myPerspectives/Grade 7 • Unit 2

Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed

by Ray Bradbury
produced by Michael McDonough

[Audio Transcript]

RAY BRADBURY: This is Ray Bradbury. Join me for the next thirty minutes on a tour
through time and space. Come along to the far future. Follow me into a strange past.
With stories that almost could be, or might have been. Real or unreal, this is
Bradbury 13.

[sound of wind blowing]

NARRATOR: As long as the rockets had spun a silver web across space, Harry
Bittering had been able to accept Mars. But now, the web gone, the rockets lying in
jigsaw heaps of molten girder and unsnaked wire on Earth, people from Earth left to
the strangeness of Mars, the cinnamon dusts and wine airs. This was the moment
that Mars had waited for. Now, it would eat them. Ray Bradbury’s “Dark They Were,
and Golden-Eyed.”

[sound of a rocket landing]

TIM: What was that?

HARRY BITTERING: Just a bump. It means we’ve landed.

LAURA BITTERING: Landed? We’re here?!

HARRY: Yes. Get your things together, kids.

PILOT: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Mars.

[cheering]

PILOT: On behalf of the crew, we wish you all a long and prosperous stay here. Good
luck.

HARRY: We’ll need it.

CORA BITTERING: Everyone set?

KIDS: All set!

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CORA: We’re ready, Harry.

HARRY: Well, ready or not, here we come.

[sound of wind blowing]

TIM: Wow… look at the wind blow.

HARRY: Let’s get back on the rocket and go back tonight.

CORA: Why, Harry?

HARRY: Just listen!

[wind continues to blow]

CORA: It’s just wind! We had wind in Boston.

HARRY: It’s eaten away the hills and the cities. Look!

CORA: Chin up, Harry. We’ve come at least sixty five million miles to get here. Let’s
make the best of it.

HARRY: You’re right. We’ll make the best of it. Right kids?

KIDS: Right.

HARRY: Come on, we've got a house to build.

[scene change]

CORA: [whispering] Harry? Are you awake?

HARRY: [yawning] Yeah, I’m awake.

CORA: I think I’m finally getting used to the wind. It took me a few months but now I
think I’d miss it if it wasn’t there.

HARRY: Glad you like it. Cora, sometimes I feel like a salt crystal in a stream being
washed away. We don’t belong here. Oh for heaven’s sake, Cora, let’s buy tickets for
home.

CORA: We can’t go back.

HARRY: Well of course we can.

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CORA: One of these days the bomb will fix it so there is no more Earth. Then we’ll be
safe here.

HARRY: Safe and insane.

CORA: Come on. I’ll fix you a nice Earth breakfast.

[scene change]

CORA: Here ya are! Bacon and eggs. Runny yolks, just the way you like them.

HARRY: Thanks. Say, you seen the paper?

CORA: What’s it say?

HARRY: Another seven hundred from Earth. Colonial days all over again.

CORA: [laughing] I’ll say.

HARRY: Another year and they’ll have half a million Earthmen on Mars. Big cities,
everything.

CORA: Good! Maybe you’ll like it better.

HARRY: Maybe. The point is they said we’d fail. They said the Martians would resent
our invasion. But did we find any Martians? Not a living soul! Oh, we found their
empty cities. But not one living Martian.

[wind blows]

CORA: Oh there it goes, shaking the house again.

LAURA: Daddy, I don’t like it when it blows that hard.

TIM: I don’t know. Maybe there are Martians around here.

CORA: What?

TIM: Well, sometimes at night, I think I can hear them. I hear the wind blowing sand
against my window. Like that, hear?

[wind blows]

HARRY: It’s only the wind.

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TIM: When it blows, I get up and see those towns, way up in the mountains, where
the Martians lived. And I think I can see them moving around up there. I wonder if
those Martians mind us living here. I wonder if they want to do something to us for
coming here.

