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Short story about a man stranded on a red planet with a sentient hand as his friend


I remember reading a short story 10 to 15 years ago about a man stranded alone on a red planet, where nothing would be green, and so he would miss that color. There was a sentient hand to keep him company, and it talked to him. I don't remember if the hand was a native life form or his own hallucination.


The story was not very old at that time, so it may have been written in the late 90s or 00s.



Answer




I think this is “Something Green” by Fredric Brown.


Red planet. Check.



The big sun was crimson in a violet sky. At the edge of the brown plain, doted with brown bushes, lay the red jungle.



Sentient hand. Check.



The little five-limbed creature that rested on his shoulder didn’t answer, but then it never did. It couldn’t talk, but it was something to talk to. It was company. In size and weight it felt amazingly like a hand resting on his shoulder.



No green. Check.




"The most beautiful color in the universe, Dorothy. Green! And I know where there’s a world that’s mostly green, and we’re going to get there, you and I. Sure we are. It’s the world I came from, and it’s the most beautiful place there is, Dorothy. You’ll love it."



However, this dates from 1951, so this might not be the story you read, if you're sure it was more recent. Perhaps a reboot.


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