SELLER OF THE SKY

Episode #489 · Written by Dave Dryfoos · Narrated by Scott Miller

In a future sealed beneath plastic domes, one old man walks freely between cities, telling stories that sound impossible to those who have never felt wind or seen open sky. Adults tolerate him at best, fear him at worst, but children listen closely and carry his words longer than they should.

When two siblings grow old enough to challenge the promises they’ve been hearing since childhood, belief turns into a demand for proof. What follows is not an adventure fueled by optimism, but a slow, physical test shaped by cold, distance, and the limits of bodies raised under shelter.

Seller of the Sky unfolds with restraint and quiet confidence, allowing silence, exposure, and simple human endurance to carry the story forward. The tension lies not in what might happen, but in what must be faced once protection is removed and there is no way to soften the experience.

This is a story about inheritance — not of land or power, but of memory and permission. It asks what happens when a generation raised in safety is finally handed something real, fragile, and irreversible.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dave Dryfoos was an American science fiction writer whose work appeared in the leading sci-fi magazines of the day, including Astounding Science Fiction and Galaxy Science Fiction, during the 1940s and 1950s. His stories often centered on ordinary people confronting futures shaped by caution and unintended distance from the natural world.

Seller of the Sky stands as one of Dryfoos’s most widely remembered stories, frequently reprinted and discussed for its emotional precision and grounded approach. Rather than relying on technological spectacle, the story reflects Dryfoos’s talent for placing human bodies and human limits at the center of speculative change.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Seller of the Sky by Dave Dryfoos — a vintage science fiction short story where a sealed future collides with one irreversible choice.

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