Short Fiction · Chapter
The Calm Man explained
Sally Anders recalls her youth and her whirlwind romance with a mysterious, calm man who becomes her husband.
What happens
Sally Anders recalls her youth and her whirlwind romance with a mysterious, calm man who becomes her husband. Years later, she is summoned to his office, where she discovers he is not human but a Martian who has spent eight years repairing a spaceship. He reveals that he has used an android stand-in at work and plans to take their son Tommy back to Mars, leaving Sally behind. Paralyzed by grief, she watches them leave, clinging to the hope that Tommy will always be her son.
Themes in this chapter
Alien Encounters and Otherness
The husband is revealed to be a Martian, and the story explores the impossibility of true connection between alien and human, symbolized by the eagle and sparrow metaphor.
Family and Childhood
The central conflict revolves around the dissolution of a family, as the father takes the son away from the mother, highlighting the pain of separation and the loss of childhood innocence.
Madness and Psychological Trauma
Sally experiences intense psychological distress, including a sense of sanity threatened by absurdity, and is paralyzed by grief and shock upon learning the truth about her husband and son.
Characters to notice
- Sally Anders
The protagonist; a shy but hopeful young woman who marries a mysterious man and later discovers his alien nature as he takes their son away.
- Tommy Sweeney
Sally's son, who exhibits an abnormal calmness and shares a secret bond with his father, ultimately leaving Earth with him.
- The Man from Time
Sally's husband, revealed to be a Martian who has been repairing a spaceship for eight years and plans to return to Mars with Tommy.
- Uncle Ben
Sally's uncle, who teases her about her looks and her prospects of finding a man.
Key passages
“Can an eagle pretend to be a sparrow? Can the thunder muffle its voice when two white-crested clouds collide in the shining depths of the night sky?”
The Martian husband argues that he cannot suppress his true nature to fit into Sally's mundane human world, just as an eagle cannot act like a sparrow or thunder cannot silence itself.
This metaphor encapsulates the theme of alien otherness and the impossibility of genuine connection between vastly different beings.
“Tommy, come back to me! How often she had cried out in her heart when that coldness came between them.”
Sally frequently felt a painful emotional distance from Tommy, as if he were slipping away from her, and she silently begged for his return.
This highlights the growing estrangement between mother and son, foreshadowing his eventual departure.