All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury

No one in the class could remember a time when there wasn't rain.

“Ready?" years old, and if there had been a day, seven years "Ready." ago, when the sun came out for an hour and "Now?" showed its face to the stunned world, they could "Soon." not recall. Sometimes, at night, she heard them "Do the scientists really know? Will it stir, in remembrance, and she knew they were happen today, will it?" dreaming and remembering and old or a yellow "Look, look; see for yourself!" crayon or a coin large enough to buy the world The children pressed to each other like so with. She knew they thought they remembered a many roses, so many weeds, intermixed, peering warmness, like a blushing in the face, in the body, out for a look at the hidden sun. in the arms and legs and trembling hands. But It rained. then they always awoke to the tatting drum, the It had been raining for seven years; endless shaking down of clear bead necklaces thousand upon thousands of days compounded upon the roof, the walk, the gardens, the forests, and filled from one end to the other with rain, and their dreams were gone. with the drum and gush of water, with the sweet All day yesterday they had read in class crystal fall of showers and the concussion of about the sun. About how like a lemon it was, storms so heavy they were tidal waves come over and how hot. And they had written small stories the islands. A thousand forests had been crushed or essays or poems about it: under the rain and grown up a thousand times to I think the sun is a flower, be crushed again. And this was the way life was That blooms for just one hour. forever on the planet Venus, and this was the That was Margot's poem, read in a quiet schoolroom of the children of the rocket men and voice in the still classroom while the rain was women who had come to a raining world to set up falling outside. civilization and live out their lives. "Aw, you didn't write that!" protested one "It's stopping, it's stopping!" of the boys. "Yes, yes!" "I did," said Margot. "I did." Margot stood apart from these children "William!" said the teacher. who could never remember a time when there wasn't rain and rain and rain. They were all nine But that was yesterday. Now the rain was four in Ohio. And they, they had been on Venus slackening, and the children were crushed in the all their lives, and they had been only two years great thick windows. old when last the sun came out and had long since "Where's teacher?" forgotten the color and heat of it and the way it "She'll be back." really was. But Margot remembered. "She'd better hurry, we'll miss it!" "It's like a penny," she said once, eyes They turned on themselves, like a feverish closed. wheel, all tumbling spokes. "No it's not!" the children cried. Margot stood alone. She was a very frail "It's like a fire," she said, "in the stove." girl who looked as if she had been lost in the rain "You're lying, you don't remember!" cried for years and the rain had washed out the blue the children. from her eyes and the red from her mouth and the But she remembered and stood quietly yellow from her hair. She was an old photograph apart from all of them and watched the patterning dusted from an album, whitened away, and if she windows. And once, a month ago, she had spoke at all her voice would be a ghost. Now she refused to shower in the school shower rooms, stood, separate, staring at the rain and the loud had clutched her hands to her ears and over her wet world beyond the huge glass. head, screaming the water mustn't touch her head. "What're you looking at?" said William. So after that, dimly, dimly, she sensed it, she was Margot said nothing. different and they knew her difference and kept ":Speak when you're spoken to." He gave away. her a shove. But she did not move; rather she let There was talk that her father and mother herself by moved only by him and nothing else. were taking her back to earth next year; it seemed They edged away from her, they would vital to her that they do so, though it would mean not look at her. She felt them go away. And this the loss of thousands of dollars to her family. was because she would play no games with them And so, the children hated her for all these in the echoing tunnels of the underground city. If reasons of big and little consequence. They hated they tagged her and ran, she stood blinking after her pale snow face, her waiting silence, her them and did not follow. When the class sang thinness, and her possible future. songs about happiness and life and games her lips "Get away!" The boy gave her another barely moved. Only when they sang about the push. "What're you waiting for?" sun and the summer did her lips move as she Then, for the first time, she turned and watched the drenched windows. looked at him. And what she was waiting for was And then, of course, the biggest crime of in her eyes. all was that she had come here only five years ago "Well, don't wait around here!" cried the from Earth, and she remembered the sun and the boy savagely. "You won't see nothing!" way the sun was and the sky was when she was Her lips moved. "Nothing!" he cried. "It was all a joke, ripped the film from the projector and inserted in wasn't it?" He turned to the other children. its place a peaceful tropical slide which