The Martian Chronicles

Though dated 2003, the story is set in a Jim Crow-era town of the American South, and the primary attitude of the protagonist, Samuel Teece, is reflective of that era’s white values. Several white men gather on the porch of Teece’s hardware store to watch a flood of Black families leaving town. Teece is informed that all the Black people in the community are heading out of town to rockets built by their own community which will take them to Mars. Teece is furious that the Black community would decide to do this without alerting any white authority figures, and wants to “telephone the governor, call out the militia” (121).

Several of the wives of the men on the porch arrive, including Teece’s wife, who implores her husband to come home and prevent their domestic worker Lucinda from joining the rest of the migrants. Teece’s wife can’t understand why Lucinda would leave even after Teece’s wife offered her a second night off a week. Teece restrains himself from beating his wife and orders her home. He enters his hardware store and returns with a pistol, threatening to kill any of the passing migrants who laugh.

Teece recognizes one of the migrants, a man named Belter, who owes him fifty dollars. Teece coerces Belter off his horse and threatens to horsewhip him if Belter doesn’t work off his debt. Belter is desperate to go, however, as all the rockets are leaving that day. Teece suggests that the rockets will explode in space, or that Martian monsters will “suck the marrow from [his] bones” (124), but Belter claims that his life on Earth isn’t enjoyable either, and he will take his chances. Incensed, Teece calls Belter “Mister Way Up in the Middle of the Air” (125), intoning lyrics from an African American spiritual about a vision beheld by the prophet Ezekiel. The other migrants, witnessing Belter’s situation, take up a collection and raise fifty dollars. Teece refuses to accept the money, but Belter leaves it anyway, and Teece doesn’t prevent him from rejoining the exodus. Young white boys appear, relating that similar events are happening all over the county; groups of people pay the debts of others so they can all leave.

Rage builds in Teece and he spews threats of death in space at the migrants, but none heed his torrent, and eventually all the migrants pass by. A deep sense of lonesomeness comes over the county, and the white men express confusion at the exodus, particularly as “every day they got more rights” (128). Silly, a young African American boy who works in Teece’s store, returns from an errand and is in a hurry to join his departing family. Teece claims the boy can’t go, revealing a contract Silly signed promising to work for Teece for two years. When Silly grows despondent, the other white men enjoin Teece to let the boy go, with one of the men, Grandpa Quartermain, offering to take the boy’s position in the store. At first Teece refuses and threatens to imprison Silly as property, reaching for his pistol, but he relents, and Silly rushes to clean out his possessions and leave.

As Silly leaves, he asks what Teece will do at nights now that the Black community is gone, but Teece is confused about his meaning. After Silly has gone, Teece realizes that Silly was referring to the lynching and terrorism Teece and other white men regularly engaged in, and flies into a rage, getting in his car to chase down Silly. Teece, however, is too late, and can only find the possessions left along the road by the departing migrants. He runs these over until he bursts a tire and drives the car into a ditch. When he returns to his store, the other white men watch the rockets taking off, but Teece refuses to look, instead remarking with pride that Silly addressed him as “Mister” right up until he left.