So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Prologue: "Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun." / Chapter 1: "That evening it was dark early, which was normal for the time of year."

Chapter 1 (continued): "Of course, one never has the slightest notion what size or shape different species are going to turn out to be..."

Chapter 1 (continued): "The figure paused to examine the barrier and then dropped the bag he was carrying over it before climbing over himself." / Chapter 2: "Rob McKeena was a miserable bastard and he knew it..."

Chapter 2 (continued): "Since he had left Denmark the previous afternoon, ..."

Chapter 3: "The next two lorries were not driven by Rain Gods, but they did exactly the same thing."

Chapter 4: "Whether it was because he was drunk, ill or suicidally insane would not have been apparent to a casual observer, ..."

Chapter 4 (continued): "'What?' said Ford. He seemed a little taken aback."

Chapter 4 (continued): "'You gonna die, boy,' the barman murmured quietly at Ford Prefect, and the evidence was on his side."

Chapter 5: "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a powerful organ. Indeed, its influence is so prodigious that strict rules have had to be drawn up by its editorial staff to prevent its misuse."

Chapter 5 (continued): "'Want some?' he said, after he'd had a swig himself."

Chapter 5 (continued): "At the end of the alley a steel grey limousine crawled past."

Chapter 5 (continued): "This was a planet he had seen completely destroyed, ..."

Chapter 5 (continued): "Arthur Dent was one thousand, four hundred and thirty-seven light years away in a Saab, and anxious."

Chapter 5 (continued): "Russell hooted his horn fiercely at the car that came round the corner towards them half-way on to their side of the road, making them swerve. The anger seemed to make him feel better."

Chapter 5 (continued): "Arthur whirled round in his seat and stared into her suddenly open but utterly vacant eyes."

Chapter 5 (continued): "'That was the moment she cracked up. She was in a cafe somewhere. Rickmansworth.'"

Chapter 6: "From here it was a four-mile walk to his village: a further mile to the turning, to which the abominable Russell had now fiercely declined to take him, and from there a further three miles of winding country lane."

Chapter 6 (continued): "This prompted Arthur to go and peer at the window again, this time with an eye not for the asphyxiating emu but for himself."

Chapter 6 (continued): "The fact that it was Will made the choice easier. It wasn't that Arthur disliked him as such — Will was quite fun." / Chapter 7: "His house was still there."

Chapter 7 (continued): "The room was much as he had left it, i.e. festeringly untidy, ..."

Chapter 7 (continued): "Entranced, Arthur turned it round yet again, and this time the light from the dusty little bedside lamp caught it at a different angle and glittered on some fine abrasions on the fish bowl's surface."

Chapter 7 (continued): "Instead, there was Arthur Dent the smooth and casual, in corduroys and a chunky sweater."

Chapter 7 (continued): "He was following the Earth through its days, ..." / Chapter 8: "Arthur awoke feeling wonderful, absolutely fabulous, refreshed, overjoyed to be home."

Chapter 8 (continued): "Between them they killed a virulent space disease he's picked up without knowing it in the Flargathon Gas Swamps a few days earlier, ..."

Chapter 8 (continued): "Six conversations along these lines began to take their toll on his mood of vigorous, dynamic optimism, ..." / Chapter 9: "He accepted another pint and took a pull at it."

Chapter 9 (continued): "He waited patiently while the next round was duly distributed."

Chapter 10: "'At the third stroke it will be one ... thirty-two ... and twenty seconds.' 'Beep ... beep ... beep.'"

Chapter 10 (continued): "He double-checked the computer display above the freezer bed, dimmed the lights and checked it again."

Chapter 11: "'April showers I hate especially.' However noncommittally Arthur grunted, the man seemed determined to talk to him."

Chapter 11 (continued): "The reason he was wrong was standing by the slip road under a small umbrella."

Chapter 11 (continued): "'So ...' he said, hoping to kick the conversation off to an exciting start."

Chapter 12: "There is, for some reason, something especially grim about pubs near stations, a very particular kind of grubbiness, a special kind of pallor to the pork pies."

