He stood there for a moment looking around the silent room, shaking his head slowly. All these books, he thought, the residue of a planet's intellect… - Richard Matheson

Despite everything he had or might have (except, of course, another human being), life gave no promise of improvement or even of change. The way things shaped up, he would live out his life with no more than he already had. And how many years was that? Thirty, maybe forty if he didn’t drink himself to death. The thought of forty more years of living as he was made him shudder

This day father hit in the chain again before it had light. I have to try to pull it out again. He said I was bad to come upstairs. He said never do that again or he would beat me hard. That hurts.

And, before science had caught up with the legend, the legend had swallowed science and everything.