Ruth Laura Wainwright 18 min read

Since evils cancel out, avoid odd numbers of them, even if you must get an odder one. On a hot September evening, Robert keeps sniffing at the windows, muttering about the smog.

Ruth Laura Wainwright's 1953 story builds a wry social-SF tale from domestic tension, an unwanted houseguest, and a worsening haze. Light, clever golden-age SF. Read it for a genial story where household exasperation and a strange smog add up to something odder than anyone bargained for.

In its time

Published in 1953, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Dick Francis