James Causey 13 min read

In her new Chinese-red housecoat, nails freshly lustered scarlet, Melinda answers the door to a hairless, young-old little man with a peddler's tray who beams, 'I have geegaws for information.'

James Causey's 1953 story is a wry, sharp psi-powers and social-SF tale with a sting in the tail. Clever, funny golden-age SF. Read it for a genial suburban comedy where a bored housewife's bargain with a peculiar door-to-door peddler proves that the higher the society, the more disastrous the mistake.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Dick Francis