, trembling, hesitant, then split the air and swept down with grimaced mouths and empty eyes, with sharp, eternally hungry teeth suddenly seized out and strewn like shrapnel on the tiles.

Beck waited. No more towers fell.

“It’s safe to go in now.”