But the last straw that broke the camel herd was the men ducking through a whirlaround garden sprinkler one untimely hot autumn night and, seeing their wives in a nearby window, they yelled, “Come on in, the water’s fine!”
All three ladies gave the window a grand slam.
Which knocked five flowerpots off rails, skedaddled six cats, and had ten dogs howling at no-moon-in-the-sky halfway to dawn.
A Brief Afterword
In a long life I have never had a driver’s license nor have I learned to drive. But some while back one night I dreamed that I was motoring along a country road with my inspirational Greek muse. She occupied the driver’s seat while I occupied the passenger’s place with a second, student’s, wheel.
I could not help but notice that she was driving, serenely, with a clean white blindfold over her eyes, while her hands barely touched the steering wheel.
And as she drove she whispered notions, concepts, ideas, immense truths, fabulous lies, which I hastened to jot down.
A time finally came, however, when, curious, I reached over and nabbed the edge of her blindfold to peer beneath.
Her eyes, like the eyes of an ancient statue, were rounded pure white marble. Sightless, they stared at the road ahead, which caused me, in panic, to seize my wheel and almost run us off the road.
“No, no,” she whispered. “Trust me. I know the way.”
“But I don’t,” I cried.
“It’s all right,” she whispered. “You don’t need to know. If you must touch the wheel, remember Hamlet’s advice, ‘Use all gently.’ Close your eyes. Now, quietly, reach out.”
I did. She did. “There, see?” she whispered. “We’re almost there.”
We arrived. And all of the tales in this new book were finished and done.
“Night Train to Babylon” is an almost true story; I was nearly tossed off a train some years ago for interfering with a three-card monte scam. After that, I shut my mouth.
“That Old Dog Lying in the Dust” is an absolutely accurate detailing of an encounter I had with a Mexican border-town one-ring circus when I was twenty-four years old. A dear-sad evening I will remember to the end of my life.
“Nothing Changes” was triggered when one afternoon in the twilight stacks of Acres of Books in Long Beach I came upon a series of 1905 high school annuals in which (impossible) the faces of my own 1938 school chums seemed to appear again and again. Rushing from the stacks, I wrote the story.
“If MGM Is Killed, Who Gets the Lion?” is another variation on an amusing reality. During World War II MGM was camouflaged as the Hughes Aircraft Company, while the Hughes Aircraft Company was disguised as MGM. How could I not describe the comedy?
Finally, “Driving Blind” is a remembrance of my acquaintance with a Human Fly who climbed building facades when I was twelve. You don’t find heroes like that by the dozen.
As you can see, when the Muse speaks, I shut my eyes and listen. In Paris once, I touch-typed in a dark room, no lights, and wrote 150 pages of a novel in seventeen nights without seeing what I put down. If that isn’t Driving Blind, what is?
Ray Bradbury
Los Angeles
April 8, 1997
Praise
RAY BRADBURY
DRIVING BLIND
“Wonderful … One vintage automobile
with a Grandmaster behind the wheel,
inviting you along for the ride
to see the world as he sees it …
It’s a world of farce, of horror, of fascination,
mixed with social commentary and wit …
Climb in for the ride of your life.
You’ll be surprised where you end up
as a blindfolded Bradbury barrels down
the road and opens your eyes.”
Oklahoma City Oklahoman
“Excellent … This new, big-hearted collection
is proof positive the creative juices still flow
freely through Bradbury’s veins.”
San Antonio Express-News
“Ray Bradbury is an old-fashioned romantic
who’s capable of imagining a dystopic
future. He can evoke nostalgia for a mythic,
golden past or raise goosebumps
with tales of horror.”
Chicago Tribune
“A preeminent storyteller …
an icon in American literature.”
Virginian Pilot
“Arresting … funny … shocking … outrageous …
After more than half a century of writing,
Bradbury still has some of the old magic.”