HARRY: That’s nonsense. We’re good decent people. Remember that. You know all
dead cities have some kind of ghosts in them. Memories, I mean.

LAURA: What kind of memories?

HARRY: Well, you see a staircase, and you wonder what Martians looked like
climbing it. You see Martian paintings, and you wonder what the painter was like.
You make a little ghost in your mind, a memory. You haven’t been prowling around
those ruins, have you?

TIM: No, sir.

HARRY: Now you see that you stay away from them. Pass the jam, Laura.

TIM: Just the same, I bet something happens.

[scene change]

LAURA: Mother! Father!

CORA: Laura, what is it?

LAURA: On the radio just now. It’s the war. Earth!

HARRY: What? Here, let me see that thing.

RADIO ANNOUNCER: Once again, New York is the scene of terrible devastation, the
result of a nuclear detonation near the heart of the city. The primary target of the
bombs was the New York launching site of the Mars rockets. Reports are scarce at
this time, but —

LAURA: All the space rockets are blown up. There’s no more rockets to Mars ever!

CORA: Oh, Harry!

HARRY: It’s alright, Cora.

CORA: We’re stranded on Mars, forever?

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HARRY: Not forever. The rockets will get through someday. We’ll go about our
business as if nothing were wrong. We’ll keep things going until the war ends and
the rockets come back again.

CORA: Will they really come back?

HARRY: I promise they will. Okay? Now go inside and lay down for a bit. Go on! Cora,
why don’t you go inside and keep them occupied for a while?

CORA: What are you going to do?

HARRY: I don’t know. Work I suppose. Work and forget. I’ll weed the garden. You
know, I always told myself: tomorrow, if I want, I can buy a ticket back to Earth. And
somehow knowing that always helped me accept living here.

CORA: This is our home now. Forever.

HARRY: Yes. Our hills, our mountains. Those mountains had old, proud Martian
names once. But we changed them. Now, there’s the Ford Hills. Vanderbilt Plateau.
Roosevelt Seas, Rockefeller Rivers. [chuckles] Somehow it doesn’t seem right to
change those names.

CORA: But that’s their names now.

HARRY: On our maps, maybe. The old settlers on Earth knew how to name things,
though. They used the old Indian prairie names. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Utah,
Waukegan. The old names, the old meanings.

CORA: Yes, they were good names.

HARRY: I wonder if they’re up there now. All the dead ones. Martians.

[pause]

HARRY: [calling out; voice echoes] Well! Here we are! All alone! Cut off! Come down!
Move us out! Take your cities back! We’re helpless!

CORA: I’m going in.

HARRY: Cora, wait. Look at this.

CORA: What is it?

HARRY: These blossoms. From the peach tree. Do you see?

CORA: Well, what about them?

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HARRY: Well, don’t you see? They’re different. They’ve changed.

CORA: What?

HARRY: They’re not peach blossoms anymore.

CORA: They look alright to me.

HARRY: They’re not! They’re wrong!

CORA: How can you tell?

HARRY: Well I don’t know. An extra petal, a leaf, something. The color’s wrong. The
smell. And look over here, in the garden. Look! Right here. Do these look like
carrots?

CORA: Yes. Uh… no. I don’t know.

HARRY: They’ve changed.

CORA: Maybe.

HARRY: You know they have! They’re almost onions. And they’re almost carrots.
And radishes. They smell almost the same. They feel almost the same. But they’re
different! Cora, what’s happening? What is it?

TIM: Dad! Mom! Come look!

[sound of a cow mooing]

CORA: Timmy?

TIM: Over here! The cow!

[cow moos]

TIM: I was looking at it, and I saw it. Look at her head. Here.

CORA: What is it? A bump?

HARRY: Not a bump. A horn, Cora. It’s growing a third horn. We’ve got to get away!
We’ll eat this food, and then we’ll change!

CORA: Harry.

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HARRY: I can’t let it happen. There’s only one thing to do. We’ve got to burn the
food.

