Fredric Brown - The Best of Fredric Brown

"Man is a joke, a clown, a parasite. He is nothing; he will be less."

"Come and go mad."

He was getting out of bed again; he was walking. Through the doorway of the cubicle, along the ward. To the door that led to the corridor; a thin crack of light showed under it. But this time his hand did not reach out for the knob. Instead he stood there facing the closed door, and it began to glow; slowly it became light and visible.

As though from somewhere an invisible spotlight played upon it, the door became a visible rectangle in the surrounding blackness; as brightly visible as the crack under it.

The voice said, "You see before you a cell of your ruler, a cell unintelligent in itself, yet a tiny part of a unit which is intelligent, one of a million units which make up the intelligence which rules the earth-and you. And which earth-wide intelligence is one of a million intelligences which rule the universe. "

"The door? I don't-"

The voice spoke no more; it had withdrawn, but somehow inside his mind was the echo of silent laughter.

He leaned closer and saw what he was meant to see. An ant was crawling up the door.

His eyes followed it, and numbing horror crawled apace, up his spine. A hundred things that had been told and shown him suddenly fitted into a pattern, a pattern of sheer horror. The black, the white, the red; the black ants, the white ants, the red ants; the players with men, separate lobes of a single group brain, the intelligence that was one. Man an accident, a parasite, a pawn; a million planets in the universe inhabited each by an insect race that was a single intelligence for the planet-and all the intelligences together were the single cosmic intelligence that was- God!

The one-syllable word wouldn 't come.

He went mad, instead.

He beat upon the now-dark door with his bloody hands ,with his knees, his face, with himself, although already he had forgotten why, had forgotten what he wanted to crush.

He was raving mad-dementia praecox, not paranoia-when they released his body by putting it into a strait jacket, released it from frenzy to quietude.

He was quietly mad-paranoia, not dementia praecox-when they released him as sane eleven months later.

Paranoia, you see, is a peculiar affliction; it has no physical symptoms, it is merely the presence of a fixed delusion. A series of metrazol shocks had cleared up the dementia praecox and left only the fixed delusion that he was George Vine, a reporter.

The asylum authorities thought he was, too, so the delusion was not recognized as such and they released him and gave him a certificate to prove he was sane.

He married Clare; he still works at the Blade- for a man named Candler. He still plays chess with his cousin, Charlie Doerr. He still sees-for periodic checkups-both Dr. Irving and Dr. Randolph.

Which of them smiles inwardly? What good would it do you to know? Yes it was ,is, one of those four.

It doesn't matter. Don't you understand? Nothing matters!

PROFESSOR JONES had been working on time theory for many years.

"And I have found the key equation, "he told his daughter one day. "Time is a field. This machine I have made can manipulate, even reverse, that field. "

Pushing a button as he spoke, he said, "This should make time run backward run time make should this," said he, spoke he as button a pushing.

"Field that, reverse even, manipulate can made have I ma-chine this. Field a is time. "Day one daughter his told he, "Equation key the found have I and. "

Years many for theory time on working been had Jones Professor.

"Arena, "copyright © 1944 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science Fiction, June 1944.

"Imagine, "copyright © 1 955 by Fantasy House, Inc., for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1 955 .

"It Didn't Happen," copyright © 1963 by H.M.H. Publishing Company for Playboy, October 1963.

"Recessional, "copyright © 196o by Mystery Publishing Company, Inc., for Dude, March 1960.

"Eine Kleine Nachtmusik "(with Carl Onspaugh), copyright © 1965 by Mercury Press, Inc., for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1965.

"Puppet Show," copyright © x962 by H.M.H. Publishing Company for Playboy, November 1962.

"Nightmare in Yellow," copyright © 1961 by Mystery Publishing Company, Inc., for Dude, May 1961.

"Earthmen Bearing Gifts, "copyright © 196o by Galaxy Publishing Corporation for GALAXY Magazine, June x96o.

"Jaycee, "copyright © 1 955 by Fantasy House, Inc., for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

"Pi in the Sky, "copyright '© 1 945 by Standard Magazine, Inc., for Thrilling Wonder Stories, winter 1 945 .

"Answer," copyright © 1 954 by Fredric Brown for Angels and Spaceships.

"The Geezenstacks," copyright © 1 943 by Popular Fiction Publishing Company for Weird Tales, September 1 943 .

"Hall of Mirrors, "copyright © 1 953 by Galaxy Publishing Corporation for GALAXY Science Fiction, December 1 953 .

"Knock, "copyright © 1948 by Standard Magazines, Inc., for Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1948.

"Rebound, "copyright © 1961 by Fredric Brown for Nightmares and Geezenstacks.

"Star Mouse, "copyright © 1942 by Love Romances Publishing Company, Inc., for Planet Stories, February 1942.

"Abominable, "copyright © 196o by Mystery Publishing Company, Inc., for Dude, March 1960.

"Letter to a Phoenix, "copyright © 1949 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science Fiction, August 1 949 .

"Not Yet the End, "copyright © 1941 by Standard Publishing Company for Captain Future, winter 1941.

"Etaoin Shrdlu, "copyright © 1942 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Unknown Worlds, February 1942.

"Armageddon, "copyright © 1941 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Unknown, August 1941.

"Experiment "(in "Two Timer ") copyright © 1 954 by Galaxy Publishing Corporation for GALAXY Science Fiction, February 1 954 .

"The Short Happy Lives of Eustace Weaver "(I, II, and III), © 196r by Davis Publications, Inc., first published in Ellery Queen 's Mystery Magazine under the title "Of Time and Eustace Weaver. "

"Reconciliation, "copyright © 1954 by Fredric Brown for Angels and Spaceships. "Nothing Sirius, "copyright © 1944 by Standard Publishing Company for Captain Future, spring 1944 .

"Pattern, "copyright © 1954 by Fredric Brown for Angels and Spaceships. "The Yehudi Principle, "copyright © 1944 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science Fiction, May 1944 .

"Come and Go Mad, "copyright © 1949 by Weird Tales for Weird Tales, July 1949

"The End," copyright © 1961 by Fredric Brown for Nightmares and Geezenstacks.