Philadelphia Inquirer
“One of our greatest contemporary writers …
A joyful book, full of sometimes eerie,
sometimes odd but always enjoyable tidbits
of life, past, present and future …
All a reader needs is a willing mind,
one that is free to wander
to unexplored territories and ponder the
‘what ifs’ and ‘whys’ of human existence.”
Flint Journal
“The twenty-one stories in Bradbury’s new
anthology are full of sweetness and humanity.
Despite bizarre actions and abstract twists,
all are grounded in the everyday.
Here are sketches, vignettes, strange tales,
colorful anecdotes, little tragedies,
hilarious lies and metaphysics too …
Bradbury excels at portraying
the robust textures of American speech.”
Publishers Weekly (*Starred Review*)
“The muse must speak often to Bradbury.
Stories seem to fall like fantastic petals
from his fertile imagination.”
Kansas City Star
“Remarkable … intensely told …
The easiest book this year to read.”
Miami Herald
“Bradbury has a style all his own,
much imitated but never matched …
After writing stories for more than fifty years,
Bradbury has become more than pretty good
at it. He has become a master.”
Portland Oregonian
“Driving Blind [is] a sight for sore eyes.”
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
“If you’re looking for a wonderful
pick-up and put-down volume that doesn’t
let your mind put it down completely,
Ray Bradbury’s new collection will fit you
like a tailor-made suit. Here are stories
which bridge the gap between the writer
and the reader in a way that only Bradbury’s
eye can manage, seeing at an angle all the
oddities and everydays of life.”
Rockland Courier-Gazette
“A must … Bradbury returns in top form …
He paints vivid word pictures.”
Library Journal
“Bradbury is a master of prose
and a virtuoso of the perfect little
scene or scenario … There’s nobody like
Bradbury to evoke a mood:
nostalgia for a childhood long gone,
visceral fear of shadows and simple things.
And his stories are intensely human.”
Davis Enterprise
“Poignant … beguiling … well-crafted … Ray Bradbury weaves tales
of wistful wonder …
With Driving Blind, Bradbury is in
the driver’s seat again, with one eye cocked
to the past and another to the future …
Quite simply, he is one of the country’s
best short story writers.”
Columbus Dispatch
Books by Ray Bradbury
DANDELION WINE
DARK CARNIVAL
DEATH IS A LONELY BUSINESS
FAHRENHEIT 451
THE GOLDEN APPL
ES OF THE SUN
A GRAVEYARD FOR LUNATICS
GREEN SHADOWS, WHITE WHALE
THE HALLOWEEN TREE
I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC!
THE ILLUSTRATED MAN
JOURNEY TO FAR METAPHOR
KALEIDOSCOPE
LONG AFTER MIDNIGHT
THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES
THE MACHINERIES OF JOY
A MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY
THE OCTOBER COUNTRY
ONE TIMELESS SPRING
QUICKER THAN THE EYE
R IS FOR ROCKET
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES
THE STORIES OF RAY BRADBURY
S IS FOR SPACE
THE TOYNBEE CONVECTOR
WHEN ELEPHANTS LAST IN THE DOORYARD BLOOMED
YESTERMORROW
ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1997 by Ray Bradbury
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 97-4378
ISBN: 0-380-78960-4
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EPub Edition © MAY 2013 ISBN: 9780062242242
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Registrada, Hecho en U.S.A.
HarperCollins® is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
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Copyright Notices
“Night Train to Babylon” copyright © 1997 by Ray Bradbury; first appeared in the September/October issue of Ellery Queen.
“Grand Theft” copyright © 1995 by Ray Bradbury; first appeared in the July 1995 issue of Ellery Queen.
“Fee Fie Foe Fum” copyright © 1993 by Ray Bradbury; first appeared in Monsters in Our Midst, edited by Robert Bloch, Tor Books.
“That Old Dog Lying in the Dust” copyright © 1974 by Ray Bradbury; first appeared in the October 1974 issue of Westways magazine, under the title “Mexicali Mirage.”
All other stories are original to this collection, copyright © 1997 by Ray Bradbury.
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