What happens
Bud Owen, a seventeen-year-old counterman at a Baltimore diner, is approached by Mr. Burrell, who says Bud is a local boy from Edgerton who was presumed drowned three years earlier. Mr. Burrell persuades Bud to return home, where his mother Judith and stepfather David Cunningham welcome him warmly, though a friend named Joe seems wary. Bud, uneasy about his reception, begins to notice odd details as the household's affairs come into focus. This is Suspense, the radio program, with an original air date of September 18, 1947, starring Donald O'Connor.
Baltimore diner and then the town of Edgerton, late 1940s
Characters: Bud Owen, Mr. Burrell, Judith, David Cunningham, Joe, Ellen, Mary Louise
Listen for: Bud's doubts about his welcome home and the tension with Joe
Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.