Two visitors arrive on Earth expecting comfort, indulgence, and invisibility. They have done this before. Earth is rich, forgiving, and full of people who refuse to notice what stands directly in front of them. For these travelers, that blindness is not a risk—it is protection. They move freely through cities, eat without restraint, and treat the planet as a seasonal retreat meant to be consumed.
What they do not account for is how fragile that protection really is. A single shift in awareness, a moment where disbelief collapses, turns safety into exposure. When recognition spreads faster than they can flee, the rules they rely on no longer apply. Streets, crowds, and machines become unpredictable forces, and survival depends on whether invisibility can return in time.
“Con-Fen” blends sharp irony with dark humor, using a light touch to build toward a brutally specific outcome. The story escalates through misplaced confidence rather than malice, and its tension comes from watching certainty erode step by step. What begins as indulgence narrows into panic, and the final moments hinge on whether belief can be undone once it has taken hold.
James R. Adams published a small number of science fiction stories during the pulp magazine era, with work appearing in Planet Stories. “Con-Fen” stands as his most widely remembered piece, notable for its satirical take on alien contact and its unforgiving sense of narrative consequence. Rather than centering heroism or discovery, Adams focuses on entitlement, ignorance, and the hazards of assuming the universe will always look the other way.