CORA: But it’s good. It’s not poisoned.

HARRY: But it is! Subtly, very subtly, it’s—we can’t touch it. And look at the house!
Even that, the wind’s done something to it!

CORA: Oh, it just needs a little paint.

HARRY: Don’t you see the air’s burned it! And look at the boards. The fog at night’s
warped them all out of shape. It’s not an Earthman’s house anymore.

CORA: Oh, your imagination.

HARRY: No, Cora, not this time!

CORA: Where are you going?

HARRY: Into town! We’ve got to do something. I’ll be back!

[scene change]

[barking dogs]

SAM: Isn’t that Harry Bittering coming this way?

MAN 2: Sure is. Looks like something ain’t sittin’ right with him.

SAM: I’ll say. Hello, Harry! What brings you to town?

HARRY: What are you going to do?

SAM: Beg your pardon?

HARRY: You did hear the news this morning, didn’t you?

SAM: Sure, we heard it, Harry.

HARRY: Well, what are you going to do about it?

SAM: Do? What can we do about it, Harry?

HARRY: Build a rocket, that’s what.

MAN 2: A rocket. And go back to all that trouble? Not me.

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HARRY: You must want to go back!

SAM: But why, Harry?

HARRY: Well look, you’ve got gardens. Have you noticed the peach blossoms? The
onions, the grass?

SAM: Why, yeah. Seems I did.

HARRY: Doesn’t it scare ya?

SAM: Can’t recall that it did, Harry.

HARRY: Oh, you idiots!

MAN 2: Oh, Harry.

HARRY: You’ve got to help me. Help yourselves. If we stay here, we’ll all change. It’s
the air, don’t you smell it? It’s something in the air, a Martian virus or pollen.

MAN 2: Smells like rain to me.

HARRY: Listen to me, Sam!

SAM: Yes, Harry?

HARRY: Will you help me build a rocket?

SAM: Harry, I got a whole load of metal and some blueprints. Now you want to work
in my metal shop on a rocket you’re welcome. I’ll sell you the whole kit and caboodle
for five hundred bucks. You ought to be able to build a pretty fair rocket by
yourself… in about thirty years.

[laughter]

HARRY: Don’t laugh! I’ll do it.

MAN 2: Sure, Harry.

HARRY: Sam. Your eyes.

SAM: What about ’em?

HARRY: Didn’t they use to be grey?

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SAM: Well, now, I don’t remember.

HARRY: They were, weren’t they?

SAM: Why do ya ask, Harry?

HARRY: Because now they’re kind of yellow-colored.

SAM: Is that so? Harry, what color are your eyes?

HARRY: My eyes? They’re blue.

SAM: Take a look in this mirror. See for yourself.

HARRY: [gasps] No! They’re turning yellow.

SAM: Welcome to the club, Harry.

[scene change]

[sound of hammering]

CORA: Harry! Put down that hammer for a minute.

HARRY: What?

CORA: You haven’t stopped all day. It’s suppertime.

HARRY: I can’t! I’m too busy.

CORA: But you have to eat. Here. I brought it out for you.

HARRY: I won’t touch it.

CORA: Why not?

HARRY: I’ll only eat food from our deep-freeze, food that we got from Earth. I won’t
touch a thing from the garden.

CORA: Harry, face it, you can’t build a rocket.

HARRY: I worked in a shop once, when I was in college. I know what I’m doing.
Besides, once I get going, the others will help me.

CORA: Will they?

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HARRY: We’ve got to get away, Cora. We’ve got to!

[scene change]

[wind blows]

HARRY: Shut the door! You’re blowing the plans all over.

CORA: Harry, it’s been weeks now since you’ve rested. Take the day off.

HARRY: Look, Cora. Frame’s done. Some of the men helped me move it. I told you
they would.

CORA: You’re not eating. You’re getting weaker. Here, I made you a sandwich.

