Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

The Survivors

Last night, after finishing with the chores, I came in, got cleaned up and reached for my laptop computer. It's cold outside but after crawling under the electric shawl blanket my wife got me, I felt all toasty. I worked for awhile on my class assignment and then Linda came in with her Kindle and crawled into bed next to me. Our Golden Doodle got in between us to make sure there was no opportunity for hanky-panky.

"What are you thinking," Linda asked? "You have that pensive look."

Actually I had been thinking about something far away, when I was stoking up the wood stove and feeding the cats. When I was in elementary school I was a "wee bit disruptive," and after visits to the office got old, the Principle, a truly remarkable old lady, talked the Librarian into taking me on as a "Hard Case."

To make a long story short she got me interested in reading which was one of the few academic areas I seemed to have an aptitude for. After a short period I was reading a book or novel a day. It was a great escape mechanism and I always saw it as more of a reward than a punishment. So whenever I started acting up and the teacher said, "Go see Mrs Jones!" I'd hang my head and shuffle to the door... that is until I got into the hall and then smile, "Yes! Yes!"

So there I was, ten years old, given a brief respite from "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," that plagued my tender years. Getting on with the story, one day I read a science fiction book called "The Survivors." It was the most amazing piece of literature I had read to that point in my life and it excited an extreme sense of awe. Not only did the book hang with me in the next few days and weeks but it kindled a love for science fiction, fueled by Clark, Heinlein, and other great SI-Fi legends. As time passed the story would still flash back into my mind but try as I would, I could never find the book that first kindled my interest. I think you are beginning to realize where this blog is heading.

It's been almost sixty years since reading that book and over the years I had tried repeatedly to find another copy. When Linda asked what I was thnking about I told her about this book I'd once read.

"Who wrote it," she asked.

After that long I was lucky to remember the title. "I don't remember."

She went to Amazon and typed in the following key words. 1950 Science Fiction Novel The Survivors... (or something along those lines.)

The book flashed on the screen. Space Prison (Formerly Titled "The Survivors.")

Now I have told my "Army of Readers" on numerous occasions, that my wife is truly awesome. She ordered it (A free book) and within minutes it uploaded on my Kindle. I finished reading it by midnight. Sometimes I forget that what is hard for me can be ridiculously easy for others.

Today as I did the chores that book churned around in my imagination creating the same sense of wonder it did many years ago.