Love and Hydrogen by Jim Shepard Read Free Book Online

caught in front of a shovel like this?
The terror caused by the flying saucers
was endless. It seemed as if the Martians always had a new form of
horror to inflict upon the people of Earth.
During one of my brother’s recent calls I made a mark on a scratch pad for every word I contributed to the conversation. The call went fifty-five minutes and I put eleven marks on the pad. When I’m sitting down listening to him, my knee bounces like I’m keeping rhythm in a zydeco band. Among the things I volunteer occasionally when he calls: You need to see somebody professional. You need to find out how much of this is biochemical. You’re not getting anywhere wandering all over the country. Among the things I never volunteer: Whenever you need or want to, call.
    #21: Prize Captive
    A horror-stricken blonde in the wraparound embrace of a Martian who’s all smiles and eyes at his good fortune. She’s wearing a cravat. The first bit of good news in twenty-one cards:
The girl kicked
and screamed at the touch of the alien. The Martian was so startled
by the woman’s antics that he released her. Taking the opportunity,
the girl fled. See Card #22: Burning Cattle.
    #22: Burning Cattle
    #23: The Frost Ray
    A red sun in a red sky, and six men frozen in supplicating poses.
The rays of the sun had no thawing effect at all.
In my brother’s mind, I have a successful life: a home, a job, some status. Talking with me is a humiliation. The card conjures up a memory: my mother on the phone to my aunt, elaborating on my performance in the diocesan spelling bee. My cards spread in front of me on the living room rug in rows of five, with gaps for the ones still missing. My brother staring at the television set, rigid with shame.
    #24: The Shrinking Ray
    One GI charges while another, the size of his foot, shrinks. His helmet, flying off, threatens to cover him, as in a shell game. Another handheld Martian ray, this one looking like an insecticide spray.
His
buddy watched horrified as the six-foot-tall man was reduced to
inches, before vanishing from sight.
So was his buddy watching or charging? Do we believe our eyes or the narration? What else are we not being told?
    #25: Capturing a Martian
    The second bit of good news. A netted Martian in the foreground, his hand in a soldier’s face, drawing blood. A few other soldiers stand around helpfully with their ends of the net.
A quick jab with
the bayonet quieted the alien and he was carried off to Earth’s military headquarters. There, trained specialists would attempt to break
the language barrier and communicate with the captured Martian.
    #26: The Tidal Wave
    A disappointment: I’d heard about the card, loved the idea. The wave was a nonmonumental swirl of blue and white, tumbling toy-like ocean liners around indifferently rendered skyscrapers. Saucers in the foreground. Crumbling buildings.
The saucers’ powers
seemed unlimited.
    #27: The Giant Flies
    A beetle-shaped blue thing resembling no fly we’ve ever seen, clutching and contemplating a helpless policeman waving a tiny gun. Two large compound eyes and curved mandibles, like tusks. Eleven other flies tumble from an overhead saucer. Humans run panicked in all directions. The sky is a lemon yellow.
The normally
annoying pests were now transformed into deadly menaces, attacking any slow-footed human around.
I fought, with Gary Holter, over this card. He broke his tooth. I cut my hand. My father said, “I wouldn’t be throwing those friends away. There aren’t that many to go around, sport.”
    #29: Death in the Shelter
    The victim Italian-looking, a cross between my uncle Guido and Richard Conte, with Latin features and curly black hair. Families cowering behind him. Beside him, inexplicably, a dead ringer for Lon Chaney in
The Phantom of the Opera,
a movie I’d already seen at that age. An
homage?
Even I wondered.
    #30: Trapped!!
    The huge spiders were perhaps the ugliest and most