"Zero Hour" av Ray Bradbury . Wikipedia-sidan för The Whispers säger, inte riktigt korrekt:
It is based on the 1951 Ray Bradbury short story "Zero Hour" from The Illustrated Man.
Faktum är att "Zero Hour" först publicerades i Fall 1947 Planethistorier (tillgängligt på Internetarkiv ); reprinted i en 1948-fråga av Avon Fantasy Reader (finns även på Internetarkiv ), i 1949-antologierna Invasion från Mars: Interplanetary Stories och Min bästa Science Fiction Story , och i Bradburys samling 1951 Den Illustrerade Mannen ; och dramatiserades som episod 26 (23 november 1955) av radioprogrammet X Minus one . En TV-anpassning skickades den 10 januari 1992, som avsnitt 5.2 av Ray Bradbury Theatre .
Namnet stavas "Borra" med två l: s:
Mink banged away at the soup.
"Slow down," said Mom.
"Can't," said Mink. "Drill's waiting for me."
"Who's Drill? What a peculiar name," said Mom.
"You don't know him," said Mink.
"A new boy in the neighborhood?" asked Mom.
"He's new all right," said Mink. She started on her second bowl.
"Which one is Drill?" asked Mom.
"He's around," said Mink evasively. "You'll make fun. Everybody pokes fun. Gee, Darn."
"Is Drill shy?"
"Yes. No. In a way. Gosh, Mom, I got to run if we want to have the Invasion!"
"Who's invading what?"
"Martians invading Earth—well, not exactly Martians. They're—I don't know. From up. She pointed with her spoon.
"And inside," said Mom, touching Mink's feverish brow.
"You're laughing! You'll kill Drill and everybody."
"I didn't mean to," said Mom. "Drill's a Martian?"
"No. He's—well—maybe from Jupiter or Saturn or Venus. Anyway, he's had a hard time."
"I imagine." Mrs. Morris hid her mouth behind her hand.
"They couldn't figure a way to attack Earth."
"We're impregnable," said Mom in mock-seriousness.
"That's the word Drill used! Impreg— That was the word, Mom."
"My, my. Drill's a brilliant little boy. Two-bit words."
"They couldn't figure a way to attack, Mom. Drill says—he says in order to make a good fight you got to have a new way of surprising people. That way you win. And he says also you got to have help from your enemy."
"A fifth column," said Mom.
"Yeah. That's what Drill said. And they couldn't figure a way to surprise Earth or get help."
"No wonder. We're pretty darn strong," laughed Mom, cleaning up. Mink sat there, staring at the table, seeing what she was talking about.
"Until one day," whispered Mink melodramatically, "they thought of children!"