Back in high school I remember reading a short story about a girl named Mary Cross who stows away on a space ship that is headed to a planet that her brother is on. She doesn't know that with her added weight the ship won't make it, so she has to be "removed" from the ship. I'm not really positive that it is a Bradbury story, but does it ring any bells? I always thought it was Ray Bradbury, but I may be wrong. Thanks for the assistance!
`Amy

Titled: "The Cold Equation", not a Bradbury though! Leiber, maybe?!

The Cold Equations, a classic short story by Tom Godwin, shocked readers when it first appeared in 1954 and has caused controversy ever since. Godwin set up an impossible situation and gave readers no comfortable way to solve it. In the story, a space pilot is delivering medical supplies to a colony, when he discovers a stowaway. Unfortunately, every pound on the space ship will cause the ship to burn more fuel and the stowaway's weight -- if she were left on the ship -- would cause the ship to crash. With no ship available to come to the rescue, no excess weight to toss off and lives at stake, it becomes painfully clear that only one thing can happen. Mathematically, there is no way she can stay on the ship.
Copyright � 1996, Science Fiction Weekly�. Maintained by 70334.2433@compuserve.com

Subject of a 1996 movie and 1989 episode of "The New Twilight Zone," now driving me crazy, as I remember seeing this on an old, and I mean ancient, black-and-white, episode of something I thought was either "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" or "Twilight Zone." I recognized it as I'd read the story, but didn't watch it to the end. My mom couldn't stand the pain either.

By all accounts, the 1996 TV-movie was a pretty poor excuse for an adaptation of what is considered one of the cornerstone classics of Science Fiction for all time. There was also a 1955 radio play on "X Minus One," and a 1962 adaptation on a British TV series, "Out of this World," no longer in existence, so obviously not the one I'm thinking of. Still wondering just what I do remember seeing!

We've identified the story all right, but the TV show is turning out to be a real "Twilight Zone" moment! The 1962 adaptation on the British TV series, "Out of this World," starring Jane Asher, is by far the best contender, being the right vintage, except for a few little details: the website where I found it says only 13 episodes were ever made, and the only one still in existence is Asimov's "Little Lost Robot." Also, I don't remember the actors being British. The radio play and the two movies are automatically out of the running because what I saw was black-and-white, on television, certainly aired after we got color TV, and almost certainly before 1989! It was several years after I read the story. According to my handy reference list, I finished the book containing this story on May 7, 1978. My idea of where I might have seen this was, KREM, a Spokane station, had the "First and Last Golden Days of Television" around 1975. It proved so successful they had a "Second and Last Golden Days of Television" and continued for several years; it can't have been more than 10 or 12, so I'm guessing this took place early to mid-1980s, several years after I read the story, but probably before 1989! (Their marathons ran in early September, but even if this was part of one, I don't suppose folks at the station would know now.) My recollection is this: I caught a few minutes of the show, which I got the impression was an episode of Hitchcock or some suspense program, as my mom was watching. I can just picture the girl in it, too. If I could see a picture of Jane Asher in "Out of this World" I could tell immediately if this was her. This girl was older than the one in the story, who was 16. I would guess the actress to be perhaps some 10 years older than that. She kind of resembled Lois Lane on the 1950s "Superman" series, had that sort of short dark haircut, the classic facial structure and slightly overly-dramatic manner of some actresses of that time, what I mean is she was like someone out of the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" as far as style. I felt the show to be extremely low-budget, like slightly lower-tech than "Star Trek," with just a sort of stage to represent the space ship, elevator door to be the storage closet door she came out of, and so on. I KNOW it was this story as I immediately recognized it, and being on my way somewhere, did not want to stop to watch. When I came home, Mom said she had shut it off--she "couldn't stand the suspense," but wanted to know the ending, which I told her. This has me baffled. I was just so sure it would turn out to be a Hitchcock episode!