Lights out for the devil and Mr. O. It is later than you think. Turn out your lights, now. We bring you stories of the supernatural and the supernormal, dramatizing the fantasies and the mysteries of the unknown. We tell you this frankly so that if you wish to avoid the excitement and tension of these imaginative plays, we urge you calmly but sincerely to turn off your radio now. This is Mr. O. Archover. Who among us, you, I, has not said at some time or other if I wouldn't die if I could live forever? Well, that's the play I've written for you, Live Forever, and it begins after a mortal message from your station. I started playing music in 26, it was a settlement house. I was very young and very small and they gave me an E-flat clarinet. America's King of Swing, Benny Goodman, for music in our schools. But I do think to have a knowledge of music does something very important for them even if they don't use it as a profession. Gives them a greater outlook on associated arts, whether it's painting, whether it's sculpture, nature, anything. And to have the pleasure of listening to music all through your life, the nicest thing that can happen to somebody, that they take advantage of. Help all our children to take advantage of music. Support music in your schools. A message from the Music Educators National Conference. And now, if you haven't already done so, turn off your lights and listen to Live Forever. Now don't be frightened, Joan. Please don't be. Yes, I know I screamed, but don't be afraid for me. I'm all right, really. But Earl! No, no, don't say anything. Just listen. The reason that I screamed, it made me happy. Earl, what are you? Oh, I know it sounds confused, but I can tell you freely now for the first time since I've known you. Tell me what? About what happened. Tell you about myself and then you'll understand and then we'll both be happy. Remember you once said you never could be happy with me. Oh, please. Please don't say anything. If you do, I'll want to hold you in my arms. And I've got to talk this thing out first. Talk it out from the time before I knew you until a few moments ago when I screamed and frightened you. You know, you were right. I've been a coward. But not of men or things or living. Just of not living. You don't know what I mean, do you? Must I say it? Must I say the word? All right, I will. I've been afraid of death. Yes, believe me, Joan, all my life it was that way, even as a boy. I couldn't be happy because of him. So one thought was in me all through life. If I could only live forever, if I wouldn't die, if I could only live forever. The thought chasing itself in a never-ending circle. So there was no happiness. And the fear in me was in my face and in my work and you knew it and everyone knew it, but they didn't know why. No! Tonight, the echo that is still in my ears, I cried out in fear in front of everyone. And I'm going to tell you why I cried out and then you'll understand me and why I say I'm free and happy for the first time in my life. And Joan, if it's too strange to believe, just listen patiently. We were sitting in the auditorium, you and I, the politician up on the stage talking, talking. In this coming election, I repeat again, the issue will be clear. An issue made clear by our glorious party. You young men and women. Sitting there, you next to me, I wasn't listening to him on the stage. I was thinking the same infernal thoughts I thought all my life whenever I was alone. Of him. And then. Yes, to you. To every one of you here. A challenge that we must accept. Face and challenge in turn. The speaker's voice wasn't the same. I looked up. No? Not the same. The other one, an old man, this one young. Couldn't quite see his face, so dark in the hall. That something happened to the lights? I turned to her. You said. Joan, when did the lights? I stopped. You weren't there. Believe me, not there. Another woman. Did you speak to me? She said that. I said, where, where's Joan? Joan? Well, she was sitting right next to me. You have her chair. Where did she, I mean the young lady who was sitting here, where did she go? I've been here for hours. But she was here. Here, I tell you. Quiet, quiet, the speaker. The time has passed for pleadings. The time has passed for petitions. We are representative of youth, and youth is the time for action. So we must act. The speaker, what did he matter? I sat there. Couldn't figure it out. You, Joan, where'd you gone? Could I have dozed off and you slipped out and this other woman taking your place? Yet, how strange you're leaving without a word. And then, wind. Wind in the auditorium. I looked up. The sky. No roof. A single star and clouds. No roof. Sleep? No. Awake. I got up to go. No, no. Sit down. No one can leave. But my friend. You are sworn to stay. You must. I sat down. Sworn to stay? What in the world? I sat down. You know there can be no compromise. There will be no compromise. For if we compromise, we are doomed as they have always doomed us. Speaker, what did he matter? No roof on the place. Crazy. How could a roof disappear in a moment without... I said to the girl, where's the roof? What's happened to this place? Where are we? You know. No? No. What? Well, I'd get out of the place. I'd find you, Joan. Started to go again with the girl's hand tight on my wrist. No, don't. You swore to stay. Swore? You swore. They swore. He speaks the truth. But what? Listen. Listen. Good then now, good friends. Let us put an end to words. This meeting of ours was destined. For 500 years destined. What was he saying? For 500 years destined? For what? None of us can say we have moved quickly. For in the meditation of these 500 years has come the essence of truth. A truth that burns bright in the hearts of all