Abnormal Occurrences Read Online Free PDF Page A

brightest. He stared at Frank and then he put his pistol away.
    “You’re really a handsome guy!” the robber said. “I can’t take the money of anybody who looks as good as you do. I apologize for putting you to any trouble.” He shrugged as if in shame, turned, and walked rapidly away.
    Frank was so amazed that he continued to stand there. After a while a police car rolled up and stopped at the curb near him, and the beam of a powerful flashlight was directed into his eyes.
    “Say, fella, c’mere,” called the cop from his window, and Frank approached the car.
    “Oh, I’m sorry, sir,” the policeman said, and he lowered his light. “There are reports that a mugger is in the area, but I don’t suppose he would bother anyone as fine looking as you.”
    “He just went down that way,” said Frank.
    The cop begged his forgiveness again and drove on. Frank had now heard the testimony of two independent witnesses, neither of whom he had ever seen before. Of course, it was just barely possible that the wellwisher who had telephoned him had hired actors to impersonate the would-be robber and the cop and perform as they did so as to encourage him to believe he had become handsome, but that seemed extremely unlikely. Who would have a motive to befriend him in such a way? Certainly not anyone in his family. At the previous holiday season his mother and sister had entreated him to stay away from them on compassionate grounds, now that his father was no longer alive. Perhaps one of his fellow scientists: for example, the man he thought of as his best friend?
    Frank went home and called this individual.
    “Hi, Harvey. Frank. Say, would you be involved in some scheme to make me think I am handsome?”
    Harvey laughed heartily. “What a question! Certainly not, Frank. Look, as scientists we must accept the truth, even though it be uncomfortable. You’re ugly: that’s all there is to it. As long as you keep your mask on when you’re near me, though, I couldn’t care less. If you ever do take it off again in my presence I’ll throw acid at you. Bye.”
    Frank had never suspected that Harvey was capable of such extreme emotion: he had always seemed such a cold fish. But Frank was beginning to realize that human beings tend to have very strong feelings about how other people look, whether ugly or beautiful. He decided to put aside an investigation into who was responsible until it could be determined that something definitely had happened to him, for if the change was as remarkable as was suggested, then it was only basic scientific procedure to seek as much evidence as possible to bear upon the subject, pro or con.
    Next morning, whenever Frank was stopped at a red light on the route to the nuclear plant, persons in nearby cars smiled at him and if they were female they shouted from their windows proposals that were sometimes all but indecent. This sort of thing was altogether unprecedented in Frank’s experience, and he was uncertain as to what response he should make.
    But by the time he reached the plant so many overtures had been made to him that he had become a bit bolder and he was looking forward to encountering Linda, the female scientist who had only the day before fainted away on seeing how ugly he was. However, she was a bit late in arriving at work this morning, so he went ahead and suited up in his protective costume, including the mask, and when the lady did appear he forgot that his newly handsome face was concealed.
    “Good morning, Frank,” said she. “Please, for the love of God, don’t take off your mask again today. I think a second look at you would be the end of me altogether.”
    “Aha,” he answered through the aperture, “a surprise is in store for you, my dear lady!” And he tore away the headpiece of his suit.
    Linda now almost fainted from delight, and when she got herself together again she said, “You’re the handsomest man I have ever seen, Frank!” And she asked him how the