HARRY: I can’t eat that. Some of it came from our garden.

CORA: Harry, I’ve used up all the food in the deep-freeze, there’s nothing left. I have
to use the food grown on Mars. Now, you must eat. How can you finish the rocket if
you have no strength?

HARRY: Alright. I’ll eat it.

CORA: Good! There’s some soup in the thermos.

HARRY: Cora, do I look thinner to you? And taller?

CORA: Well you’ve lost some weight, but that’s probably from not eating.

HARRY: Some of the boys said I was getting taller, thinner. I told them that they
were crazy.

CORA: Please, Harry. Take the rest of the day off. The wind’s dying down, it’s going
to be hot. The children want to swim in the canals and hike. Wouldn’t you enjoy
some time with them?

HARRY: But this is a crisis. I can’t waste time.

CORA: Just for an hour. A swim will do you good. Come on.

HARRY: Alright. Just for an hour.

CORA: Good! The car’s all packed. Come on, before it gets too late.

[scene change]

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[splash]

CORA: Tim loves the canal, look at him swim.

HARRY: His skin sure is brown. So’s Laura’s.

CORA: They’re always out playing in the sun.

HARRY: Cora, how long have your eyes been yellow?

CORA: Always, I guess.

HARRY: They didn’t change from brown in the last three months?

CORA: No, I don’t think so. Why?

HARRY: Well, never mind. The children’s eyes are yellow too.

CORA: Sometimes growing children’s eyes change color.

HARRY: Maybe we’re children too. At least, to Mars. That’s a thought. I think I’ll
swim. Come on!

[splash]

HARRY: [laughing] It does feel good.

CORA: I wonder what’s down at the bottom of these canals? I bet there’s pieces of
pottery and old statues.

HARRY: Could be. I’ll take a look.

CORA: Be careful.

HARRY: Oh, I will. Be right back.

HARRY: [internal monologue] I’m sinking down, down. Like an old Martian statue in
green silence. It’s quiet down here, and peaceful. If I lie here on the bottom long
enough, the water will eat away my flesh till the bones show like coral. Just my
skeleton left. Then the water can build on my bones green things, deep-water things.
Red things, yellow things. Change, change. Slow, deep, silent change. After all, isn’t
that what’s up there? There’s the Martian sky up there above the water. It’s like a big
river, a Martian river. And all of us lying deep in it, in our sunken houses. Like
hidden crayfish. And the water washing away our bodies, and lengthening the
bones, like—[gasps] It’s time for some air!

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[sounds of Harry surfacing]

HARRY: Oh, hi, Tim! I’ve been on the bottom.

TIM: Utha!

HARRY: What?

TIM: Utha. You know, utha’s the Martian word for “father.”

HARRY: Where did you learn that?

TIM: I don’t know, around. Utha?

HARRY: Yes? Go ahead.

TIM: I want to change my name.

HARRY: Change it?

TIM: Yes!

CORA: What’s wrong with Tim for a name?

TIM: The other day when you called “Tim,” I didn’t even hear it. I said to myself
“that’s not my name.” I’ve got a new name I want to use.

HARRY: What is the new name?

TIM: Linnl. Isn’t that a good name? Can I use it?

HARRY: Well—

CORA: Why not?

HARRY: Yes, you can use it, Tim.

TIM: Yay! I’m Linnl, I’m Linnl!

HARRY: Why did we do that?

CORA: I don’t know, it just seemed like a good idea. Come on, let’s get out of the
water and take a walk. There’s some old Martian villas I’d like to see.

HARRY: Alright.
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[scene change; background music plays and bird sing]

CORA: Isn’t this lovely, up here?

HARRY: Yes, it’s fine.

CORA: And look, the old fountains are still running, pumping water. Oh, and look at
the villa!

HARRY: It has a good view of the valley, doesn’t it?

