The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Stories

In 1860, Roger Button and his wife were living in Baltimore, USA. Mrs Button was in hospital, waiting to have her first baby. Mr Button hoped they would have a son, because he wanted to send him to Yale, one of the two most important colleges in the United States (Harvard is the other). He himself had studied at Yale.

On the morning the baby was expected to arrive, Mr Button got up early and hurried to the hospital. As he arrived, he saw Dr Keene, their family doctor, leaving.

"Dr Keene!", Mr Button called. "Oh, Dr Keene!"

The doctor turned and looked strangely at him.

"What happened?", asked Mr Button excitedly. "Is it a boy? How is my wife? Tell me! Is the child born?"

Dr Keene said darkly, "Well, you could say the child is born - in a way. He gave Mr Button another strange look".

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Now look here!", cried Dr Keene, suddenly very angry. "Go and see for yourself. It's most curious. I've never seen a case like it. And it's too bad! What about my good name as a doctor? You didn't think of that, did you?"

"What's the matter?", asked Mr Button, by now very worried.

"Go and see! And find yourself another doctor. I'm finished with you!" He turned and walked away very fast.

Mr Button could not think what had happened. He slowly went into the hospital, and spoke to the first nurse he met.

"Good morning", he said. "I... I am Mr Button".

The girl gave a frightened scream. "Upstairs!", she cried, showing him the stairs. "Go - go up!"

Mr Button went upstairs, where he met another nurse.

"I'm Mr Button", he said. "I... I want to see my child".

The nurse looked at him in disgust. "Come with me, Mr Button", she said, and took him to a large room with a number of new-born babies, each in its small cot.

"Well, which is mine?", asked Mr Button.

"There!", said the nurse, showing him one of the cots.

An old man, who looked about seventy years old, was sitting in a cot which was much too small for him. He had a large, white blanket round him. His thin hair was almost white and he had a long, grey beard.

"Am I crazy?", shouted Mr Button angrily. "Or are you playing some kind of game with me?"

"It doesn't seem like a game to us", said the nurse crossly, "But I can promise you, that's your child".

Mr Button hid his face in his hands. "What will people say?", he whispered. "What must I do?"

"You must take him home", said the nurse, "Immediately!"

Suddenly the old man said, in a thin, high voice, "Look here, if you think I'm going to walk home in this blanket, you're making a big mistake. And the clothes they've got for me here, well, they're much too small!"

"What shall I do?", Mr Button asked the nurse.

"Go and buy your son some clothes", she replied.

It was difficult for Mr Button to find the right thing. Babies' clothes were too small and boys' clothes were not suitable for a baby. In the end, he bought a fancy dress boy's suit, and ran back to the hospital with it.

The old man took one look at it and said, "I don't want people to laugh at me".

"Well, they're going to laugh at me!", replied Mr Button angrily. "Now put it on at once, or there'll be trouble!"

"All right, Father, you know best. Just as you say".

The sound of the word 'Father' suddenly gave Mr Button a really unpleasant surprise. Was this man, with his grey beard, his watery eyes and his old, yellow teeth really his baby son?

During the next few days, Mr Button had his son's beard shaved off, his hair dyed an unnatural black, and clothes made specially for him. Mr Button bought all kinds of toys, ordering his son to play with them, although it was clear that the old man was not really interested.

When people in Baltimore heard about Benjamin, they talked about nothing else for months. Benjamin himself was as puzzled as everyone else. "Why do I look and feel so old?", he wondered. He spent most of his time at home, reading books and secretly smoking his father's cigars.

By the time he was twelve years old, he still looked old. But one day, Benjamin looked in his mirror and discovered that under the dye his hair was grey, not white, and that his skin looked healthier.

When he was eighteen, he had a straight back like a man of fifty; he had more hair and it was dark grey. So his father made him take the examination to enter Yale College, and Benjamin was accepted. He was invited to see Mr Hart, the registrar.

"Good morning", said Mr Hart. "You've come to discuss your son, I suppose".

"No", said Benjamin. "I'm Benjamin Button".

"Now, Mr Button, you don't expect me to think that's true!"

Benjamin gave a tired smile. "I'm eighteen", he said.

The registrar pointed angrily at the door. "Get out of here!", he said. "You're crazy and dangerous!"

Benjamin left the office. On his miserable walk to the train station, he was followed by a large crowd of college students. They laughed and shouted at him.

"Call yourself eighteen! You're more like fifty!"

"This isn't an old people's home, you know!"

"Go to Harvard, why don't you!"

Benjamin walked faster, and soon he was running. "I'll show them!", he thought. "I will go to Harvard, and then they'll be sorry!" Safely on the train for Baltimore, he put his head out of the window. "You'll be sorry for this!", he shouted.

"Ha-ha!", the students laughed. "Ha-ha-ha!" It was the biggest mistake that Yale College ever made...

In 1880 Benjamin was twenty, and he went to work in his father's business. That year, his father took him to several fashionable dances. Roger was now fifty, and he and his son looked just like brothers.

One night in August, they drove to a dance at a country house. It was a lovely evening, with a full moon. Just as they arrived, they saw a family getting out of a carriage - a lady, an older man, then a beautiful young woman. As soon as Benjamin saw her, his heart suddenly began to beat loudly. It was first love.

The evening seemed awfully long to Benjamin until it was time for his dance with the young lady, Hildegarde Moncrief. But when the moment came, and he held her in his arms, he felt that his life was just beginning.

"I like older men", she told him. "Young boys are so stupid. They tell me how much they drink at college, and how much money they lose when they play cards. I think it's better for me to marry a man of fifty who'll take care of me, than to marry a man of thirty and take care of him".

Six months later, the people of Baltimore heard the surprising news that Hildegarde Moncrief was engaged to marry Benjamin Button. Her worried father told everyone, "It's terrible for a lovely girl like my daughter to throw herself into the arms of a fifty-year-old!" People asked each other, "Is she really going to marry Benjamin? And if she does, will they be happy together?"