Marshall King 23 min read

A little alien boy sneaks off to see the ocean at last and to play his favorite game, stopping time itself, when rough new friends arrive.

Marshall King's 1960 story follows the joyful, time-freezing Purnie on his forbidden day of freedom, until visitors turn his innocent play cruel. A poignant, quietly devastating first-contact tale told from a child's-eye wonder. Read it for a beautifully turned golden-age story where a small creature's delight meets the carelessness of others.

In its time

Published in 1960, during the 1960s, new wave revolutionizes the genre.

Reading it

23 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

Wallace Wood