Phantom Milkman, The-Jack Vance short story

Phantom Milkman, The-Jack Vance short story

The Phantom Milkman is a 12/13 page short story that was published initially in Other Worlds Science Stories in 1956.  The main character, Isabel Durbrow, moves alone into a rural cabin where she hopes her estranged husband cannot find her. She places an outgoing letter in her mailbox addressed to the local dairy requesting milk delivery.  But she notices that the letter disappeared from the mailbox before the mailman even arrived.  Isabel does begin to receive milk even though her letter seemed to have been intercepted, but the milk delivery is from a different dairy, one that none of the local people have ever heard of. Her cats do not like this milk but do like milk she buys at the store from a different dairy. So Isabel leaves a note stating that her cats do not like the milk and asking for deliver to be cancelled. She receives a return note from the company, however, refusing to cease delivery but offering to purchase additional items for her. Isabel cannot locate the address of the dairy or even a phone number and is also unable to catch the person as the milk is delivered. Vance informs us in the Introduction that the idea for this story came when he was visiting friends at an old farm house and a quart of milk mysteriously appeared on the doorstep on morning. The story is engaging to read and unpredictable. I’ve read it several times and rated it a 4 “Really liked it.”

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled The Dark Side of the Moon (1986)

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled Hard-Luck Diggings: The Early Works of Jack Vance, Volume 1 (2010)

Included in the Jack Vance collection titled World-Thinker and Other Stories (2017)