{"id":24940,"date":"2025-11-04T17:56:47","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T21:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/?p=24940"},"modified":"2026-02-25T00:49:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T04:49:55","slug":"fredric-brown-something-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/short-stories\/fredric-brown-something-green\/24940\/","title":{"rendered":"Fredric Brown: Something Green"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong> &#8220;<em>Something Green<\/em>&#8221; is a short story by Fredric Brown, published in 1951 as part of the collection <em>Space on My Hands<\/em>. It tells the story of McGarry, a space explorer stranded for years on Kruger III, a hostile planet dominated by shades of red and violet. He survives by traversing dangerous jungles, armed with a solar-powered pistol and accompanied by Dorothy, a small creature that rests on his shoulder and keeps him company. Isolated and clinging to the memory of Earth and the green that once filled it, McGarry dreams of finding parts to repair his ship and return to the only world he calls home.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-86b50646\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Fredric-Brown-Algo-verde.webp\" alt=\"Fredric Brown: Something Green\" class=\"wp-image-24939\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Fredric-Brown-Algo-verde.webp 1024w, https:\/\/lecturia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Fredric-Brown-Algo-verde-300x300.webp 300w, https:\/\/lecturia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Fredric-Brown-Algo-verde-150x150.webp 150w, https:\/\/lecturia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Fredric-Brown-Algo-verde-768x768.webp 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Something Green<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">Fredric Brown<br>(Full story)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>THE big sun was crimson in a violet sky. At the edge of the brown plain, dotted with brown bushes, lay the red jungle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry strode toward it. It was tough work and dangerous work, searching in those red jungles, but it had to be done. And he\u2019d searched a thousand of them; this was just one more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said, \u201cHere we go, Dorothy. All set?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The little five-limbed creature that rested on his shoulder didn\u2019t answer, but then it never did. It couldn\u2019t talk, but it was something to talk to. It was company. In size and weight it felt amazingly like a hand resting on his shoulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He\u2019d had Dorothy for \u2026 How long? At a guess, four years. He\u2019d been here about five, as nearly as he could reckon it, and it had been about a year before he\u2019d found her. Anyway, he assumed Dorothy was of the gentler sex, if for no other reason than the gentle way she rested on his shoulder, like a woman\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDorothy,\u201d he said, \u201creckon we\u2019d better get ready for trouble. Might be lions or tigers in there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He unbuckled his sol-gun holster and let his hand rest on the butt of the weapon, ready to draw it quickly. For the thousandth time, at least, he thanked his lucky stars that the weapon he\u2019d managed to salvage from the wreckage of his spacer had been a sol-gun, the one and only weapon that worked practically forever without refills or ammunition. A sol-gun merely needed exposure to the rays of a sun \u2014 any bright and close sun \u2014 for an hour or two a day; it soaked up energy. And, when you pulled the trigger, it dished it out. With any weapon but a sol-gun, he\u2019d never have lasted five years here on Kruger III.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, even before he quite reached the edge of the red jungle, he saw a lion. Nothing like any lion ever seen on Earth, of course. This one was bright magenta, just enough different in color from the purplish bushes it crouched behind so that he could see it. It had eight legs, all jointless and as supple and strong as an elephant\u2019s trunk, and a scaly head with a bill like a toucan\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry called it a lion. He had as much right to call it that as anything else, because it had never been named. Or if it had, the namer had never returned to Earth to report on the flora and fauna of Kruger III. Only one spacer had ever landed here before McGarry\u2019s, as far as the records showed, and it had never taken off again. He was looking for it now; he\u2019d been looking for it systematically for the five years he\u2019d been here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If he found it, it might \u2014 just barely might \u2014 contain, intact, some of the electronic tubes which had been smashed in the crash landing of his own spacer. And if it did, he could get back to Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He stopped ten paces short of the edge of the red jungle and aimed the sol-gun at the bushes behind which the lion crouched. He pulled the trigger, and there was a bright green flash, brief but beautiful \u2014 oh, so beautiful \u2014 and then the bushes weren\u2019t there any more, nor was the eight-legged lion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry chuckled softly. \u201cDid you see that, Dorothy? That was green, the one color you don\u2019t have on this bloody red planet of yours. The most beautiful color in the universe. Dorothy. Green! And I know where there\u2019s a world that\u2019s mostly green, and we\u2019re going to get there, you and I. Sure