This Ray Bradbury story opens with a question: What would you do if you knew this was the last night of the world? A couple believe the world will end sometime during the coming night. The idea came in a dream. They and everyone they know shared the same dream. The couple decide the best thing to do is accept the fact and go through their evening routine as usual. They even manage to share a joke and go to bed laughing. What would you do? Themes: family, powerlessness, acceptance of the “inevitable”, comfort in routine, selfishness vs. global concern.
The story was originally published in Esquire Magazine in February, 1951. Later in the same year, it was included in Ray Bradbury’s famous book The Illustrated Man. The Esquire version was very short. For his book, Bradbury added some extra dialogue between the couple toward the end of the story, almost doubling its length. We have used the Illustrated Man version.
Original Text / PDF (1,250 words)
Video Version
This 2016 short film adaption directed by Ryan Connolly is quite true to the original and nicely captures the matter-of-fact tone and ominous, foreboding mood of the story. Watch and enjoy!