The story here is that there is a terrible fire in town. The only survivor is a small boy named Paal (which I think may be a two-syllable word... possibly German in origin.) The boy won't speak to anybody, and it is determined that he can actually speak... but won't. He ends up in the temporary care of the Sherriff and his wife.
Although there are next of kin that can be contacted about Paal, the Sherriff's wife falls in love with the boy so much that she ends up sabotaging these efforts, so the boy ends up her charge. It is then revealed purely through narrative that the boy is actually intensely psychic. The fact that he is psychic has much to do with why he refuses to talk. Therein lies the mystery.
At this point, I don't think I should spoil anymore. This is one of his longer stories, so there is a lot of content to pour through, and I think I'd rather just leave it to the reader. And I really do recommend "Mute" to you as well. It was not what I thought it was going to be.
All the characters are very well presented. Paal's perspective is especially well done, and it somehow does it without spoiling his own origins. It's really quite a great piece of literature. If you can find this one, you should definitely give it a go. It's about a forty-minute read.
Update: I saw the Twilight Zone episode which had the same name. It was excellent and followed the story closer than I thought they would. The only major change was that they made the boy into a girl. Honestly, I think a girl makes more sense. The only problem here is that if you watch this version, it makes the book version obsolete because of how it reveals things extremely early. Still, I think the Twilight Zone version is the superior one. I don't normally say things like this, so please take it seriously.
This blog was written on April 30, 2023.
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Scary. It seems the boy (or girl) is what caused the fire, in which case the child is dangerous. He turned the sheriff's wife into his thrall, it seems. Yeah, children with power are more dangerous than adults with power, because children are entirely whimsical.
ReplyDeleteNo spoilers, but I know you've already seen the episode!
DeleteOh I remember this episode of "The Twilight Zone", yea I agree it's fitting that the child is a girl. I didn't know it was based on the work of Matheson, that's cool. It's always creepy to think about a kid with psychic powers unless it's an "Earthbound" character of course.
ReplyDeleteHa! I'm so glad there are other people out there that know what Earthbound is.
DeleteWhen a person refuses to speak, it makes you wonder why. Did they suffer a trauma which prompted this behavior? People pine for the truth they are not prepared to know.
ReplyDeleteYou should see it.
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