we are. It\u2019s the world I came from, and it\u2019s the most beautiful place there is, Dorothy. You\u2019ll love it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He turned and looked back over the brown plain with brown bushes, the violet sky above, the crimson sun. The eternally crimson sun Kruger, the sun that never set on the day side of this planet, which always faced it as one side of Earth\u2019s moon always faces Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No day and night \u2014 unless one passed the shadow line into the night side, which was too freezingly cold to sustain life. No seasons. A uniform, never-changing temperature, no wind, no storms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He thought for the thousandth \u2014 or the millionth \u2014 time that it wouldn\u2019t be a bad planet to live on, if only it were green like Earth, if only there was something green upon it besides the occasional flash of his sol-gun. Breathable atmosphere, moderate temperature \u2014 ranging from about forty Fahrenheit near the shadow line to about ninety at the point directly under the red sun, where its rays were straight instead of slanting. Plenty of food, and he\u2019d learned long ago which plants and animals were, for him, edible, and which made him ill. Nothing he\u2019d tried was poisonous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, a wonderful world. He\u2019d even got used, by now, to the solitude of being the only intelligent creature on it. Dorothy was helpful, there. Something to talk to, even if she didn\u2019t talk back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Except \u2014 Oh, God \u2014 he wanted to see a green world again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earth, the only planet in the universe where green was the predominant color, where plant life was based on chlorophyll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other plants, even in the solar system, Earth\u2019s neighbors, had no more to offer than greenish streaks in rare rocks, an occasional tiny life-form of a shade that might be brownish green if you wanted to call it that. Why, you could live years on any planet but Earth, anywhere in the system, and never see green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry sighed. He\u2019d been thinking to himself, but now he thought out loud, to Dorothy, continuing his thoughts without a break. It didn\u2019t matter to Dorothy. \u201cYes, Dorothy,\u201d he said, \u201cit\u2019s the only planet worth living on \u2014 Earth! Green fields, grassy lawns, green trees. Dorothy, I\u2019ll never leave it again, once I get back there. I\u2019ll build me a shack out in the woods, in the middle of trees, but not trees so thick that grass doesn\u2019t grow under them. Green grass. I\u2019ll paint the shack green, Dorothy. We\u2019ve even got green pigments back on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He sighed and looked at the red jungle ahead of him. \u201cWhat\u2019s that you asked, Dorothy?\u201d She hadn\u2019t asked anything but it was a game to pretend that she talked back. A game that helped him to keep sane. \u201cWill I get married when I get back? Is that what you asked?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He gave it consideration. \u201cWell, it\u2019s like this, Dorothy. Maybe and maybe not. You were named after a woman back on Earth, you know. A woman I was going to marry. But five years is a long time, Dorothy. I\u2019ve been reported missing and presumed dead. I doubt if she\u2019s waited this long. If she has, well, yes, I\u2019ll marry her, Dorothy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDid you ask, what if she hasn\u2019t? Well, I don\u2019t know. Let\u2019s not worry about that till we get back, huh? Of course, if I could find a woman who was green, or even one with green hair, I\u2019d love her to pieces. But on Earth, almost everything is green except the women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He chuckled at that and, sol-gun ready, went on into the jungle, the red jungle that had nothing green except the occasional flash of his sol-gun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Funny about that. Back on Earth a sol-gun flashed blue. Here under a red sun, it flashed green when he fired it. But the explanation was simple enough. A sol-gun drew energy from a nearby star and the flash it made when fired was the complementary color of its source of energy. Drawing energy from Sol, a yellow sun, it flashed blue. From Kruger, a red sun, green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maybe that, he thought, had been the one thing, aside from Dorothy\u2019s company, that had kept him sane. A flash of green several times a day. Something green to remind him what the color was. To keep his eye attuned to it, if he ever saw it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It turned out to be a small patch of jungle, as patches went on Kruger III. One of what seemed countless millions of such patches. And maybe it really was millions; Kruger III was larger than Jupiter. Actually it might take more than a lifetime to cover it all. He knew that, but he didn\u2019t let himself think about it. It might be bad if he once let himself doubt that he would ever find the wreckage of the only ship that had ever preceded him here. Or if he let himself doubt that, once he found the ship, he would find the parts he needed to make his own spacer operative again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This patch of jungle was a mile square but it was so dense that he had to sleep once and eat several times before he had finished it. He killed two more lions and one tiger. And when he had finished, he walked around the circumference of it, blazing each of the largest of the trees along the outer rim so he wouldn\u2019t repeat by searching this particular jungle again. The trees were soft; his pocket knife took off the red bark down to the pink core as easily as it would have taken the skin off a potato.