Small Town by Philip K. Dick Episode #39

Philip K. Dick | October 13, 2022

Small Town by Philip K. Dick Episode #39
Philip K. Dick

SMALL TOWN

Episode #39 · Written by Philip K. Dick · Narrated by Scott Miller

A worn-down man builds the perfect escape from an unforgiving world—an exact miniature replica of his town, right down to every streetlight and storefront. But when the real world pushes him too far, his model stops being a hobby… and starts becoming a way out.

Verne Haskel has spent his whole life being ignored, underestimated, and quietly pushed aside by the people of Woodland, the wealthy little California town where he has worked, lived, and slowly withered for more than twenty years. His boss doesn’t respect him, his neighbors barely acknowledge him, the clerks in town look down on him, and even his own wife speaks to him with exhaustion rather than affection. But there is one place where Verne is in control—one world that belongs entirely to him: the model town in his basement. Every street, every store, every building in perfect miniature. Built by hand. Maintained obsessively. Improved continually. A perfect copy of Woodland… until the day Verne decides to start changing things.

At first it feels harmless. A building removed here, a new one added there. A hateful boss erased from the map, replaced by something fitting. A store he never liked, gone. A bank that once denied him a loan? Replaced. Piece by piece, Verne begins reshaping the town the way it should have been—the way it would have been, if life had treated him fairly. But Verne isn’t just rearranging plywood and paint. His model world is becoming stronger in his mind than the real one, and the changes he makes in miniature begin to echo far beyond the basement. The question is no longer why he’s doing it. The question is: what happens when the model becomes the world he prefers—and the only one he’ll accept?

Small Town is one of Philip K. Dick’s most unsettling psychological stories, a blend of domestic realism, dark satire, speculative fantasy, and slow-burn horror. This isn’t a story about space travel, alien invasions, or future technology. It’s about what happens when a man quietly breaks under the weight of the ordinary world and finds a way to rewrite reality—one that finally listens to him, obeys him, and makes sense to him. Dick explores themes that became his trademarks: the fragility of identity, the instability of reality, and the frightening idea that the world is only as solid as the mind perceives it to be.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) is now regarded as one of the most influential science fiction authors of all time—a writer whose work has inspired films such as Blade Runner, Minority Report, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, The Adjustment Bureau, and The Man in the High Castle. But long before Hollywood discovered him, Dick was writing short stories like this one—stories about paranoia, altered worlds, shifting identities, and the terrifying power of belief. His work wasn’t about rockets and ray guns. It was about consciousness, perception, and the idea that what we call “reality” might be nothing more than a fragile agreement waiting to break.

Small Town perfectly showcases the early seeds of the themes that would later define his career. It’s funny, bitter, tragic, eerie, and unforgettable—a story that begins quietly and ends with a shock that forces the reader to question not just what happened, but what is possible. Like so much of Dick’s work, it lingers long after the final line, challenging us to ask: is the world we live in truly real? And if it isn’t… how would we know?

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Small Town by Philip K. Dick — a chilling tale of escape, control, and collapsing realities in this gripping piece of vintage science fiction.