Review: "I'll Kill You Tomorrow" by Helen Huber

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Nurse Lorry Kane (who should have been named Candy) walks into the “basket room” of the maternity ward on the night shift. The room is silent. Not a whimper escapes from the thirty-odd bundles of joy before her. Her blonde hair tightens at the roots. Her nurse/spidey sense tells her something is wrong before her brain can begin to puzzle anything out. “Thirty babies—dead? That was the thought that flashed, unbidden into Lorry’s pretty head.” I’m not making that up. She reaches down and picks up a random baby—one of those things who would in reality squawk or spit up on such a preoccupied nurse. Baby Boy Newcomb is warm and very much alive. Ancient eyes glare at her from a week-old body. The infant’s hand reaches for her throat, fingers searching for her windpipe. But the fingers are too weak to do her any damage. Nevertheless, she pulls the baby away from her. She hears: “Careful, you fool! You’ll drop this body.” The voice comes from the infant. Lorry nearly faints, collapsing into a chair. Her training keeps her from dropping the malicious bundle of… hmmm. This does pose a problem, doesn’t it? Like so many B-movie villains, the baby then launches into a description of its plans for murderous world domination now that thirty of its kind have come through at the same time. They might have to wait till they get a little bigger and stronger, but then—then—just look out people of earth! What does this trained professional nurse do with this information? Why, what any professional would. She goes running to her boyfriend, a doctor whom she finds smoking a cigarette on the third floor. She first asks to be comforted, then told she’s not crazy. After the all-wise doc is convinced there’s a real, um, threat, he at first declines to do anything. After all, what can they do? When he does at last decides to act, he protects her (such a GOOD boyfriend). If I had a rating scale, I might place this somewhere between snicker for its not-too-bright chatty Stewie Griffin and ICK for its silly depiction of a capable female nurse. I couldn’t find anything else written by Helen Huber or any bio information on her. I did find an obituary of a 79-year-old Helen Elizabeth Ruth Talbert Huber who passed away in 2007. This would make her the right age. According to her obituary, Ms. Huber graduated with honors from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana and later served on its faculty. It also refers to her as a “gifted writer,” citing a book titled Homemaker/Home Health Aide that appears to have published in 1979 with two other authors. She was also a radio DJ. This Ms. Huber led an interesting life. I don’t know if she’s the same person as the author of the story, however. This story is available from Project Gutenberg and as an audiobook from Librivox: _____ Title: “I’ll Kill You Tomorrow” Author: Helen Huber First published:If November 1953 Source: ISFDB