Need the Title of a Sci Fi Story

[truemane]

Playground, O Playground! I call upon thee in my hour of greatest need!

I am trying to remember the author and/or title of a short story I read once upon a time when I was but a little truemane, and that creeped the living bejeebers out of me.

The plot, best as I can recall, involves a rich, bored woman wandering about her palatial estate, when she finds a level that turns off the trees. She flips it, the tree vanish. She asks her husband about it and he's like "Yeah the trees could always do that, don't you remember?"

And the next day she finds more levers and turns off the car and the sky and the house, leaving her and her husband alone on an alien landscape. Her husband gets all up in her face and there's some talk that maybe she's crazy or something. She's not having any of that so she flips the "Husband" lever and he vanishes.

And then she finds the "[HER NAME]" lever. She flips it. And end scene.

Cool right? Wouldn't you like to read it? I know I would.

I have a lint trap in the back of my head that usually keeps all this kind of stuff for me, but I cannot pull the title out of there and a great deal of Google searching involving "lever" and "trees" and "vanish" have been for naught. And the title of the story is definitely the main character's name.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? I read it in the mid-80's in a public school, so I can only imagine it was at least 5 - 10 years old at that point.

You know that feeling when someone's name is on the tip of your tongue? I've felt just like for, like, sever years now. Please save me.

BONUS QUESTION: I read this story in a collection of stories while in school. The collection also had a Shirley Jackson story in it called 'One Ordinary Day with Peanuts.' It might also have had 'Leiningen versus the Ants' and/or 'The Most Dangerous Game' as well (but I could be wrong about those). If you happen to know the name of that short story collection I swear to you I will write you a sonnet expounding upon your genius. I'm not kidding. A damn sonnet. Or a villanelle or even a sestina if that's more your speed. Your call.

The story title gets a lymerick.

Help me, Playground, you're my only hope.

[BWR]

Mariana by Fritz Leiber

I was unaware of the story before now, but a couple minutes of searching found it. My Guguru-fu is strong!
*flex*

Haven't been able to find a collection with both Mariana and OODwP

[truemane]

Good sir, I can't believe it! That's it! I bow to your superior Googlefuguru-isness!

And thank you!

As promised.

*AHEM*

Once truemane,with class and decorum,
Asked a really tough thing on a forum.
Then an internet star,
Named B.W.R.
Said, "With my Google-fu I'll sure show'im!"

*Bows*

*Brandishes Walking Stick*

*Billow Cape*

*Departs in hansom*

[BWR]

I think that's the first time anyone's made a poem in my honor. I'm oddly touched.

[truemane]

I am, above all, a poet of my word.

[DavidSh]

The collection that it appeared in, along with "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts" and "The Most Dangerous Game", was probably Early September: An Anthology of Short Stories edited by James A. MacNeill. See the entry in the Internet Science Fiction DataBase.

But SF: The Best of the Best, edited by Judith Merril, also had "Mariana" and "One Ordinary Day ...".

[2D8HP]

FWLIW, Fritz Leiber is one of my favorite authors.

Some of his post 1960's stuff gets a little sqwicky, but by and large just some damn good tales!

For his science fiction I recommend A Pail of Air, and for fantasy (oh there's just so nuch!), um.. The Howling Tower. .

Spoiler: Some other Fritz Leiber stories

Show

]
Induction

The Jewels in the Forest

The Bleak Shore

Lean Times in Lankhmar

In the Witch's Tent

The Circle Curse

The Sadness of the Executioner

Beauty and the Beasts

Sea Magic

The Cloud of Hate

[BWR]

FWLIW, Fritz Leiber is one of my favorite authors.

I've generally enjoyed what I've read of his stuff but I found "The Wanderer" a chore to get through. It's from '64 so that may align with your impression of his work.

[truemane]

The collection that it appeared in, along with "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts" and "The Most Dangerous Game", was probably Early September: An Anthology of Short Stories edited by James A. MacNeill. See the entry in the Internet Science Fiction DataBase.

But SF: The Best of the Best, edited by Judith Merril, also had "Mariana" and "One Ordinary Day ...".

That's the one! Amazing! Thanks so much! I can now spend the next couple of days absolutely mired in nostalgia.

You guys are great.

So, DavidSh, as promised:

For years untold tis been my only quest,
To find a piece of long-forgotten lore:
A book, whose words my younger self loved best
But name of which I could recal no more.
So one day I was on the internet,
I made a thread and asked some folks for aid:
"This book," I said, "I love but I forget
The name of which." And thus my plea was made.

And lo! I woke and saw that selfsame morn,
My Saviour Dave came riding thru the mist:
Upon his hands great store of wisdom borne,
With knowledge true, a stranger to asist.
....To fin'ly know was peace I could not feign.
....Cuz truth be told, that **** drove me insane.