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Centauri, issue 2, Winter 1944
Page 23
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Centauri Page 23 -SECRET OF ATLANTIS- 20th, when Reeves found you. You've been sinking lower and lower. This morning I was afraid you were going -- so I sent for one very near and dear to you." I heard a commotion outside the bedroom door. Someone entered the room. The quick footsteps halted. I turned my head, faced the newcomer. A girl. I cursed. It was Rhoda. I hadn't killed her, after all--- She saw me, and fear welled in her eyes. She backed away, her hand clutching her mouth. She started to scream; then she fainted. The doctor caught her, carried her to a nearby couch. A nurse brought water. "My God!" I cried weakly, "what's the matter with me?" "Be calm, Chet. You've had a terrible time. Many doctors have been here -- they cannot explain or understand why you have aged so rapidly." "Age!" I screamed. "Give me a mirror!" I ran my hands over my face. Long whiskers. Deep clefts under my cheekbones; sunken eyes...Eldridge gave me the mirror. Then I saw the horror. Three weeks have passed since my return to earth. I can get around the house with a cane. I am feeble and wasted; an old man. Within a single month I lived half a lifetime. Going so far had sapped my youth, my life. How long had I been on that world? I don't know. Time is relative. Impossible to cheat both time and the elements. No wonder that awful knowledge had been suppressed. No wonder there had been so few spirit explorers from ancient Atlantis... I am damned to die in a few years. Life holds nothing more for me. Escape into space is beyond all hope. My ebbing strength would last but a few hours; never could I hope to reach that distant world, where she is waiting... Rhoda recovered from her first shock, and visited me again. I sneered at her and told her that I was sick of her. She actually confessed her amour with the stranger in Portland -- the man whom she thought had nearly killed her. That, she said, had taught her many things. I told her to get out. I don't want sympathy. I am ready to die. Only in the grave will I find the peace of utter oblivion from the haunting memory of an unearthly love and the freedom of a vast, mysterious universe. ---oOo--- The second issue of Saturnalia will be out Jan. 8. It will contain fiction by M.J. Nuttall and Art. R. Schnert, two fan columns, poetry by Ted Hunter, Nuttall and Gray, a cartoon by Joe Kennedy, two (2) beautiful nudes and two excellent articles, "What's Palmer's IQ?" by T.N. Ainslie and "Why Not Try Sanity?" by Paul Carter, guaranteed to be the 'hottest' article fandom has seen in many a day. All for five cents from 1414 Popular, Memphis 4, Tennessee.
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Centauri Page 23 -SECRET OF ATLANTIS- 20th, when Reeves found you. You've been sinking lower and lower. This morning I was afraid you were going -- so I sent for one very near and dear to you." I heard a commotion outside the bedroom door. Someone entered the room. The quick footsteps halted. I turned my head, faced the newcomer. A girl. I cursed. It was Rhoda. I hadn't killed her, after all--- She saw me, and fear welled in her eyes. She backed away, her hand clutching her mouth. She started to scream; then she fainted. The doctor caught her, carried her to a nearby couch. A nurse brought water. "My God!" I cried weakly, "what's the matter with me?" "Be calm, Chet. You've had a terrible time. Many doctors have been here -- they cannot explain or understand why you have aged so rapidly." "Age!" I screamed. "Give me a mirror!" I ran my hands over my face. Long whiskers. Deep clefts under my cheekbones; sunken eyes...Eldridge gave me the mirror. Then I saw the horror. Three weeks have passed since my return to earth. I can get around the house with a cane. I am feeble and wasted; an old man. Within a single month I lived half a lifetime. Going so far had sapped my youth, my life. How long had I been on that world? I don't know. Time is relative. Impossible to cheat both time and the elements. No wonder that awful knowledge had been suppressed. No wonder there had been so few spirit explorers from ancient Atlantis... I am damned to die in a few years. Life holds nothing more for me. Escape into space is beyond all hope. My ebbing strength would last but a few hours; never could I hope to reach that distant world, where she is waiting... Rhoda recovered from her first shock, and visited me again. I sneered at her and told her that I was sick of her. She actually confessed her amour with the stranger in Portland -- the man whom she thought had nearly killed her. That, she said, had taught her many things. I told her to get out. I don't want sympathy. I am ready to die. Only in the grave will I find the peace of utter oblivion from the haunting memory of an unearthly love and the freedom of a vast, mysterious universe. ---oOo--- The second issue of Saturnalia will be out Jan. 8. It will contain fiction by M.J. Nuttall and Art. R. Schnert, two fan columns, poetry by Ted Hunter, Nuttall and Gray, a cartoon by Joe Kennedy, two (2) beautiful nudes and two excellent articles, "What's Palmer's IQ?" by T.N. Ainslie and "Why Not Try Sanity?" by Paul Carter, guaranteed to be the 'hottest' article fandom has seen in many a day. All for five cents from 1414 Popular, Memphis 4, Tennessee.
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