Charles A. Stearns 22 min read

Sukey Kireina Jones, South Asian and Celtic blood, five feet of beauty who doesn't know it, takes a counter-girl job at a spaceport hash house.

Charles A. Stearns's 1954 story sets its warm, wry social SF around a lovely young woman, the narrator who befriends her, and the space pilot who falls for her. Genial, character-driven golden-age SF with a pointed title. Read it for a good-hearted tale about beauty, prejudice, and the things people refuse to see.

In its time

Published in 1954, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Wallace Wood