What's this "aliens stole our metal" SF short?

November 21, 2008 10:24 AM

Another "ID this SF story" question...a man wakes up in the night to discover (so he thinks) that all the metal in his house is gone.

The man quickly jumps to the conclusion that aliens(?) have somehow stolen all the metal in the world, all at once. He runs away, lives in a cave, I think fights a lion, etc etc. Some time later he discovers that he is completely wrong and there was a logical explanation for all the things that made him think that metal was no more (light switches/electricity not working, lighter casing missing, etc etc).

That's pretty much all I've got. Help?

posted by attercoppe to writing & language (3 answers total)

It's not science fiction, but this important educational film might help: Zinc Oxide and you!
posted by zippy at 10:37 AM on November 21, 2008 [1 favorite]

I don't know, but I sort of remember this story too. Possibly something I read in middle school?
posted by paulg at 4:36 PM on November 21, 2008

I have never read this story but the place to go for these questions is rec.arts.sf.written. These people are monsters of SF story identification.
posted by Kattullus at 7:53 AM on November 30, 2008