“There was a vast wrongness to them.”


This is another of Ray Bradbury’s short stories which has a Twilight Zone feel to it, and it is just a bit creepy. It opens with a terrible automobile accident in which Mr. Spalliner is injured. No sooner does the accident occur than the normal crowd gathers to see what’s going on. But Mr. Spalliner remembers hearing their footsteps before the upturned car’s wheels even stopped spinning…

Spalliner becomes obsessed with discovering how they reached the scene so quickly, and why in their faces he found a wrongness that he can’t explain to anyone. He begins to research accidents going back decades…

To reveal more would be a crime, but this is an example of real and intelligent creepiness, and great storytelling. In only a few scant pages, Bradbury creates a story, and a scenario, you’ll not soon forget. Awesome stuff from a literary legend, a guy who never went to college, but taught himself using a secret weapon — a library card...

Here's an audio version -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cOKWmOSs_g ( )