Ray Bradbury fans..

[steve w]

Please help me out here, as this is driving me nuts.

I heard a Ray Bradbury story on the radio some years ago, and now I can't find it published in any book. I don't know the title, so if anyone knows it, please PM me or post it here.

The storyline is this -

A boy grows up in a huge house, which is in the middle of a forest. The forest is so large that he has never been beyond it, and is forbidden to do so. [I believe his father is dead] Each morning, his mother gets him up and ready. he then makes his way through the house to a classroom. Here, a hooded teacher teaches him all day, alone, and then he goes back through the house to the kitchen at the end of each day. He never sees the face of his teacher. On each birthday, he is given the key to another room in the house, but other than the rooms he is given access to in this way, he cannot go into any other room.

I won't spoil the ending in case someone out there has it and hasn't read it. It's a truly magical, clever story, and I just want to acquire it so that I can enjoy it time and again.

Any ideas what it's called?

Thanks in advance...

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

It's got to be "Jack-in-the-Box".

Chilling little story.

EDITED TO ADD: Confirmed. It's called "Jack-in-the-Box"

 

[neonlyte]

Yeh, Jack in the Box. It's in an anthology called The October Collection.

Fairly certain it was originally written for the BBC, never published as a story until put into the collection. Then again... I'm hopeless with names.

 

[BlackShanglan]

I remember that one too. Freaky little thing.

 

[steve w]

Thanks all!

I shall now give Amazon some more profits and acquire it for my bookshelves.

And yeah, it is a kinda freaky tale, but so well put together.

Thanks again.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

If you like Bradbury but would also like something a little edgier, see if you can find anything by Charles Beaumont. He was a contemporary of Bradbury and wrote for TV a lot. I read some of his stuff when I was like 13 or 14, and some of it has stuck with me to this day.