Chapter 12 (continued): "'I wonder if you'd like to buy some tickets for our raffle? It's just a little one.'"

Chapter 12 (continued): "She twirled the little wooden cocktail stick in her tomato juice."

Chapter 12 (continued): "She sipped demurely at her tomato juice and looked at her watch."

Chapter 13: "That night, at home, as he was prancing round the house pretending to be tripping through cornfields in slow motion and continually exploding with sudden laughter, ..."

Chapter 14: "'Ring ring.' 'Ring ring.' 'Ring ring.' 'Hello, yes? Yes, that's right. Yes. You'll 'ave to speak up, there's an awful lot of noise in 'ere. What?'" / Chapter 15: "Eight hours West sat a man alone on a beach mourning an inexplicable loss."

Chapter 15 (continued): "And somewhere on this good boffo stretch of coastline lay the house of this inconsolable man, ..." / Chapter 16: "After a disgusting Sunday spent emptying rubbish bins behind a pub in Taunton, ..."

Chapter 16 (continued): "'You going to ask me where I was yesterday?' asked the man. 'Eh?'" / Chapter 17: "Misery, dejection. More misery and more dejection. He needed a project and he gave himself one."

Chapter 17 (continued): "'OK, skip that,' said the man in the shop. 'How?'" / Chapter 18: "A summer's day in Islington, full of the mournful wail of antique-restoring machinery."

Chapter 18 (continued): "This wasn't quite the response he had expected, so he tried again."

Chapter 18 (continued): "They looked at each other for a moment."

Chapter 18 (continued): "She closed the upstairs front door which had stood open all this time, ..." / Chapter 19: "Ford Prefect was irritated to be continually wakened by the sound of gunfire."

Chapter 19 (continued): "He came upon another, much larger three-dimensional screen..." / Chapter 20: "'The purpose of having the sun go low in the evenings, in the summer, especially in parks,' said the voice earnestly, ..."

Chapter 20 (contined): "It is a park in which people do more extraordinary things than they do elsewhere."

Chapter 20 (continued): "'So let me give you the layout. Me sitting at the table. On my left, the newspaper. On my right, the cup of coffee. In the middle of the table, the packet of biscuits.'"

Chapter 20 (continued): "'What?' said Fenchurch. 'What?'"

Chapter 20 (continued): "'Well, I ...' said Arthur, his composure suddenly shattered."

Chapter 20 (continued): "'What ...?' 'I know it sounds crazy, and everybody says it was hallucinations, ...'"

Chapter 20 (continued): "She put her hand on his knee, which made him realize that the tingling going up and down his spine was not her gently stroking his back, ..."

Chapter 20 (continued): "'Can we go to them?'" / Chapter 21: "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is, as has been remarked before often and accurately, a pretty startling kind of a thing."

Chapter 21 (continued): "Not that Fire Dragons weren't an essentially peace-loving species, because they were." / Chapter 22: "The night in Islington was sweet and fragrant."

Chapter 22 (continued): "Arthur put Dire Straits on the stereo."

Chapter 22 (continued): "She did another of the shrugs which would have brought such joy into the life of a simple cushion from Squornshellous Beta." / Chapter 23: "The battle raged on about the star of Xaxis."

Chapter 23 (continued): "In his dream he was walking late at night along the East Side, beside the river which had become so extravagantly polluted that new lifeforms were now emerging from it spontaneously, demanding welfare and voting rights."

Chapter 24: "Luckily there was a strong updraft in the alley because Arthur hadn't done this sort of thing for a while, at least, not deliberately, and deliberately is exactly the way you are not meant to do it."

Chapter 24 (continued): "He slowly, very, very slowly, lifted his head to Fenchurch, who was standing in silent breathless amazement, silhouetted in her upstairs doorway."

Chapter 24 (continued): "Arthur was alarmed to see that someone down in the alley was trying to steal her bicycle." / Chapter 25: "Those who are regular followers of the doings of Arthur Dent may have received an impression of his character and habits..."

