"Am I Going Psycho? Or Were Those Voices Real?"

"The Voices."

By Edward Wellen (1919-2011; Wikipedia DE HERE; the ISFDb HERE; and the SFE HERE).

First appearance: Universe Science Fiction, March 1954.

Illustrated by Joseph Eberle (1926-2006; ISFDb HERE).

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Short short short story (3 pages).

Online at SFFaudio (HERE).

   "God. What have I done?"

THERE are people who claim that they have ESP and don't seem to find it a burden, but the central character in today's story might have cause for complaint . . .

Main characters:

~ Nicholas Kane and Mrs. Kane.

References (all links are to Wikipedia):

- "have ESP" (HERE).

- "the bit of graphite" (HERE).

- "mercurochrome and bandage" (HERE).

- "chromium-cobalt alloy" (HERE).

- "crystals of carborundum" (HERE).

- "the galena crystals used in the old crystal radio sets" (HERE).

Resources:

- Edward Wellen's stories swerved between crime fiction and science fiction. He scored big in SF with his "Origins of —" series of "non-fact" spoofs; links to all of them are collected (HERE). Two of his shorter SFnals, "While-You-Wait" and "Finger of Fate," are both covered (HERE), and a crime fiction story, "Bannerman Collection," is (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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