Project Gutenberg 2009-04-21 Public domain in the USA. 54 Long, Frank Belknap 1903 1994 The Calm Man Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "The Calm Man" by Frank Belknap Long is a science fiction short story written in the early 1950s. The narrative delves into themes of emotional detachment and alien identity, exploring the complexities of domestic life through the eyes of a woman named Sally. The story unfolds as she grapples with her unresponsive husband's true nature, ultimately leading to revelations about both her family and her own feelings of isolation. In this tale, Sally Anders bears the burden of her husband's emotional coldness, which becomes increasingly troubling as they raise their son, Tommy. Despite the joy of motherhood, Sally's life with her husband, Jim, feels hollow and lacking warmth. As the story progresses, a shocking truth is revealed: Jim is not human but an alien who has been using a stand-in to maintain his life on Earth while preparing to return to Mars. This revelation not only shatters Sally's world but also reveals the deeper impacts of her husband's calm demeanor. The climax builds towards the realization that Tommy, too, is drawn to his father's world, culminating in an emotional goodbye as the two entities leave Earth behind, illuminating the profound sorrow of a mother who is losing her child to another realm. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en Science fiction Short stories PS Text Science Fiction Browsing: Literature Browsing: Science-Fiction & Fantasy Browsing: Fiction 57318 57327 2024-09-12T09:45:01.381671 2023-09-12T12:49:45.974755 text/html text/html 53766 2009-04-21T09:28:18 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 21339 2009-04-21T09:28:18 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 66500 2024-09-12T09:45:04.430612 application/epub+zip 65554 2024-09-12T09:45:02.467641 application/epub+zip 65554 2024-09-12T09:45:01.769639 application/epub+zip 128731 2024-09-12T09:45:05.980619 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 121242 2024-09-12T09:45:03.997628 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 121415 2022-09-13T10:02:52.722419 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 50669 50569 2024-09-12T09:45:01.167625 2023-09-12T12:49:45.786764 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 50585 2009-04-21T09:28:18 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 20010 2009-04-21T09:28:18 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 18722 2024-09-12T09:45:06.198602 application/rdf+xml 11445 2024-09-12T09:45:02.105616 image/jpeg 3250 2024-09-12T09:45:01.935633 image/jpeg 66361 2024-09-12T09:45:01.388634 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia