I'm trying to identify the source of a story I read once, any help appreciated.

I believe this was in a "science fiction" collection. It seems to me this must be by Bradbury, but I don't recall for certain - I looked through a Bradbury omnibus collection & could not find it.

The story goes something like this: a young brother and sister, walking home from school one day, encounter an elderly couple. They go in the couple's house and the old couple tell the children imaginative stories. The point is that creativity is outlawed or discouraged in the children's society and the old couple intentionally awakens their imagination via the stories. The children begin to visit regularly but needless to say the parents disapprove when they find out. I forget how it ends; I believe the old couple disappears but the children have already been "awakened".

Thanks for any help...

Almost sounds like a lesser known CS Lewis, but NOT Bradbury!

This turned out to be Greg Bear's "The White Horse Child". It is actually posted on-line at

http://www.webscription.net/ch...0/ERBAEN0030___2.htm

Thanks!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, for coming back to post the answer!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Quaestor:
This turned out to be Greg Bear...

Greg, eh? Whenever Ray is asked who he likes in the modern sci-fi field, he always answers Greg Bear.