Ross Rocklynne 14 min read

Baby didn't cry all day, and his harried young mother, grateful for the peace, ironing done at last, didn't dare investigate why. But baby had a playmate, and the playmate was a monster.

Ross Rocklynne's 1954 story is a wry, domestic alternate-history and social-SF tale of an unexpected houseguest. Clever, funny golden-age SF. Read it for a charming suburban comedy where an exhausted housewife's quiet day conceals a visitor from another dimension, and things get delightfully out of hand.

In its time

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

Reading it

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