This Way to the Egress

"This Way to the Egress" by Andrew Fetler is an early 1960s science fiction short story where Mr. Coat, the main person in the story, finds himself in a strange world filled with adults but haunted by the impossible sounds of children, exploring the big ideas of what is real, how we see the world, and a general feeling of fear and doom. He is uncomfortable in a small village and finds that the noises continue to bother him. His conversations with Mrs. Tilton, the person who rents him a room, create more unease when he finds a message that suggests a scary plan about ending lives. His journey through the surreal world heightens Mr. Coat's confusion, eventually building to a moment of thought as he does simple tasks. The story mixes thoughts about society with tension in the mind, causing people to think about what it means when youth and innocence are missing from the world