[00:00.00]It was just an error,a stupid error,the kind anyone could make.
[00:06.53]Only now Earth is never going to have another visitor from space.Not ever.
[00:14.00]THE WATERY PLACE                 By   Issac Asimov
[00:19.51]We're never going to have visitors from space.No ectraterrestrials will ever land on Earth--at least,any more.
[00:30.07]2 I'm not just being a pessimist.As a matter of fact,extraterrestrials have landed.I know that.
[00:39.00]Space ships are crisscrossing space among a million worlds,probably,but they will never come here.
[00:46.71]I know that,too.All on account of a ridiculous error.
[00:52.90]3 I'll explain.
[00:55.77]4 It was actually Bart Cameron's error and you'll have to understand about Bart Cameron.
[01:03.74]He's the sheriff at Twin Gulch,Idaho,and I'm his deputy.Bart Cameron is an impatient man and he gets most impatient
[01:16.04]when he has to work up his income tax.You see,besides being sheriff,he also owns and runs the general store,
[01:26.20]he's got some shares in a sheep ranch,he's got a kind of pension for being a disabled veteran(bad knee)
[01:35.03]and a few other things like that.Naturally,it makes his tax figures complicated.
[01:43.29]5 It wouldn't be so bad if he'd let a taxman work on the forms with him,
[01:49.14]but he insists on doing it himself and it makes him a bitter man.By April 14,he isn't approachable.
[01:59.56]6 So it's too bad the flying saucer landed on April 14,1956.
[02:08.10]7 I saw it land.My chair was backed up against the wall in the sheriff's office,
[02:15.24]and I was looking at the stars through the windows and wondering if I ought to knock off
[02:21.11]and hit the sack or keep on listening to Cameron curse real steady
[02:28.17]as he went over his columns of figures for the hundred twenty-seventh time.
[02:34.91]8 It looked like a shooting star at first,but then the track of light broadened into two things
[02:43.16]that looked like rocket exhausts and the thing came down without a sound.
[02:50.08]9 Two men got out.
[02:53.19]10 I couldn't say anything or do anything.I couldn't choke or point,I couldn't even bug my eyes.Ijust sat there.
[03:03.98]11 Cameron?He never looked up.
[03:08.16]12 There was a knock on the door.It opened and the two men from the flying saucer stepped in.
[03:14.66]I would have thought they were city fellows if I hadn't seen the flying saucer land.They wore gray suits,
[03:22.61]with white shirts and dark red-brown ties.They had on black shoes and black hats.They had dark complexions,
[03:33.47]black wavy hair and brown eyes.They had very serious looks on their faces and were about five foot ten apiece.
[03:43.71]They looked very much alike.
[03:47.50]13 God,I was scared.
[03:50.40]14 But Cameron just looked up when the door opened and frowned.He said,"What can I do for you,folks?"
[03:59.54]and he tapped his hand on the forms so it was obvious he hadn't much time.
[04:06.02]15 One of the two stepped forward.He said,"We have had your people under observation a long time.
[04:16.34]"He pronounced each word carefully and all by itself.
[04:22.11]16 Cameron said,"My people?All I got's a wife.What's she been doing?"
[04:29.61]17 The fellow in the suit said,"We have chosen this locality for our first contact because it is isolated and peaceful.
[04:41.05]We know that you are the leader here."
[04:45.70]18 "I'm the sheriff,if that's what you mean,so spit it out.What's your trouble?"
[04:51.89]19 "We have been careful to adopt your mode of dress and even to assume your appearance.
[05:01.35]We have also learned your language."
[05:06.13]20 You could see the light break in on Cameron.He said,"You guys foreigners?"Cameron didn't go much for foreigners,
[05:17.99]never having met many outside the army,but generally he tried to be fair.
[05:24.47]21 The man from the saucer said,"Foreigners?Indeed we are.We come from the watery place your people call Venus."
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