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then out across the dull brown plain again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNot that one, Dorothy. Maybe the next. The one over there, just on the horizon. Maybe it\u2019s there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Violet sky, red sun, brown plain, brown bushes \u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe green hills of Earth, Dorothy. Oh how you\u2019ll love them \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The brown endless plain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The never-changing violet sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Was there a sound up there? There couldn\u2019t be. There never had been. But he looked up, and saw it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A tiny black speck high in the violet. Moving. A spacer.&nbsp;<em>It<\/em>&nbsp;<em>had<\/em>&nbsp;<em>to<\/em>&nbsp;<em>be<\/em>&nbsp;<em>a<\/em>&nbsp;<em>spacer<\/em>.&nbsp;<em>There<\/em>&nbsp;<em>were<\/em>&nbsp;<em>no<\/em>&nbsp;<em>birds<\/em>&nbsp;<em>on<\/em>&nbsp;<em>Kruger<\/em>&nbsp;<em>III<\/em>.&nbsp;<em>And<\/em>&nbsp;<em>birds<\/em>&nbsp;<em>didn\u2019t<\/em>&nbsp;<em>trail<\/em>&nbsp;<em>jets<\/em>&nbsp;<em>of<\/em>&nbsp;<em>fire<\/em>&nbsp;<em>behind<\/em>&nbsp;<em>them<\/em>&nbsp;\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He knew what to do; he\u2019d thought of it a million times, how he could signal a spacer if one ever came in sight. He yanked his sol-gun from the holster, aimed it straight in the violet air, and pulled the trigger. It didn\u2019t make a big flash, from the distance of the spacer, but it made a green flash. If the pilot were only looking, or if he would only look before he got out of sight, he couldn\u2019t miss a green flash on a world with no other green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He pulled the trigger again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the pilot of the spacer saw. He cut and fired his jets three times \u2014 the standard answer to a signal of distress \u2014 and began to circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry stood there trembling. So long a wait, and so sudden an end to it. He put his hand on his left shoulder and touched the little five-legged pet that felt, to his fingers as well as to his naked shoulder, so like a woman\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDorothy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s \u2014\u201d He ran out of words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The spacer was circling in for a landing now. McGarry looked down at himself, suddenly ashamed at the way he would look to his rescuer. His body was naked except for the belt that held his holster and from which dangled his knife and a few other tools. He was dirty and he probably smelled. And under the dirt his body looked thin and wasted, almost old; but that was due, of course, to diet deficiencies; a few months of proper food \u2014 Earth food \u2014 would take care of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Earth!<\/em>&nbsp;<em>The<\/em>&nbsp;<em>green<\/em>&nbsp;<em>hills<\/em>&nbsp;<em>of<\/em>&nbsp;<em>Earth!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He ran now, stumbling sometimes in his eagerness, toward the point where he saw the spacer landing. It was low now, and he could see that it was a one-man job, as his had been. But that was all right; a one-man spacer can carry two in an emergency, at least as far as the nearest habitated planet where he could get other transportation back to Earth. To the green hills, the green fields, the green valleys \u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He prayed a little and swore a little as he ran. There were tears running down his cheeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was there, waiting, as the door opened and a tall slender young man in the uniform of the Space Patrol stepped out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ll take me back?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOf course,\u201d said the young man. \u201cBeen here long?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFive years!\u201d McGarry knew he was crying now, but he couldn\u2019t stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGood Lord!\u201d said the young man. \u201cI\u2019m Lieutenant Archer, Space Patrol. Of course I\u2019ll take you back, man. We\u2019ll leave as soon as my jets cool enough for a take-off. I\u2019ll take you as far as Carthage, on Aldebaran II, anyway; you can get a ship out of there for anywhere. Need anything right away? Food? Water?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry shook his head dumbly. His knees felt weak. Food, water \u2014 what did such things matter now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The green hills of Earth! He was going back to them.&nbsp;<em>That<\/em>&nbsp;was what mattered, and all that mattered. So long a wait, so sudden an ending. He saw the violet sky suddenly swimming and then it went black as his knees buckled under him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was lying flat and the young man was holding a flask to his lips and he took a long draught of the fiery stuff it held. He sat up and felt better. He looked to make sure that the spacer was still there and he felt wonderful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The young man said, \u201cBuck up, old timer; we\u2019ll be off in half an hour. You\u2019ll be in Carthage in six hours. Want to talk, till you get your bearing again? Want to tell me all about it, everything that\u2019s happened?