of us. What kind of a political speech was that? And so an end to words. In this meeting we have spoken words which none dare question. Now the time has come for action which none dare deny us. The girl leaned close and whispered. None dare deny us. Deny us? Deny what? Wanted to yell out just the way I did a few moments ago, but I couldn't. Something about the place, the speaker, people around me. I could only sit there, questions pounding in my head. Youth is action. Action is youth. We will act together and make ourselves a new world. A better world. Our world. Right. Meeting over. Everyone getting up. The girl said, come with me. Where? You know. I know. Crowd pressing around me. Dark, strange faces. Young, angry faces. None of my friends. My friends? Where were they? Joan, where were you? The auditorium in ruins. As she led me out I saw that. It was madness. Yet a strangely intriguing madness so I walked with her. Led me through a door. I could hear voices. She said, Stand here a moment. I want to talk to you. Tell me, why do you act so strangely? Don't you want to go through with it? Through with what? There. That's what I mean. You talk as if you don't know. I couldn't speak. I stood there. It's a glorious morning for all of us. We've waited 500 years, some of us, for this. 500 years? What was she? I said 500 years. Well, perhaps not you, but I've waited 350 myself. What? What did you say? 350 years and now I can't wait another moment. The thought of another empty day suffocates me. Am I insane or you? Insane? I don't know the word. Out of your head. You or I? You are a strange one. And yet you came here. Why? To hear a speech. So, to hear but not to act. You will. You will. All of us will. And then the moonlight from under a cloud and then her face. I saw her face clearly for the first time. Hers was a loveliness beyond the word. 16, 17. She couldn't have been more. Freshness of the morning. And yet her eyes, old, bright, wise. So strange, her old eyes and that young face. I stood there staring at her. I tell you this, if one of us fails, we all fail. And that can't happen. Remember that. Now come. They're waiting. Followed her. A room quite dark. Many people in it. Quiet please. Quiet. There is little time to waste. We will now draw lots. Each of you take a paper as the box is passed. Most of the slips are blank. Only 24 are numbered. Whoever draws a numbered slip stays. The others go. Slips? Draw lots? What was this? Draw lots for what? Someone came close, held out a box. The girl said, take a paper. I did? She did? The others did. She said, look at the slip. I did. A number. 11. She said, good. I too. Held out the paper in her hand. I saw the number 12 on it. You and I. You and I. She and I what? All those without numbers leave. All those without numbers leave. The push of bodies around me. And in a moment, there were only a few left. The girl at my side motionless. Now we can risk lights. And in a moment, lights began to glow. I stood there blinking and then I saw 24 people in that room, men and women. 24. I counted them and all of them looked alike. Yes, alike, I tell you. Men and women. And their faces as the girls. 24 faces alike as copies of pictures strung along the wall. They in turn were staring at me. Who is he? A voice said. Who is he? Another said. I've never seen him before. Who is he? They came close around me. Not one of us. Who is he? Who is he? Not one of us. Who is he? All those faces alike staring, talking, staring, talking. The girl spoke. I knew it was she because her hand was on my arm. Leave him alone. He is an Azabar. Azabar. Oh, an Azabar. Azabar. What was an Azabar? I wanted to speak but she spoke. He'll be all right. I'll see to that. But an Azabar is unpredictable. I tell you he'll be with me. He drew 11. I drew 12. He'll be with me. But they're undependable. You know that. Never can tell about an Azabar. But I'll take care of him. I'll take care of him. They stood there arguing about me, Jill. Yes, arguing about me. Whether I could, whether I would, whether I was reliable, unreliable. And always that word Azabar. Azabar. Azabar. Mad dreams or mad adventure. Whatever it was I didn't know. Their argument stopped. Apparently the girl had won. The leader said, All right, Azabar. You'll be with her. Now all of you listen. This Azabar is with us. And with us he'll stay until it's ended. Ended? Ended? What had begun and what would end? One question, Azabar. What is your age? My age. You want to know my age? Or didn't you hear Azabar? What is your age? The girl said, Tell him. My, my age is 25. What did you say? 25. Do not joke. Tell us your age. I told you. 25. For a moment no one spoke. They looked at each other, shook their heads slowly, shoulders shrugged. Azabar. Just Azabar. The girl said, Don't worry any of you. I'll take care of him. He'll do as he's told. Do as he's told? Do what? Told her to do what? I want her to open my mouth. Then I didn't because the leader said, All right. Our last word. There are 24 of you. 12 pairs. Each pair will go out together. If one fails, the other will succeed. But when? Now at once. We have waited long enough for them. I alone have waited 400 years. I 200. 300. I 400. 125. 125. 