THE MAN WHO WAS PALE
By JACK SHARKEY
ILLUSTRATED by SUMMERS
She was just a sweet, kind-hearted old landlady
who couldn't keep her nose out of other people's
business. This was very unfortunate for Mr. Thobal.
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Fantastic Science Fiction Stories December 1959.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Mrs. Tibbets was a worrier. When it rained, she worried about people caught outside without umbrellas. When the sun shone, she worried about the corn crop that might need water. At band concerts, she worried about the deaf people who were missing the music. If it thundered, she worried for the hearing of people with good ears. No matter what happened, she found something to get worried about. As long as she was worried, she was content.
Her husband had been dead ten years when Mrs. Tibbets realized that she had a twelve-bedroom house for just herself alone, and began to worry about people who had no place to live. So she put an ad into the papers offering her home as lodging for any who could afford the modest price she asked for the rooms (her husband had left her very little money, and this worried her, too).
After eleven of the rooms were filled—leaving the remaining room for herself—the price of the ad in the paper began to worry her, so she called and had it taken out. Then she settled herself comfortably in the living room, and, in her new role as landlady, began to worry about collecting the weekly rent.
The sun had just set, and Mrs. Tibbets had just turned on the lights in the living room—and begun to worry about the electric bill—when the door-chimes sounded.