Originally published in 1969, Reading from I Am Legend, 1995, ORB, NY, pages182-195

At thirty Amelia has finally moved out on her own, away from her coddling and needy mother. She is feeling like her own person, even has a date with Author, her new boy friend. It is Author’s birthday this Friday night and Amelia cannot wait to give him the little Zuni Indian fetish doll she just purchased at a curio shop on Third Avenue. Author is an anthropology geek and will surely like this relic that even comes with a tiny scroll that declares in hand writing, “This is He Who Kills. He is a deadly hunter.” The doll also comes with a length of gold chain wrapped around his body that is not supposed to be removed…

Of course, by this point, you know the little devil doll is going to get loose and start taking some scalps off these giant whites. What distinguishes this tale is not the gripping hunt within apartment six-fourteen, which is very well done, but the character development. The fleshing out of the three human personalities in the cast is done through phone dialogue and Amelia’s angst-ridden thought process. The everyday concerns of Amelia with the appeasement of her mother and her own need to somehow also developing a relationship with Author, is very much female, very much civilized, and sets the stage for He Who Kills—now my favorite superhero—to go on the hunt!

In Prey Richard Matheson, a consummate writing professional, inserts a lot of rich nuance concerning our modern denatured existence and the looming menace to our softer side of a possible slide back into primitivism. I loved this story and would really like to see it as a film short.