Project Gutenberg's There Will Be School Tomorrow, by V. E. Thiessen

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: There Will Be School Tomorrow

Author: V. E. Thiessen

Release Date: July 5, 2009 [EBook #29317]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THERE WILL BE SCHOOL TOMORROW ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

_You will possibly shudder, but you will certainly remember for a
long time, this story of what happens when Tomorrow's gently
implacable teachers are faced with a problem for which there seems
to be only one solution...._

there
will
be
school
tomorrow

_by ... V. E. Thiessen_

There is a quiet horror to
this story from Tomorrow....

Evening had begun to fall. In the cities the clamor softened along the
streets, and the women made small, comfortable, rattling noises in the
kitchens. Out in the country the cicadas started their singing, and the
cool smell began to rise out of the earth. But everywhere, in the cities
and in the country, the children were late from school.

There were a few calls, but the robotic telephone devices at the schools
gave back the standard answer: "The schools are closed for the day. If
you will leave a message it will be recorded for tomorrow."

The telephones between houses began to ring. "Is Johnny home from school
yet?"

"No. Is Jane?"

"Not yet. I wonder what can be keeping them?"

"Something new, I guess. Oh, well, the roboteachers know best. They will
be home soon."

"Yes, of course. It's foolish to worry."

The children did not come.

After a time a few cars were driven to the schools. They were met by the
robots. The worried parents were escorted inside. But the children did
not come home.

And then, just as alarm was beginning to stir all over the land, the
robots came walking, all of the robots from the grade schools, and the
high schools, and the colleges. All of the school system walking, with
the roboteachers saying, "Let us go into the house where you can sit
down." All over the streets of the cities and the walks in the country