Chapter 34 Chapter Thirty-Four

The sun came out and shone down on them.A bird was singing, and a warm breeze was blowing through the trees, lifting the heads of the flowers and spreading their fragrance across the trees.An insect was buzzing on its way, doing what insects should do in the afternoon. There was a human voice jumping in the forest, accompanied by two girls who stopped in surprise.I saw Prefect Ford and Arthur Dent lying on the ground. At first glance, they seemed to be in pain, but when I looked again, they were rolling with laughter. "No, don't go," cried Prefect Ford, between gasps, "we've come to keep you company."

"What happened?" asked one of the girls. She was the taller, slender one, and she had been a junior personnel officer on Golga Flintham, but she didn't like that job, Ford kept his emotions in check. "Excuse me," he said, "Hello. My friend and I are thinking about the meaning of life. Just a thought exercise that doesn't matter." "Oh, it's you," said the girl, "you've had a blast this afternoon. You were funny at first, but then you lost your temper." "I'm mad, oh yes." "Yeah, why get mad?" another girl asked.

She is short, round-faced, once an art director for a small ad agency on Golga Flintham, and goes to bed every night deeply grateful to fate, for all the scarcity of the world —whatever problems she has to face when she wakes up in the morning, they will never be a hundred nearly identical pictures of toothpaste commercials again. "Why, do nothing," said Prefect Ford cheerfully. "Come and join us. My name is Ford, and this is Arthur. We're going to do nothing for a while." The girls looked at them suspiciously. "My name is Akita," said the tall one, "this is Meto."

"Hello, Akita; hello, Meto," said Ford. "Can you talk," Meera asked Arthur. "Oh, sure," said Arthur, laughing, "but not as much as Ford." "very good." There was a short silence. "What do you mean," Akita asked, "that it's only two million years old' I don't understand what you're talking about." "Oh, that," said Ford, "forget about it." "It means that this world will be destroyed to make room for a hyperspace interrogation channel." Arthur shrugged, "but that will be two million years later, and it's just that the Vogons are doing what they want to do for the Vogons. It's just what the Gong people have to do."

"Vogon?" Meera asked. "Yes, you won't know about them." "Where do you know all these things?" "It doesn't matter, really, it's like a dream from the past, or from the future," said Arthur, looking off into the distance, laughing. "Your words are crazy, aren't you worried?" Ajida asked. "Listen, forget about that," said Ford, "forget about all this nonsense. It doesn't matter. Look, what a day, enjoy it. The sun, the greenness of the mountains, the river in the valley, and burning trees;" "It's a horrible thing to even dream about:" Meto said, "destroying a world just to build a passage,"

"Oh, I've heard worse," said Ford, "I've read that the seventeenth-dimensional planet Yihao was thrown into a black hole as balls in an intergalactic tavern pool game. 10 billion people died." "It's just crazy," Meera said. "That's enough, and it's only worth 30 points," Ajda and Meera exchanged glances. "Look," said Akita, "there's a party tonight after the committee meeting. You can come with us if you want." "Great," said Ford. "I would," said Arthur. Many hours later Arthur and Meera sat together, watching the moon rise above the dull red light of the burning trees.

"The story about the destruction of the world," Meera began. "Two million years from now, yes." "Listening to you, it's almost the same as straight things," "Yes. I think so, I think I was there." She shook her head in bewilderment. "You're a queer man," she said. "No, I'm very ordinary," said Arthur, "except that some very strange things have happened to me: it is better to say that I have been chosen to undergo these strange experiences. These are not I voluntarily choose." "What about the other world your friend told about? The one that was shot into a black hole like a billiard ball."

"Oh, I don't know, sounds like something from that book." "what book?" Arthur paused '' he said finally. "What book is that?" "Oh, just the one I threw into the river this evening. I don't think I'll need it any more," said Arthur Dent.