I See You Never

photo from Open Culture

I See You Never is a 1947 short story by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury was one of the first science fiction authors I discovered, and he is a treasure. I still have some of his books in my steadily deceasing book collection, and some of those are among my all-time favorites. If you haven't read Bradbury, pick up a book by him -every library has something by him- and enjoy.

This particular story is not typical of his work, which is usually science fiction/fantasy, but instead deals with illegal immigration into this country from Mexico. Topical still. You can read this short story online here. It begins:

The soft knock came at the kitchen door, and when Mrs. O’Brian opened it, there on the back porch were her best tenant, Mr. Ramirez, and two police officers, one on each side of him. Mr. Ramirez just stood there, walled in and small. “Why, Mr. Ramirez!” said Mrs. O’Brian. Mr. Ramirez was overcome. He did not seem to have words to explain. He had arrived at Mrs. O’Brian’s rooming house more than two years earlier and had lived there ever since. He had come by bus from Mexico City to San Diego and had then gone up to Los Angeles. There he had found the clean little room, with glossy blue linoleum, and pictures and calendars on the flowered walls, and Mrs. O’Brian as the strict but kindly landlady. During the war, he had worked at the airplane factory and made parts for the planes that flew off somewhere, and even now, after the war, he still held his job. From the first, he had made big money.