You are listening to a Clarks World magazine podcast with your host and narrator Kate Baker

readings Clark's World Citizens. I hope this podcast finds you extraordinarily well

Our sixth story for the month of September 2015 is titled Henary Land and is by Tom Pertum.

Tom lives in downtown Philadelphia where he spends his days writing science fiction,

reviewing classical music for an online publication called The Broad Street Review,

and pursuing the pleasures of urban life.

Tom started reading science fiction in 1950

when it was just emerging from the Pulp Ghetto

and sold his first story in 1957,

just before he turned 21. In the last 25 years he has produced a string of

novettes and short stories that have mostly appeared in Asimov's. Fantastic books recently published two collections of his Asimov stories,

Lovers and Fighters, Starships and Dragons and Romance on Four Worlds,

The Casanova Quartet.

So, sit back, relax,

and let me tell you a story.

Back home in Delaware County, in the area that was generally known as the Philadelphia region, The three guys talking to George Spar would probably have been

descended from long dead ancestors who had immigrated from Sicily. Here, on the moon, they were probably the sons of parents who have been born in Taiwan or in Thailand.

They had good contacts, the big one explained, with the union that represented the musicians who played in eateries like the 12 stages cafe.

If George wanted to continue sawing on his viola 12 hours a day, 13 days out of 14, it would be to his advantage to accept their offer.

If he declined, someone else would take his place in the string quintet that the diners and lunchers ignored while they chatted.

On earth, George had played the viola because he wanted to.

The performance system he had planted in his nervous system was top of the line, state of the art.

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