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They sat in the shadow of a brown bush, and McGarry told him about it. Everything about it. The landing, his ship smashed past repair. The five-year search for the other ship he\u2019d read had crashed on the same planet and which might have intact the parts he needed to repair his own ship. The long search. About Dorothy, perched on his shoulder, and how she\u2019d been something to talk to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, somehow, the face of Lieutenant Archer was changing as McGarry talked. It grew even more solemn, even more compassionate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOld timer,\u201d Archer said gently, \u201cwhat year was it when you came here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry saw it coming. How can you keep track of time on a planet whose sun and seasons are unchanging? A planet of eternal day, eternal summer \u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said flatly, \u201cI came here in forty-two. How much have I misjudged, Lieutenant? How old am I \u2014 instead of thirty, as I\u2019ve thought?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s twenty-two seventy-two, McGarry. You came here thirty years ago. You\u2019re fifty-five. But don\u2019t let that worry you too much. Medical science has advanced. You\u2019ve still got a long time to live.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry said it softly. \u201cFifty-five.&nbsp;<em>Thirty<\/em>&nbsp;<em>years<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lieutenant Archer looked at him pityingly. He said, \u201cOld timer, do you want it all in a lump, all the rest of the bad news? There are several items of it. I\u2019m no psychologist, but I think maybe it\u2019s best for you to take it now, all at once, while you can throw in the scale against it the fact that you\u2019re going back. Can you take it, McGarry?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There couldn\u2019t be anything worse than he\u2019d learned already \u2014 the fact that thirty years of his life had been wasted here. Sure, he could take the rest of it \u2014 as long as he was getting back to Earth, green Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He stared up at the violet sky, the red sun, the brown plain. He said quietly, \u201cI can take it, Lieutenant. Dish it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve done wonderfully for thirty years, McGarry. You can thank God for the fact that you believed Marley\u2019s spacer crashed on Kruger III. It wasn\u2019t Kruger III; it was Kruger IV. You\u2019d never have found it here, but the search, as you say, kept you \u2014 reasonably sane.\u201d He paused a moment. His voice was gentle when he spoke again. \u201cThere isn\u2019t anything on your shoulder, McGarry. This Dorothy has been a figment of your imagination. But don\u2019t worry about it; that particular delusion has probably kept you from cracking up completely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Slowly McGarry put his hand to his left shoulder. It touched \u2014 his shoulder. Nothing else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Archer said, \u201cMy God, man, it\u2019s marvelous that you\u2019re&nbsp;<em>otherwise<\/em>&nbsp;okay. Thirty years alone; it\u2019s almost a miracle. And if your one delusion persists, now that I\u2019ve told you it&nbsp;<em>is<\/em>&nbsp;a delusion, a psychiatrist back at Carthage or on Mars can fix you up in a jiffy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry said dully, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t persist. It isn\u2019t there now. I \u2014 I\u2019m not even sure, Lieutenant, that I ever&nbsp;<em>did<\/em>&nbsp;believe in Dorothy. I think I made her up on purpose, to talk to, so I\u2019d remain sane except for that. She was \u2014 she was like a woman\u2019s hand, Lieutenant. Or did I tell you that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou told me. Want the rest of it now, McGarry?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry stared at him. \u201cThe rest of it? What rest can there be? I\u2019m fifty-five instead of thirty. I\u2019ve spent thirty years \u2014 since I was twenty-five \u2014 hunting for a spacer I\u2019d never have found because it was on another planet. I\u2019ve been crazy \u2014 in one way, but only one \u2014 most of that time. But none of that matters, now that I can go back to Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lieutenant Archer was shaking his head slowly. \u201cNot back to Earth, old timer. To Mars, if you wish, the beautiful brown and yellow hills of Mars. Or, if you don\u2019t mind heat, to purple Venus. But not to Earth, old timer. Nobody lives there now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEarth \u2014 is \u2014 gone? I don\u2019t \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNot gone, McGarry. It\u2019s there. But it\u2019s black and barren, a charred ball. The war with the Arcturians, twenty years ago. They struck first, and got Earth. We got them, we won, we exterminated them, but Earth was gone before we started. I\u2019m sorry, old timer, but you\u2019ll have to settle for somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry said, \u201cNo Earth.\u201d There was no expression in his voice. No expression at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Archer said, \u201cThat\u2019s it, old timer. But Mars isn\u2019t so bad. You\u2019ll get used to it. It\u2019s the center of the solar system now, and there are four billion Earthmen on it. You\u2019ll miss the green of Earth, sure, but it\u2019s not so bad.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry said, \u201cNo Earth.