Chapter 25 (continued): "... when Arthur found himself sitting on a hillside watching the moon rise over the softly burning trees..." / Chapter 26: "Arthur Dent allowed himself for an unworthy moment to think, ..."

Chapter 26 (continued): "Physics glanced at Arthur, and clotted with horror he was gone too, sick with giddy dropping, every part of him screaming but his voice."

Chapter 26 (continued): "They felt, even Fenchurch, now protected from the elements by only a couple of fragments from Marks and Spencer, ..."

Chapter 26 (continued): "By the time her two inexplicable people finally slipped back off the wing and tumbled into the slipstream she had cheered up an awful lot." / Chapter 27: "'This is all very wonderful,' said Fenchurch a few days later."

Chapter 27 (continued): "It's the absolute stocking top truth. All documented in his little black book, ..."

Chapter 28: "'People are beginning to talk,' said Fenchurch that evening, after they had hauled her 'cello in."

Chapter 28 (continued): "'Where is the Asylum?' Arcane Jill Watson again." / Chapter 29: "'This is an important announcement. ...'"/ Chapter 30: "They rented a car in Los Angeles..."

Chapter 30 (continued): "Their mood lifted further as the sun began to move down the western half of the sky, ..." / Chapter 31: "If you took a couple of David Bowies and stuck one of the David Bowies on the top of the other David Bowie, ..."

Chapter 31 (continued): "There were little sandpipers running along the margin of the shore which seemed to have this problem: they needed to find their food in the sand which a wave had just washed over, but they couldn't bear to get their feet wet."

Chapter 31 (continued): "... whenever they were mentioned, and had shown them quite proudly round the eccentricities of his house."

Chapter 31 (continued): "They went out on to the beach, which was where he started talking about angels with golden beards and green wings and Dr Scholl sandals."

Chapter 31 (continued): "They both became aware that Wonko the Sane was glancing sharply backwards and forwards between them, and trying to get a gasp in edgeways."

Chapter 32: "The deep roar of the ocean. The break of waves on further shores than thought can find." / Chapter 33: "That night they stayed Outside the Asylum and watched TV from inside it."

Chapter 34: "On the way home there was a woman sitting next to them on the plane who was looking at them rather oddly." / Chapter 35: "They went to Arthur's house in the West Country, ..."

Chapter 35 (continued): "He staggered into Arthur's sitting room, waving aside all offers of support, ..."

Chapter 35 (continued): ""And this guy," ranted Ford, "was on a drive to sell more of them! ..."

Chapter 36: "The flying saucer in which Ford Prefect had stowed away had stunned the world."

Chapter 36 (continued): "'With someone who knows where the gin bottle is? Do I get to meet her?'" / Chapter 37: "'Ford Prefect,' said Arthur. 'I may have mentioned him in passing.'"

Chapter 37 (continued): "Immediate preparations were made for its departure." / Chapter 38: "Crowds thronged as close as they could to the giant silver craft, which wasn't very."

Chapter 38 (continued): "The inner perimeter fence was now being dismantled."

Chapter 38 (continued): "'All right, I want you to clear a passage, please, for some important pieces of scientific equipment,' boomed Ford." / Chapter 39: "Arthur Dent was irritated to be continually wakened by the sound of gunfire."

Chapter 39 (continued): "He clambered through a bulkhead door and found himself in a larger corridor." / Chapter 40: "There remains little still to tell."

Chapter 40 (continued): "They realized they were not the first to pass that way, ..."

Chapter 40 (continued): "'What is it?' whispered Fenchurch in alarm, crouching behind Arthur, and grasping on to his arm."

Chapter 40 (continued): "Between them they picked him up despite his feeble protests and insults."

Chapter 40 (continued): "They rounded the foot of the Quentulus Quazgar Mountains, and there was the Message ..." / Epilogue: "One of the greatest benefactors of all lifekind was a man who couldn't keep his mind on the job in hand."

Epilogue (continued): "He was also, partly because of this, of a rather irritable disposition."