The Midnight Reading: "Incident on a Lake"
Fireside Mystery Theatre
Fireside Mystery Theatre
4.5 • 626 Ratings
🗓️ 9 September 2018
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Midnight Reading is a special series of dramatic readings of lost classics from the world of macabre fiction that have inspired our show, **[Fireside Mystery Theatre](https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com)**. We hope to encourage you, dear listeners, to embrace the joy of books and to build your own collection of dark literature.
Hosted by Ali Silva
"Incident on a Lake” by John Collier — read and performed by Mary Murphy
Created and produced by Gustavo Rodriguez & Ali Silva for Fireside Mystery Productions
Written by Silbin Sandovar
Post-production audio by Ali Silva
Theme music by Martina DaSilva
Audio recording engineered by Wayne Silver at The Ice Plant Studio in New York City
Copyright 2018 Fireside Mystery Productions
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For upcoming live shows go to: **[firesidemysterytheatre.com](https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com)** /// **[@firesidemystery](https://www.firesidemysterytheatre.com/social)**
#shortstories #darkfiction #weirdfiction #books #literature #reading #fiction #greatauthors #horror #mystery #macabre #unexpected #library #marriage #travel #exotic #jungle #mysterious #ripleysbelieveitornot #weird #strangecreatures #humor #darkcomedy #satire #johncollier
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In the dark of night, one light still yet burns. |
| 0:09.0 | Frightened fingers tremble as brittle pages turn. |
| 0:14.5 | Fireside Mystery Theater presents The Midnight Reading, |
| 0:17.8 | a special series of dramatic recitations of dark masterpieces in miniature by the Masters of the Macab. |
| 0:25.7 | Good evening. I'm Ali Silva. |
| 0:35.7 | Now where is it? |
| 0:38.4 | Is it on this shelf? |
| 0:40.4 | Oh, what's this one? |
| 0:41.9 | No, I remember leaving it here. |
| 0:43.9 | Ah, is that it? |
| 0:45.2 | Ah, yes, that's it. |
| 0:46.7 | Here we go. |
| 0:48.0 | It's got quite a bit of dust on it. |
| 0:52.5 | As you can tell, it took a little work to find this old tome in our fireside mystery |
| 0:58.4 | theatre collection of old and rare books, but here it is, a lovely old edition of John Collier's |
| 1:04.7 | splendid anthology of strange stories, Fancy's and Good Nights, first published in 1951. |
| 1:11.7 | Fancy's and Good Nights is without argument, the definitive book in which Collier's reputation |
| 1:16.8 | still rests to this day. Let's see. I put my bookmark right here. Yes, here's the story. |
| 1:23.5 | A dark and dusky little gem cold, Incident on a Lake. Here to read it for you is our own Mary Murphy. Mr. Beasley, while shaving on the day after his 50th birthday, eyed his reflection |
| 1:48.4 | and admitted his remarkable resemblance to a mouse. |
| 1:54.1 | "'Cheep, cheap,' he said to himself with a shrug. |
| 1:58.2 | "'What do I care? At least I wouldn't except for Maria. I remember I thought |
... |
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