By Chris Gibbons
Originally published in the June 13, 2012 Philadelphia Inquirer
“It fell to the floor, an exquisite thing, a small thing that could upset balances and knock down a line of small dominoes and then big dominoes and then gigantic dominoes, all down the years across Time. Eckels’ mind whirled. It couldn’t change things. Killing one butterfly couldn’t be that important! Could it?
Eckels moaned. He dropped to his knees. He scrabbled at the golden butterfly with shaking fingers. “Can’t we,” he pleaded to the world, to himself, to the officials, to the Machine, “can’t we take it back, can’t we make it alive again? Can’t we start over? Can’t we-“
He did not move. Eyes shut, he waited, shivering. He heard Travis breathe loud in the room; he heard Travis shift his rifle, click the safety catch, and raise the weapon.
There was a sound of thunder.”
(From “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury)
As I read the final words of the story, my mouth was agape in astonishment as a chill ran up my spine. The written word had never had so profound an impact upon me. Although I was just 11 years old at the time, I knew that what I’d just read would somehow stay with me forever. The story was “A Sound of Thunder”, and I still regard it as one of the greatest science fiction short-stories ever written. It tells the tale of time travelers hunting a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but an arrogant hunter carelessly steps on, and kills, a butterfly with dire consequences for humanity. I read the story’s chilling ending over and over – at least a hundred times. I stared at the cool sci-fi cover art on the little paperback book for hours, and its title and author were permanently carved into my mind: R is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury.
To most, it was just another one of my big brother Jerry’s numerous $1.50 sci-fi paperbacks from the rotating book-display rack at Woolworth’s department store. But, to me, it was pure gold. I eagerly tore into the book’s other short stories and they captivated my imagination: astronauts fight for their lives after crash landing in the swampy jungles of Venus, an ancient sea creature rises from the depths of the ocean, drawn to the sound of a lighthouse fog horn, and astronauts come to the realization that the paradise planet they discovered has hidden dangers they never anticipated. These were just a few of the brilliant stories written in Bradbury’s unique poetic prose – a wondrous mix of science fiction, fantasy, suspense, and horror.
After that day, I was hooked, and if Jerry couldn’t find his other Bradbury books in his bedroom bookcase, he knew where they’d be. I read Bradbury’s other short story collections found in “S is for Space”, “The Illustrated Man”, “The October Country”, and “The Golden Apples of the Sun” so many times that I cracked the spine of the books. Over the years, Jerry and I would often talk about our favorite Bradbury stories, and whenever he had a new book released we would make sure we let each other know about it.
Although I had always liked to write, and would often tell my family and friends that “one of these days I’m going to write about that”, I never took it seriously until I read Bradbury’s book on writing, “Zen in the Art of Writing.” In it he wrote, “What are the best things and the worst things in your life, and when are you going to get around to whispering or shouting them? You fail only if you stop writing.” I remember feeling that he was speaking directly to me. I started to write on a regular basis shortly after I read that.
When I heard the news that Ray Bradbury had died, I felt like I had lost an old friend. I knew who I had to contact first, and I thanked Jerry for introducing me to Ray.
In his seminal novel “Fahrenheit 451”, Ray Bradbury wrote, “It doesn’t matter what you do…so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that’s like you after you take your hands away.”
A Ray Bradbury paperback book is such a small, exquisite thing, and it can change things all down the years and across time. And the stories within that book can touch and change lives forever – including the life of a kid for whom those stories resonated like a sound of thunder.