"It's all right," she said. "Run and put your shoes on!"

It was seven thirty, the porch filling with people, when Douglas emerged, in his dark suit, with a blue tie, his hair wet with water, and his feet in the hot tight shoes.

"Why, Douglas!" the aunts and uncles and Grandma and Grandpa cried, "Aren't you staying for the fireworks?"

"No." And he looked at the fireworks laid out so beautifully crisp and smelling of powder, the pinwheels and sky bombs, and the Fire Balloons, three of them, folded like moths in their tissue wings, those balloons he loved most dearly of all, for they were like a summer night dream going up quietly, breathlessly on the still high air, away and away to far lands, glowing and breathing light as long as you could see them. Yes, the Fire Balloons, those especially would he miss, while seated in the Elite Theater tonight.

There was a whisper, the screen door stood wide, and there was Miss Welkes.

"Good evening, Mr. Spaulding," she said to Douglas.

"Good evening, Miss Welkes," he said.

She was dressed in a gray suit no one had seen ever before, neat and fresh, with her hair up under a summer straw hat, and standing there in the dim porch light she was like the carved G.o.ddess on the great marble library clock come to life.

"Shall we go, Mr. Spaulding?" and Douglas walked her down the steps.

"Have a good time!" said everyone.

"Douglas!" called Grandfather.

"Yes, sir?"

"Douglas," said Grandfather, after a pause, holding his cigar in his hand. "I'm saving one of the Fire Balloons. I'll be up when you come home. We'll light her together and send her up. How's that sound, eh?"

"Swell!" said Douglas.

"Good night, boy." Grandpa waved him quietly on.

"Good night, sir."

He took Miss Eleanora Welkes down the street, over the sidewalks of the summer evening, and they talked about Mr. Longfellow and Mr. Whittier and Mr. Poe all the way to the Elite Theater . . .

About the Author.

Tom Victor.

The author of more than thirty books, RAY BRADBURY is one of the most celebrated fiction writers of our time. Among his best-known works are Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, The Ill.u.s.trated Man, Dandelion Wine, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. He has written for the theater and the cinema, including the screenplay for John Huston's cla.s.sic film adaptation of Moby-d.i.c.k, and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted sixty-five of his stories for television's Ray Bradbury Theater and won an Emmy for his teleplay of The Halloween Tree. In 2000, Bradbury was honored by the National Book Foundation with a medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He is the recipient of the 2004 National Medal of Arts, which is presented to those who have made extraordinary contributions to the arts in the United States. Among his most recent works are the novels Let's All Kill Constance, From the Dust Returned-selected as one of the Best Books of the Year by the Los Angeles Times-and One More for the Road, a new story collection. Bradbury lives in Los Angeles, California.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

Also by Ray Bradbury.

Ahmed and the Oblivion Machines.

The Anthem Sprinters.

A Chapbook for Burnt-Out Priests, Rabbis, and Ministers Dandelion Wine Dark Carnival.

Death Is a Lonely Business Driving Blind Fahrenheit 451 From the Dust Returned.

The Golden Apples of the Sun A Graveyard for Lunatics Green Shadows, White Whale The Halloween Tree.

The Haunted Computer and the Android Pope I Sing the Body Electric!

The Ill.u.s.trated Man.

Let's All Kill Constance Long After Midnight The Machineries of Joy.

The Martian Chronicles A Medicine for Melancholy The October Country.

One More for the Road Quicker Than the Eye R Is for Rocket.

S Is for s.p.a.ce Something Wicked This Way Comes The Stories of Ray Bradbury.

Switch on the Night They Have Not Seen the Stars.

The Toynbee Convector When Elephants Last in the Dooryard Bloomed.

Where Robot Mice and Robot Men Run Round in Robot Towns Witness and Celebrate.

Yestermorrow Zen in the Art of Writing.

end.

Additional Copyright Information.

Copyright 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 by Ray Bradbury.

Copyright renewed 1970, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2001 by Ray Bradbury.

"The Whole Town's Sleeping"-McCalls, September 1950.

"The Rocket" ("Outcast of the Stars")-Super Science Stories, March 1950.

"Season of Disbelief"-Colliers, November 25, 1950.

"And the Rock Cried Out" ("The Millionth Murder")-Manhunt, September 1953.

"The Drummer Boy of Shiloh"-Sat.u.r.day Evening Post, April 30, 1960.

"The Beggar on O'Connell Bridge" ("The Beggar on the Dublin Bridge")-Sat.u.r.day Evening Post, June 14, 1961.

"The Flying Machine"-Golden Apples of the Sun, 1953.

"Heavy-Set"-Playboy, October 1964.

"The First Night of Lent"-Playboy, March 1956.

"Lafayette, Farewell"-The Toynbee Convector, 1988.

"Remember Sascha?"-Quicker Than The Eye, 1996.

"Junior"-The Toynbee Convector, 1988.

"That Woman on the Lawn"-Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, August 1996.

"February 1999: Ylla" ("I'll Not Ask For Wine")-MacLeans, January 1, 1950.

"Banshee"-Gallery, September 1984.

"One for his Lordship, and one for the Road!"-Playboy, January 1985.

"The Laurel and Hardy Love Affair"-Playboy, December 1987.

"Unterderseaboat Doktor"-Playboy, January 1994.

"Another Fine Mess"-Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1995.

"The Dwarf"-Fantastic, JanuaryFebruary 1954.

"A Wild Night in Galway"-Harper's, August 1959.

"The Wind"-Weird Tales, March 1943.

"No News, or What Killed the Dog?"-American Way, October 1, 1994.

"A Little Journey"-Galaxy, August 1951.

"Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby's Is a Friend of Mine" ("The Best of Times")-McCall's, January 1966.

"The Garbage Collector"-The Golden Apples of the Sun, 1953.

"The Visitor"-Startling Stories, November 1948.

"The Man"-Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1949.

"Henry The Ninth" ("A Final Sceptre, A Lasting Crown")-Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Oct. 1969 "The Messiah"-Welcome Aboard, Spring 1971.

"Bang! You're Dead"-Weird Tales, September 1944.

"Darling Adolf"-Long After Midnight, 1976.

"The Beautiful Shave"-Gallery, March 1979.

"Colonel Stonesteels Genuine Home-made Truly Egyptian Mummy"-Omni, May 1981.

"I See You Never"-The New Yorker, November 8, 1947.

"The Exiles" ("The Mad Wizards Of Mars")-MacLean's, September 15, 1949.

"At Midnight, in the Month of June"-Ellery Queen's Mystery MagazineJune 1954.

"The Witch Door"-Playboy, December 1995.

"The Watchers"-Weird Tales, May 1945.

"200405: The Naming of Names"-The Martian Chronicles, 1950.

"Hopscotch"-Quicker than the Eye, 1996.

"The Ill.u.s.trated Man"-Esquire, July 1950.

"The Dead Man"-Weird Tales, July 1945.

"June 2001: And the Moon Be Still as Bright" ("And the Moon Be Still as Bright")-Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1948.

"The Burning Man" ("El Hombre Que Ardea")-Gente (Argentina), July 31, 1975.

"G.B.S.-Mark V"-Long After Midnight, 1976.

"A Blade of Gra.s.s"-Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1949.

"The Sound of Summer Running" ("Summer in the Air")-Sat.u.r.day Evening Post, February 18, 1956.

"And the Sailor, Home from the Sea" ("Forever Voyage")-Sat.u.r.day Evening Post, January 9, 1960.

"The Lonely Ones"-Startling Stories, July 1949.