CORA: Fantastic! Let’s go in. The floor’s all made of marble, and so are the walls.
Look! There’s a swimming pool.

HARRY: Yes!

CORA: It’s all so cool and refreshing, especially when it’s so hot outside.

HARRY: It is nice.

CORA: Harry? Could we move up here to this villa for the summer? Just until it starts
to cool off?

HARRY: Yes. Yes. Come on, we’re going back to town. There’s work to do on the
rocket.

[scene change]

TIM: Can I help you, utha?

HARRY: Yes. Hand me the blowtorch.

TIM: Here.

HARRY: Thanks!

[car horn honks]

HARRY: I wonder who that could be.

TIM: Looks like some of the men from town.

SAM: Morning, Harry.

HARRY: You boys headed somewhere?

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SAM: Everyone’s going. You heard?

HARRY: Going where?

SAM: Up to the villa in the hills.

MAN 2: Yeah, Harry, I’m going too. We all are.

SAM: That’s right, Harry. What about you?

HARRY: Oh, I’ve got some work to do here.

SAM: Work? You can finish that rocket in the autumn, when it’s cooler.

MAN 2: Yeah, it’s too hot to work on a thing like that now. It’s nice and cool up at the
villa.

SAM: You know they got fountains that are still running up there? And the paths are
covered with water, it’s like wading in a cool stream.

MAN 2: Keeps your feet cool all summer long.

SAM: How ’bout it, Harry?

HARRY: Well, I got the frame all set up.

SAM: Autumn, Harry. Autumn would be the best.

MAN 2: Autumn would be better.

HARRY: It would be cooler, wouldn’t it?

SAM: Oh, it’d be a lot better.

HARRY: I’d have plenty of time, then.

SAM: That’s right.

HARRY: Alright, in the autumn. I’ll start work then.

SAM: Come on, then, Harry, we’ve got plenty of room on the truck for your stuff.

HARRY: Good!

MAN 2: Hey Harry, I’ve got a villa near the Tirra Canal.
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HARRY: You mean the Roosevelt Canal, don’t ya?

MAN 2: No, Tirra, the old Martian name.

HARRY: Yeah but on the map it—

MAN 2: Forget the map, it’s Tirra now. Anyway, it’s in great shape and what a view.
You should see it.

HARRY: Maybe I will. Maybe I will.

SAM: Come on, Harry, let’s get your stuff on board.

[scene change]

HARRY: Linnl! Ttil! You got everything out of your rooms?

TIM/LINNL: Everything we’re gonna take.

LAURA/TTIL: I’ve got everything.

HARRY: Good! I’ll come check it in a minute. Cora, what about the front room?

CORA: I don’t know. The furniture looked fine in Boston, and it looked good here in
the cottage. But up in the villa?

HARRY: Well, maybe we can get it when we come back in the autumn.

CORA: Yes, in the autumn. We’ll get it then.

HARRY: In the meantime, I’ve got some ideas on furniture for the villa. Big, lazy
furniture.

CORA: Here. Your encyclopedia. You’re taking it along, aren’t you?

HARRY: No, I’ll come and get it next week. Well, that’s it, then. I’ve shut off the water
and the gas.

CORA: What about the door?

[sound of door locking]

HARRY: There, locked tight.

SAM: All set, Harry?

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WENDELL: Yeah, we need to get going.

HARRY: Yeah, everything’s loaded, Sam. Gosh, we’re not taking much. Considering
all that we’ve brought to Mars, this is only a handful.

CORA: It’s all we need.

SAM: Harry, you drive this truck. I’ll go with Wendell.

HARRY: Okay, everybody! Hope in! [engine starts] Goodbye, house. Goodbye, town.

[scene change; sounds of music and birds]

HARRY: Cora, it’s beautiful here. I can see the whole valley.

CORA: Yes. And there’s our cottage down there. It’s time to go back, isn’t it?

HARRY: Yes, but we’re not going, Cora. There’s nothing there for us.