did not "Nothing's happening today. Is it?" move or tremor. The world ground to a standstill. They all blinked at him and then, The silence was so immense and unbelievable that understanding, laughed and shook their heads. you felt your ears had been stuffed or you had lost "Nothing, nothing!" your hearing altogether. The children put their "Oh, but," Margot whispered, her eyes hands to their ears. They stood apart. The door helpless. "But this is the day, the scientists slid back and the smell of the silent, waiting world predict, they say, they know, the sun. . . ." came in to them. "All a joke!" said the boy, and seized her The sun came out. roughly. "Hey, everyone, let's put her in a closet It was the color of flaming bronze and it before teacher comes!" was very large. And the sky around it was a "No," said Margot, falling back. blazing blue tile color. And the jungle burned They surged about her, caught her up and with sunlight as the children, released from their bore her, protesting, and then pleading, and then spell, rushed out, yelling, into the springtime. crying, back into a tunnel, a room, a closet, where "Now don't go too far," called the teacher they slammed and locked the door. They stood after them. "You've only two hours, you know. looking at the door and saw it tremble from her You wouldn't want to get caught out!" beating and throwing herself against it. They But they were running and turning their heard her muffled cries. Then, smiling, they faces up to the sky and feeling the sun on their turned and went out and back down the tunnel, cheeks like a warm iron; they were taking off their just as the teacher arrived. jackets and letting the sun burn their arms. "Ready, children?" she glanced at her "Oh, it's better than the sun lamps, isn't watch. it?" "Yes!" said everyone. "Much, much better!" "Are we all here?" They stopped running and stood in the "Yes!" great jungle that covered Venus, that grew and The rain slackened still more. never stopped growing, tumultuously, even as you They crowded to the huge door. watched it. It was a nest of octopi, clustering up The rain stopped. great arms of flesh-like weed, wavering, It was as if, in the midst of a film, flowering this brief spring. It was the color of concerning an avalanche, a tornado, a hurricane, a rubber and ash, this jungle, from the many years volcanic eruption, something had, first, gone without sun. It was the color of stones and white wrong with the sound apparatus, thus muffling cheeses and ink, and it was the color of the moon. and finally cutting off all noise, all of the blasts The children lay out, laughing, on the and repercussions and thunders, and then, second, jungle mattress, and heard it sigh and squeak under them, resilient and alive. They ran among away, five miles away, a mile, a half mile. The the trees, they slipped and fell, they pushed each sky darkened into midnight in a flash. other, they played hide-and-seek and tag, but They stood in the doorway of the most of all they squinted at the sun until the tears underground for a moment until it was raining ran down their faces, they put their hands up to hard. Then they closed the door and heard the that yellowness and that amazing blueness and gigantic sound of the rain falling in tons and they breathed of the fresh, fresh air and listened avalanches, everywhere and forever. and listened to the silence which suspended them "Will it be seven more years?" in a blessed sea of no sound and no motion. They "Yes. Seven." looked at everything and savored everything. Then one of them gave a little cry. Then, wildly, like animals escaped from their "Margot!" caves, they ran and ran in shouting circles. They "What?" ran for an hour and did not stop running. "She's still in the closet where we locked And then— her." In the midst of their running one of the "Margot." girls wailed. They stood as if someone had driven them, Everyone stopped. like so many stakes, into the floor. They looked The girl, standing in the open, held out her at each other and then looked away. They hand. glanced out at the world that was raining now and "Oh, look, look," she said, trembling. raining and raining steadily. They could not meet They came slowly to look at her opened each other's glances. Their faces were solemn and palm. pale. They looked at their hands and feet, their In the center of it, cupped and huge, was a faces down. single raindrop. "Margot. She began to cry, looking at it. One of the girls said, "Well . . .?" They glanced quietly at the sky. No one moved. "Oh. Oh." "Go on," whispered the girl. A few cold drops fell on their noses and They walked slowly down the hall in the their cheeks and their mouths. The sun faded sound of the cold rain. They turned through the behind a stir of mist. A wind blew cool around doorway to the room in the sound of the storm them. They turned and started to walk back and thunder, lightening on their faces, blue and toward the underground house, their hands at their terrible. They walked over to the closest door sides, their smiles vanishing away. slowly and stood by it. A boom of thunder startled them and like Behind the closed door was only silence. leaves before a new hurricane, they tumbled upon They unlocked the door, even more each other and ran. Lightening struck ten miles slowly, and let Margot out.