Henry Slesar 22 min read

The plump, apple-cheeked woman in the doorway looks as harmless as anyone's mother, but she has some rather startling interests.

Henry Slesar's 1955 story lures a stranded motorist into a strange small town, building a wry, unsettling social-SF tale from the friendliest of façades. Sharp, twisty golden-age SF. Read it for a story where a cozy welcome hides something very odd indeed beneath the surface.

In its time

Published in 1955, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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