CORA: Oh, there’s books, you have good clothes.

HARRY: The town’s empty. No one’s going back. There’s no reason to. None at all.

CORA: I guess you’re right.

HARRY: Look down there. Such odd, such ridiculous houses the Earth people built.

CORA: They didn’t know any better. Such ugly people. I’m glad they’re gone.

HARRY: Gone?

CORA: [laughs]

HARRY: Where did they go?

CORA: I don’t know.

HARRY: We’ll go back to town maybe next year. Or the year after that.

CORA: Or maybe the year after that.

HARRY: Maybe. Come on. Let’s take a swim.

[scene change]

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[wind blowing]

CAPTAIN [over radio]: Captain to Hollings. Come in, Hollings.

HOLLINGS: [over radio] Hollings here.

CAPTAIN: Find anything?

HOLLINGS: Nothing. Just more deserted houses and overgrown gardens. No one has
lived here in years.

CAPTAIN: Right. Keep looking. We’ve got to find someone.

HOLLINGS: Right. Hollings out.

LIEUTENANT: Captain! The town’s empty, but we’ve found native life in the hills, sir.

CAPTAIN: Native life? There aren’t supposed to be any natives left.

LIEUTENANT: Dark people, yellow eyes, brown skin.

CAPTAIN: Sound like Martians, alright.

LIEUTENANT: They’re very friendly. We talked a bit. They really pick up English
fast, I’m amazed. I’m sure our relations will be very friendly with them, sir.

CAPTAIN: How many are there?

LIEUTENANT: Oh, six to eight hundred I’d say. They’re living in those marble ruins
in the hills. Tall healthy men, beautiful women.

CAPTAIN: Did they tell you what happened to the colony from Earth who built this
place?

LIEUTENANT: They didn’t have the slightest idea what happened to this town, or
the people.

CAPTAIN: Strange. Do you suppose the Martians killed them?

LIEUTENANT: No, they look peaceful. Chances are a plague did this town in, sir.

CAPTAIN: Maybe. Well, there’s lots to be done now, lieutenant. We’ll have a job of
remapping to do, naming the mountains and rivers and such. Calls for a little
imagination.

LIEUTENANT: I think we can handle that, sir.

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CAPTAIN: What do you think of naming those mountains the Lincoln Mountains?
And this canal here the Washington Canal?

LIEUTENANT: Fine, sir.

CAPTAIN: And those hills. We can name those hills for you, lieutenant! Would you
like that?

LIEUTENANT: Yes, sir.

CAPTAIN: Diplomacy, lieutenant. And you as a favor might name a town for me.
Polishing the old apple, eh? And that valley there—the Einstein Valley. And those
peaks—are you listening, lieutenant?

LIEUTENANT: Hmm? Oh, of course, sir.

CAPTAIN: Well, as I was saying, those peaks over there would be good called the
Rockefeller peaks…

[scene ends; music plays]

PAUL FREES, VOICEOVER: “Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed” was adapted from
the story by Ray Bradbury. Featured in the cast were Bryce Chamberlain, Beverly
Rowan, Steve Densly, Jennifer Coleman, Colman Creole, Max Robinson, Jay Bernard,
and Nathan Hayle. Original music by Roger Hoffman and Greg Hansen. Production
assistant was Patrick Knead. Associate producer was Jeff Rader. Bradbury 13 was
created, produced, and directed by Mike McDonough. Executive producer was Dean
Van Uitert. This program was produced with the funds provided by the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting through National Public Radio Satellite Program
Development Fund. The program was produced by Brigham Young University Media
Services, which is solely responsible for its content. This is Paul Frees speaking.

VOICEOVER: Additional support is provided by NPR members stations and the

National Public Radio Arts and Performance fund. Contributors include the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, RKO General, a radio and television
broadcasting company, and the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation. This is NPR,
National Public Radio.

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