300. I understood. Like a blow on the head I understood. These people mad. That was it. Talking of living hundreds of years. Out of their heads all of them. Listening to them I knew that. 340 years. I waited 170 years. And that explained the likeness of their faces. Some sort of weird interbreeding of a family resulting in feeble mindedness. How did I come among them? When outside, the girl with me, everyone going off in pairs. Their faces tense, angry. Going off to some strange madness. The girl said, Wait here. I'll get what we need then we'll keep our appointment. Wait here. Joan, believe me, as she went off into the darkness leaving me there alone I swear my head was spinning as if it were on a pivot. And as it spun the thoughts in my head spun with it. Madness. Dream. Madness. Dream. Madness. Dream. Madness. Dream. Madness. Dream. Madness. Dream. Madness. What was happening to me? And then I thought, had what I feared all my life happened at last? Had I died? We leave our The Devil and Mr. O's story of Live Forever for a short message. You'll probably hear a lot of charity commercials this year asking you for money. They'll all be for worthy causes. But unless a disease touches you personally or unless you realize how serious it is you tend to think of it as just another charity. Now there's one disease that everyone's heard of but very few people realize how serious it is. The fact is this disease afflicts 8 million Americans. The fact is it kills more people each year than automobile accidents. The fact is it's the fourth major health problem in the United States. So that's not just another charity. The sad thing is we have some of the answers for this disease. We just don't have the money to use them. Do we have to wait until someone close to you gets kidney disease before you begin to take it seriously? Kidney disease is not just another charity. It's the fourth major cause of death in this country. Mrs. Charlton has been asking you to support the National Kidney Foundation, Box 353, New York, New York. Now back to our The Devil and Mr. O story of Live Forever. Dead, dead, dead, dead. Joan, I remember the wind suddenly was colder by me. Dead. But I was colder. Dead? Was I? And then someone was standing by me, not the girl but a man. Smooth, young, handsome face with those old, wise eyes looking at me. He said, you have not started yet, Antivav. No, no. Strange I've never seen you before. There are so few Antivav. You know, generally they are not permitted to develop. And looking at him I knew I was alive. Of course. And dream? This was no dream. Yes, there are so few Antivav. I said, Antivav? Antivavs, what the devil are Antivavs? You are a strange one. Well tell me, what are Antivavs? Why call me an Antivav? Well because you are. You are not like us, you know. You are a throwback to the individualistic, unconditioned embryonic development. What? But then of course you don't understand, do you? No, an Antivav wouldn't. Well tell me. It is strange that they should have permitted you to develop and not to have explained to you the difference. What difference? What? Once in every two thousand births, and that means once in every two thousand years, we don't have many new ones in this world, you know. Something happens in the incubation process and instead of one of us perfected ones, one of you develops. A throwback to ancient times. An imperfect creature out of the past. In other words, an atavism. Understand? An atavism. Atavism? Atavar? Atavism? What the devil's name was this? But he kept talking, he said... Yet Atavar though you are, life must be miserable for you as it is for the rest of us. Life? Miserable? Well of course, why else would you have joined with us? Oh this is going to be a glorious night for us, but not for them. I, I don't understand exactly what... Of course not. Things would be confused for the Atavar mind, wouldn't they? That's the infernal trouble with our minds. Things are much too clear and concise and understandable. And they bred all the confusion out of us a long time ago. Well now they'll pay for it. Please, tell me... Just look at me. I've lived just a handful of years, two hundred and fifty. He said that, Joan. Just believe me, two hundred and fifty years. And yet believe me Atavar, I'm weary unto the death we'll never know. Death we'll never know. What good is there in it for any of us living forever? For the first fifty years of our lives they condition us all right. We come out with our brains filled with all knowledge of all time. Paragons all, geniuses all. But what good does it do us? What good? Always they are in the way. They? Look Atavar, you can't be so completely a fool that they would never have let you out. They are the old ones. And what is interesting and exciting in the world, they do. They and no one else. And we who came after them, after they conditioned the world against sickness, illness, age and death, we have nothing left to do. I see. They hold the key positions. They and we stand by and grind the weary years away in nothingness. A world of youth full of the want to do and there's nothing to do. And yet there are worlds out there where we might go. But again they stand in our way and say no, it shouldn't be done. They, they the old ones all around us holding us down, giving us everlasting life and then giving us nothing to live for. But this night will change it. You and I and the rest of us twenty-four. Well, here comes your partner and I must go with mine. Goodbye Atavar. Good luck. He was gone. And then the girl at my side under her arm a small black box. All right, we can go now. She took my arm. We walked along. In almost a moment we were in a straight broad street. Straight, shiny, glistening, bright with a light I've never seen. A quiet empty street. Clean and bright and strange as if in a dream. A dream? This was no dream. And then she said, in here. We stepped upon a platform part of the sidewalk that was moving carrying us swiftly. Swiftly down the street. An escalator moving sidewalk. I don't know what. Faster, faster. Things rushing by. Strange towering buildings. And then I heard that she was talking to me. I saw you talking to Auro. He has the easy one. We've a hard one. Two hundred and fifty years, he said. Auro? Yes, that's true. Lived two hundred and fifty years? It isn't much, I know. You must be older. Oh, are you? Hard to tell with an Atavar. How old are you? I? Four hundred. Four hundred years. But not of living. What do you mean? You know. They with all their years. Before we were born they took the work of the world and what is left for us? To wander up and down. Pretty ornaments with empty lives. But they forgot one thing. They left ambition in us. And this night we'll find a place to use it. How? Atavar, you are a fool. You know and yet you don't know. How can we find a place for ourselves as long as they do as they please? Listen. In the very ancient world men lived a few years and then died. And they thought that was horrible, but that was good. For when they died there was a place for youth. Yes. One would fall in his place and a young one took his place. Sometimes he did better than the one who had gone before so the world progressed. But now no one falls. No one dies. And so the old ones stay and stay and stay and we the young ones have no place. And when we want to make a place the old ones say no. The thing we were riding climbed higher. Higher. And still she talked. We ceded invitation and they do not listen. So tonight we act. You and I Atavar, one of twenty-four. Act? By turning back the time to when men died and gave the younger ones their place. What? The wrong of each man died with him when he died in that old world. And so tonight we'll see that wrongs are given their related rest. How? You and I Atavar, we'll do our part. Up there. She was pointing up. I looked up to where the building ended. In a cloud. She sits up there. Five thousand years she's lived every day since the day science shut our deaths. Five thousand years but tonight we begin to live. Here. Into my hand she thrust the black container. I said, what? You'll do it. You. In a moment we reach the spire. She'll come out all smiles and happiness. They can be happy the old ones will have the work. Do it then. You must. What? Throw it at her and she'll be free of life and will be free of life without living. You'll do it Atavar. You will. Throw it at her. Throw it? What? The thing in my hands? What does she mean? To free that person up there from life? In my hands. And suddenly I realized. Some kind of explosive. She expected me to throw it at that person up in the tower. Me to kill. You will. You will. No. No. The word tore through my head and with it tore away confusion. I knew. I understood. This was the world of the future where science had doomed the death I feared. Men lived forever and these young ones had no chance. And now they were out to kill and make their chance and I was to kill for them. With them. You will. You will. You will. No. You will. You will. Not my world. Not mine. You will. I'll go back. You will. I'm saying that. I will. You will. There she is. The matriarch. Throw it. Throw it. I won't kill. Not I. And I won't. Give it to me. Give me that. Give me that. No. I jumped. Falling. I was falling through the horrible space of that horrible future. Down and down and down. The glistening sides of the building rushing past me. Down. Twisting. Flowing at the air. Down and down. And then I remembered in my arms that explosive. I tried to throw it but my hands tight around it. I couldn't unlock them. The ground coming up. I screamed. And there I was. Sitting next to you. In the hall where I'd been before. The politician up on the stage. My friends around me. You next to me frightened at my cry. He he. Tacked above me. So here it ends, Joan. Sitting there I stepped ahead in time until a day when men had conquered death. And so somehow I. I'm not afraid of him. The one at my shoulder anymore. Because I think it's good that men should live. Then die. And so end the evil in them. And give their place to others. Tell me, Joan, do you agree? This is Mr. O. Arch Obler. After that are you quite content to live out your three score and ten? Personally I don't know. Wonders ahead. Horrors ahead. I'd kind of like to be there and see them, wouldn't you? The next play. Well, it all began when I accidentally pushed the wrong button on an elevator in a department store. And found myself not on the bargain basement where I expected to be. But a great deal lower than that. Let me tell you all about it after a short word from your station. Hi, Joey. What you doing? Huh? No. Me either. Nothing. Huh? Yeah, we could go over to the school and see what's happening there. How much will you pay for this boy? No, that's too far. Where we get a car? Maybe he'll never cost you a dime. But suppose he ends up in the welfare line or even jail. Then he's going to cost about ten thousand dollars. I guess anything's better than hanging around here. It costs the local scout council just a few dollars a year to keep a boy active and scouting. We tell you this because we need your help. Scouting gets part of its support from campaigns like the United Way. All the rest of scouting support must come from people like you. Okay. Listen, I'll meet you there then. Please, support scouting any way you can. This is Mr. O. once more. As I said, I pushed the wrong button on the wrong elevator in a department store and found myself in a sub-subbasement. Not the basement where the bargains are found, but that unknown basement where goods are delivered to you. This all happened in Chicago. As those of you who live in Old Windy by the Lake may know, there's a great network under the city of underground tunnels that deliver merchandise long after the day people are asleep to the department stores. Well, I got to thinking. What would happen if, but as usual, that's next time. It's titled, Going Down. It is later than you think. It is later than you think.
