Life on other planets -- Fiction; Science fiction; Slavery -- Fiction
MRS. G.: They're just being forced to work until they absolutely drop,
is what I hear. And all for a bunch of people who just lord it over
them with guns and everything. You see, these beings--they're green,
not like us, but they have feelings, too--
MRS. B.: Of course they do, Fellacia.
MRS. G.: Well. They don't have much education, hardly know anything. So
when people with guns come in, you see, there just isn't anything they
can do about it.
MRS. B.: Why are they let, then?
MRS. G.: Who, the people with guns? Well, nobody lets them, not just
like that. It's just like we only found out about it now.
MRS. B.: I didn't hear a word on the news.
MRS. G.: You listen tonight and you'll hear a word, Gwen dear.
MRS. B.: Oh, my. That sounds like there's something up. Now, what have
you been doing?
MRS. G.: Don't you think it's right, for these poor beings? I mean, no
pay and nothing at all but work, work, work until they absolutely drop?
MRS. B.: What have you been doing? I mean, what can any one person do?
Of course it's terrible and all that, but--
MRS. G.: We talked it over. I mean the group I belong to, you know. On
Wednesday. Because all of us had heard something about it, you see, and
so we brought it up and discussed it. And it's absolutely true.
MRS. B.: How can you be sure of a thing like that?
MRS. G.: We found out--
MRS. B.: When it isn't even on the news or anything.
MRS. G.: We found out that people have been talking from other places,
too. Downtown and even in the suburbs.
MRS. B.: Oh. Then it must be--but what can you do, after all? It's not
as if we were in the government or anything.
MRS. G.: Don't you worry about that. There's something you can do and
it's not hard, either. And it has an effect. A definite effect, they
say.
MRS. B.: You mean collecting money? To send them?
MRS. G.: Money won't do them any good. No. What we need is the
government, to do something about this.
MRS. B.: It's easy to talk.
MRS. G.: And we can get the government to do something, too. If there
are enough of us--and there will be.
MRS. B.: I should think anybody who hears about these people, Fellacia--
MRS. G.: Well, they're not people, exactly.
MRS. B.: What difference does that make? They need help, don't they?
And we can give them help. If you really have an idea?
MRS. G.: We discussed it all. And we've been writing letters.
MRS. B.: Letters? Just letters?
MRS. G.: If a Senator gets enough letters, he has to do something,
doesn't he? Because the letters are from the people who vote for him,
you see?
MRS. B.: But that means a lot of letters.
MRS. G.: We've had everybody sending postcards. Fifteen or twenty each.
That mounts up awfully fast, Gwen dear.
MRS. B.: But just postcards--
MRS. G.: And telephone calls, where that's possible. And visits. And
starting even more talk everywhere. Just everywhere.
MRS. B.: Do you really think it's going to work? I mean, it seems like
so little.
MRS. G.: It's going to work. It's got to.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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