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Fantasia, v. 1, issue 3, July 1941

Page 14

14
FANTASIA

lation far beyond the Solar System -- that absorbed all light, so that its bleak, cold plains were continuously bathed in grim midnight. He told me in late December of worlds that revolved under triple moons, of lands locked in perpetual ice, of planets engulfed in cataclysmic tides of water and fire.

On other nights I was carried by Grandpop's low voice to worlds of barren frugality. Worlds similar to the Earth with civilizations spawning into life or reverting into decay; lands of savage beauty and exotic charm; lands of uncanny terror and gloom where giant monsters lumbered through swaying jungles or crunched along the sandy bottoms of long-dead seas.

Grandpop told me many such tales of distant worlds and strange peoples, and I gloried in it. Grandpop made it sound as though he had really been there.

Then that night came. The 31st of December; the birth of a new year. And as usual I was seated at Grandpop's feet, eager for another tale. His face was white and strained, as though he had just expended himself in some great effort.

"Johnny, that danger I spoke of some time ago is upon me. You must listen carefully to what I say, and obey me."

"Is it another story, Grandpop?" I questioned.

He sighed, long and sadly. "Yes, another story, Johnny. I have sent my thoughts far and wide throughout our magnificent universe. I have searched and investigated carefully. All that exists within the universe has passed before my eyes. Now, son, while there is still time, I am going beyond our spatial universe, beyond our space entirely, in an attempt to find the answer to the age-old question of the beyond. But Johnny, there is great danger there. On my last three voyages I have ventured farther and farther into the realms of our outer universe until I impinged on the very verge of infinity itself. But as I hovered there in infinite silence and loneliness, I felt hidden forces, subtle perceptions working against my astral flight. Still I went on with the speed of light to a region of darkness where neither star nor planet existed. Blackness and the edge of space. What lay beyond? Then, like a distant sunset, I saw a faint radiance in the far distance, a radiance that expanded into a cone of brilliant white out there in the midst of nothing. A cone of white in outer space -- perhaps the key to the mystery of it all. I went on.

"Then the Reds came. Huge ovals of shimmering crimson that loomed from the base of the cone and shot out toward me like repelling guardians. I was a man-entity in forbidden space. They pursued, but the garish red faded as I turned and fled back toward the Earth. Do you understand me, Johnny?"

"Yes, but what happened then?"

"I didn't stay to see, that time. I returned to my earthly body, for these Reds, the guardians of the white cone, were threatening. But I intend to go back for one last look, for I must see what that cone of white means, and what great secret it harbors on the rim of space. But in case something happens to me, I want to tell you a few things, Johnny...things you must remember."

He bent over me and I listened carefully to his instructions. This was all so confusing. Shortly after that, I left Grandpop, and went out to welcome the new year with my friends. I never saw Grandpop alive again.

They found him in the dawn of another year, seated there before his fire, body fixed and rigid, face unnaturally pale, his eyes open and staring with a hideous red tinge hovering within like misty fires. He was pronounced dead by the doctor, after a brief and cursory examination.

The aftermath is painful. A blurred swarm of leering faces and pointing fingers. I simply did what Grandpop told me to do. I stuck an ice-pick through his heart. I tried to explain what Grandpop had told me. His fear that the Reds, the guardians, would detain his astral personality, that it would return when his still living body had been buried. And they said that the old man was clearly insane.

If he was, then insanity is hereditary in my family, because tonight something snapped inside me, and I was spun in starry spaces.

Saving...

14 FANTASIA lation far beyond the Solar System -- that absorbed all light, so that its bleak, cold plains were continuously bathed in grim midnight. He told me in late December of worlds that revolved under triple moons, of lands locked in perpetual ice, of planets engulfed in cataclysmic tides of water and fire. On other nights I was carried by Grandpop's low voice to worlds of barren frugality. Worlds similar to the Earth with civilizations spawning into life or reverting into decay; lands of savage beauty and exotic charm; lands of uncanny terror and gloom where giant monsters lumbered through swaying jungles or crunched along the sandy bottoms of long-dead seas. Grandpop told me many such tales of distant worlds and strange peoples, and I gloried in it. Grandpop made it sound as though he had really been there. Then that night came. The 31st of December; the birth of a new year. And as usual I was seated at Grandpop's feet, eager for another tale. His face was white and strained, as though he had just expended himself in some great effort. "Johnny, that danger I spoke of some time ago is upon me. You must listen carefully to what I say, and obey me." "Is it another story, Grandpop?" I questioned. He sighed, long and sadly. "Yes, another story, Johnny. I have sent my thoughts far and wide throughout our magnificent universe. I have searched and investigated carefully. All that exists within the universe has passed before my eyes. Now, son, while there is still time, I am going beyond our spatial universe, beyond our space entirely, in an attempt to find the answer to the age-old question of the beyond. But Johnny, there is great danger there. On my last three voyages I have ventured farther and farther into the realms of our outer universe until I impinged on the very verge of infinity itself. But as I hovered there in infinite silence and loneliness, I felt hidden forces, subtle perceptions working against my astral flight. Still I went on with the speed of light to a region of darkness where neither star nor planet existed. Blackness and the edge of space. What lay beyond? Then, like a distant sunset, I saw a faint radiance in the far distance, a radiance that expanded into a cone of brilliant white out there in the midst of nothing. A cone of white in outer space -- perhaps the key to the mystery of it all. I went on. "Then the Reds came. Huge ovals of shimmering crimson that loomed from the base of the cone and shot out toward me like repelling guardians. I was a man-entity in forbidden space. They pursued, but the garish red faded as I turned and fled back toward the Earth. Do you understand me, Johnny?" "Yes, but what happened then?" "I didn't stay to see, that time. I returned to my earthly body, for these Reds, the guardians of the white cone, were threatening. But I intend to go back for one last look, for I must see what that cone of white means, and what great secret it harbors on the rim of space. But in case something happens to me, I want to tell you a few things, Johnny...things you must remember." He bent over me and I listened carefully to his instructions. This was all so confusing. Shortly after that, I left Grandpop, and went out to welcome the new year with my friends. I never saw Grandpop alive again. They found him in the dawn of another year, seated there before his fire, body fixed and rigid, face unnaturally pale, his eyes open and staring with a hideous red tinge hovering within like misty fires. He was pronounced dead by the doctor, after a brief and cursory examination. The aftermath is painful. A blurred swarm of leering faces and pointing fingers. I simply did what Grandpop told me to do. I stuck an ice-pick through his heart. I tried to explain what Grandpop had told me. His fear that the Reds, the guardians, would detain his astral personality, that it would return when his still living body had been buried. And they said that the old man was clearly insane. If he was, then insanity is hereditary in my family, because tonight something snapped inside me, and I was spun in starry spaces.