Charles L. Fontenay 36 min read

Sheltering from a thunderstorm in a park pavilion, the narrator witnesses the sudden appearance of Wyndham Storm, one of those unheralded Fortean arrivals, though this one has brought his wife.

Charles L. Fontenay's 1956 story is a wry hard-SF and time-travel tale. Clever, entertaining golden-age SF. Read it for a genial story built on the Fortean idea of mysterious teleportations, where an inexplicable arrival in a small-town park unfolds a science-fictional puzzle, in a light, well-turned golden-age piece with dry humor and an ingenious explanation.

In its time

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

Reading it

36 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller