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In this short story, (I remember I read it a few years ago) a little girl was sent to live on Venus by her parents, where everyone has to live inside a building and there's only sun there for one hour every a certain amount of years (I think 7 or 12 years). The other children in the school at that settlement become jealous of her, and when the sun comes out - the number one thing she loves, the sun - they lock her in a closet and forget about her as they enjoy the sunshine. Then they remember after the sun has gone and let her out, and that's where the short story ends.

I don't remember who wrote it, but if anyone knows this story please help me identify it!

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  • @Andres The last time this issue came up on meta it was "decided" that story-identification questions are not to be closed as duplicates unless both askers have confirmed (by acceptance or comment) that the answer is correct. I'm not sure the policy makes sense but there it is.
    – user14111
    Feb 19, 2016 at 2:14
  • It certainly doesn't make much sense in cases like this one, where we have several almost identical questions (I don't mean asking about the same story, I mean telling about the same things from that story), some of them with accepted answers. But I suppose in principle it's always possible that one of the askers actually read a very close adaptation by another author (it's much more likely with films, where the same underlying story can have two nearly identical film adaptations; but even with books, for example, Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Wizard of Emerald City can be easily confused).
    – January First-of-May
    Feb 19, 2016 at 10:14

1 Answer 1

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Ray Bradbury, All Summer in a Day.

An awfully sad story.

Margot is locked up, the kids have seen the sun, and now it has started raining again:

"Will it be seven more years ?"

"Yes. Seven."

Then one of them gave a little cry.

"Margot!"

"What?"

"She’s still in the closet where we locked her."

"Margot."

They stood as if someone had driven them, like so many stakes, into the floor. They looked at each other and then looked away. They glanced out at the world that was raining now and raining and raining steadily. They could not meet each other’s glances. Their faces were solemn and pale. They looked at their hands and feet, their faces down.

"Margot."

One of the girls said, "Well...?"

No one moved.

"Go on," whispered the girl.

They walked slowly down the hall in the sound of cold rain. They turned through the doorway to the room in the sound of the storm and thunder, lightning on their faces, blue and terrible. They walked over to the closet door slowly and stood by it.

Behind the closet door was only silence.

They unlocked the door, even more slowly, and let Margot out.

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  • +1 Well done! I added a quote as evidence this is the right answer. By the way, there is a film adaptation of this story.
    – Andres F.
    Feb 19, 2016 at 0:43
  • @AndresF. I would have probably added something myself, but 1. the question was so obvious (or seemed so to me) that I was afraid of having my answer beaten to the punch, and 2. I didn't really want to give any further quotes anyway, as, again, this is a really sad story.
    – January First-of-May
    Feb 19, 2016 at 0:49
  • Feel free to edit it out if you think it's giving too much away :) After all, it's your answer! But I thought it was ok to add the quote, since the question itself gives everything away...
    – Andres F.
    Feb 19, 2016 at 0:51
  • @AndresF. It's not as much "giving away" anything as I didn't want anyone reading this to become even sadder. Incidentally, duplicate, duplicate, kinda duplicate (first of these found right here in the "related" tab, the other two by following links).
    – January First-of-May
    Feb 19, 2016 at 0:58
  • @JanuaryFirst-of-May You missed this duplicate and this one!
    – user14111
    Feb 19, 2016 at 2:08

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