Retro Rockets fires off with "Summer Break". It's that time of year and summer break is starting. If only it were like previous summers...
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The Mutual Audio Network
Retro Rockets Presents: Summer Break(073124)
(upbeat music) This episode is brought to you by Experian. Are you paying for subscriptions you don't use, but can't find the time or energy to cancel them? Experian could cancel unwanted subscriptions for you, saving you an average of $270 per year, and plenty of time. Download the Experian app. Results will vary, not all subscriptions are eligible. Savings are not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required. (upbeat music) Next up on the Mutual Audio Network, fiction from our future. - The following audio drama is rated PG for parental guidance. (upbeat music) The sounds of summer distract the children from their songs. A bluebird flaps carelessly by and sits on the window ledge. Some of the students point and try not to gasp. I know they're excitement. I can't help it. I'm getting excited too. Summer break is always green in my memory. Water slashes as it meanders the twisting bird. The paper sent a birch bark as the wind sways and heavy branches pregnant with leaves. I'm grateful when Mr. Edna knocks and enters the clouds. Another moment, I would have broken down into tears. (upbeat music) - From the golden age of science fiction to the undiscovered worlds of the future, through time and space, the Mutual Audio Network brings you the original stories of parallel planets and alien inventions. Fire retro-rise. (explosion) (upbeat music) (bell ringing) (bell ringing) - Human beings are a part of nature. Human nature is part of that trust. It's summer break, a ritual allowing children time off from school to work the farm. At least that was its origin. The days of farming may be long over now, in this future. But the memory remains like a golden apple, waiting to be picked off a tree from the middle of the garden. (upbeat music) - You coming out to enjoy a spot of summer, Ms. Susan? - I just wanted to keep an eye on the students, Mr. Edna. - Ah, they barely know what to do first. - Oh, look at Johnny Milner over there, walking on that vlog across the stream. - Johnny, you be careful, please. - That music. - Ah, he can't hurt himself. And the song, it's all part of the experience. - We're sure of that, Ollie. - Well, Lucy and Gilly are running with streamers down the field. - Yes, the students fight flags and kites this morning. It's almost like they knew they'd be let out early. But I meant the song. - Doesn't take long? - No. - I mean, of course it's resource intensive, but-- - Peter Helper. You let the others have a turn with that baseball bat. What? Yes, you can roll down the hill. - Don't get yourself sick. - I remember doing heartwheels down hills when I was there in the age. - And racing wooden sticks down a stream. And in the fall, breaking a big pile of leaves and jumping around. It's always down, isn't it? Down hills, down the stream. We're all just headed down. - Haring 'em crumple like old newspapers. - What? - Leaves. Crumple like old newspapers. - Oh, the newspapers, I forgot about that. - You remember my box? - Oh, yeah. I put cards in the wheels and a light on the front of mine. - Pedal is so much harder, even down hill, because you had to keep the wheels going for the bean to run. - Catching minos. - Tadpoles. - Preyfish. - Oh, Preyfish. You're right. They had these little mud chinnies in the corner of our yard where it was wet. And you could see them sneak out. - Did you skip stones? - On the water? Not a lot of space along the creek on our property. You had to stand in the middle of the creek and throw as hard as your muscles would let you. - Down stream. - Down stream. Remember how we'd hurt your arms like a little bit harder than the smooth, little, disc-like stones? Stones that it might've been air on hills if there was time. - See how many skips you can make before and hook the beans. - My best friend, Buddy Johnson, bet he could skip a rock the shape of an egg once. - And daddy? - Nope. Just plopped where he threw it. - Buddy swore that a single splash counted as one skip. - It goes too fast. - What's that? - A summer? - Well, that too, but I was talking about you. It goes too fast. All down stream. - Backward, turn, backward, a little time in your flight. - Make us children again. Just for tonight. Summer's least half-alt and short a day. - Acres, I went to Shakespeare. Well, that's quite a leap. Sonnets are for dream homes. Time to wake up again. Come on, children. Back to class. Summer's over. Come along now. Don't dally. - You can see the artificial foam grass has already turned over. - The air's smelling stale. - Well, never you mind. Plenty of fresh air in the classroom. - See you later, what? What is it, Miss Susan? - Can't they generate summer just a little longer? - I'm afraid not. The central technician said it takes too much energy. They have to trickle charge a different battery all year just to provide a few minutes of summer as it is. - I know, I don't know whether it's worth it. - Did you see their faces? None of them have ever been up there outside. The Caverns psychologist said these few memories helped give them some real hope that maybe, not just maybe, they'll have a real summer again. - 30 years now. - 38. - 38 years? Do you think, I mean, maybe. Maybe it's okay now. - Maybe we can all... - It's not to think about it. That's what the delvers do, and every time one of them chaps a whole rusted shaft of the surface well, you know what happens. - I know, I know, it's just, it's almost torture. Never going on some, never leaving the shelters. The generated air in the hologram clouds and radiated heat from above, the illusion of a strain, the foam, grass, and projected animals. It's too close, too painful. - What, better get inside. Cold dust from the plants is cycling again now that summer. Any longer and you'll need your re-breather. - I know. Just, just once, just once. I wanna walk home with the sun away things. A tree with a brush past and the smell of coming rain in the air. - Maybe, maybe in another 30 years things will be better. Maybe, maybe it's just all downstream from us now. - In a future time when the world is an artificial cavern and the shadows on the wall are bitter memories of a lost garden, mankind may yet come back again above ground in a future. Walk in a meadow, wonder at the distant sound of a bird and watch the stars ripple against a freshwater lake. Until then, there's always, next summer. Retro Rockets is an anthology series based on the explorations of science fiction from the Golden Age for a new audience. Summer Break was written by Jack J. Ward and produced by Austin Beach. Starring Angela Young as Susan and Jeff Billard as Edmund. I am your host, Lothar Teppen. Good night. This has been a sonic cinema production. (audience applauding) [BLANK_AUDIO]