Short Story #113: Come into My Cellar by Ray Bradbury

Title:  Come into My Cellar

Author:  Ray Bradbury

Summary

Hugh awakes on a nice sunny day in an optimistic mood.  He greets his neighbor who is generally a friend and intelligent older woman who is complaining about bugs and flying saucers.  He goes downstairs to his family and learns that his son has received an order for growing mushrooms and is off to the basement.  Later on, Hugh goes into town and runs into Roger who says he thinks something is going wrong with the world but he can't seem to put his finger on it.  He returns home and finds that his son's mushrooms are growing wild already.  Shortly after this, he receives a telegram from Roger telling him something weird is going on and he's trying to get to the bottom of it.  Hugh calls the police to help and get Roger but by the time get him, Roger has no memory of what he did.  Hugh knows something is wrong but he can't put his finger on it until he learns that other children have been ordering the mushrooms and that his neighbor had spent much of the day removing mushrooms from her yard.  Finally, he understands what's going on and realizes it's some kind of alien invasion.  He goes to the basement door and calls to his son.  In the final sentence, he goes down into the basement with the wild mushrooms.  

Reflection

Standard fare for Bradbury and another Invasion of the Body Snatchers trope--though  I guess it would be Invasion of the Fungi People?  It's a fun read but nothing special.

Short Story #113 out of 365
Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)
Date Read:  4/15/2014
Source:  S Is For Space by Ray Bradbury.  Bantam Books, 1970.

For a full listing of all the short stories in this series, check out the category 365 Short Stories a year.

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