John Johnson 9 min read

Small Donnie clenches his fists against tears as Mr. Ames storms at him, 'act like a normal human being,' the man demands, while the boy asks only that someone spend time with him.

John Johnson's 1956 story is a quietly devastating dystopian social-SF tale of a child in a cold future. Sharp, affecting golden-age SF. Read it for a story where a little boy's simple, aching wish exposes something deeply wrong with the world that has rejected him.

In its time

Published in 1956, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Paul Orban