\u201d There was no expression in his voice. No expression at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Archer nodded. \u201cGlad you can take it that way, old timer. It must be rather a jolt. Well, I guess we can get going. The tubes ought to have cooled by now. I\u2019ll check and make sure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He stood up and started toward the little spacer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry\u2019s sol-gun came out of its holster. McGarry shot him, and Lieutenant Archer wasn\u2019t there any more. McGarry stood up and walked over to the little spacer. He aimed the sol-gun at it and pulled the trigger. Part of the spacer was gone. Half a dozen shots and it was completely gone. Little atoms that had been the spacer and little atoms that had been Lieutenant Archer of the Space<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Patrol may have danced in the air, but they were invisible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry put the gun back into its holster and started walking toward the red splotch of jungle on the far horizon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He put his hand up to his shoulder and touched Dorothy and she was there, as she\u2019d been there for four of the five years he\u2019d been on Kruger III. She felt, to his fingers and to his shoulder, like a woman\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, Dorothy. We\u2019ll find it. Maybe this is the jungle it landed in. And when we find it \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was near the edge of the jungle now, the red jungle, and a tiger came running out to meet him and eat him. A mauve tiger with six legs and a head like a barrel. McGarry aimed his sol-gun and pulled the trigger, and there was a bright green flash, brief but beautiful \u2014 oh, so beautiful \u2014 and then the tiger wasn\u2019t there any more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>McGarry chuckled softly. \u201cDid you see that, Dorothy? That was green, the color there isn\u2019t any of on any planet but the one we\u2019re going to. The most beautiful color in the universe, Dorothy. Green! And I know where there\u2019s a world that\u2019s mostly green, the only one that is, and we\u2019re going there. It\u2019s the most beautiful place in the universe, Dorothy, and it\u2019s the world I came from. You\u2019ll love it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said, \u201cI know I will, Mac.\u201d Her low, throaty voice was familiar to him. It was not odd that she had answered him; she had always answered him. Her voice was as familiar as his own. He reached up and touched her, resting on his naked shoulder. She felt like a woman\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He turned and looked back over the brown plain studded with brown bushes, the violet sky above, the crimson sun. He laughed at it. Not a mad laugh, a gentle one. It didn\u2019t matter because soon he\u2019d find the spacer he was looking for and in it the parts that would repair his own spacer so he could get back to Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To the green hills, the green valleys, the green fields. Once more he patted the hand upon his shoulder and then turned back. Gun at ready, he entered the red jungle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">THE END<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Something Green is a short story by Fredric Brown, published in 1951 as part of the collection Space on My Hands. It tells the story of McGarry, a space explorer stranded for years on Kruger III, a hostile planet dominated by shades of red and violet. He survives by traversing dangerous jungles, armed with a solar-powered pistol and accompanied by Dorothy, a small creature that rests on his shoulder and keeps him company. Isolated and clinging to the memory of Earth and the green that once filled it, McGarry dreams of finding parts to repair his ship and return to the only world he calls home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[1445,552,570],"class_list":["post-24940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-short-stories","tag-fredric-brown-en","tag-science-fiction","tag-united-states","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":559,"label":"Short stories"}],"post_tag":[{"value":1445,"label":"Fredric Brown"},{"value":552,"label":"Science fiction"},{"value":570,"label":"United States"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/lecturia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Fredric-Brown-Algo-verde.webp",1024,1024,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Juan Pablo Guevara","author_link":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/author\/spartakku\/"},"comment_info":"","category_info":[{"term_id":559,"name":"Short stories","slug":"short-stories","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":559,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":419,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":559,"category_count":419,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Short stories","category_nicename":"short-stories","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":1445,"name":"Fredric Brown","slug":"fredric-brown-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1445,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":552,"name":"Science fiction","slug":"science-fiction","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":552,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":121,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":570,"name":"United States","slug":"united-states","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":570,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":294,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}