Everything began in a fit of absentmindedness. Homer probably didn't even know that Lethe's quiet waters have their source in our world. And, since every effect has a cause (which in turn is an effect), it may be that forgetfulness made its appearance with the first stirrings of life, as did life's negation, death.

Homer Hidden was sitting in the cabin of an express car that was taking him from Mobile across Alabama to Huntsville on the Tennessee border.

His eyes were fixed on the tachometer needle which hovered around the 590 mph mark, but his thoughts were moving into the past, a time of cruel agitation for him, and into the even more difficult future that awaited him at Houndsville, as he had ironically dubbed the city of his destination. Yet, though his thoughts were grim, they gave him no hint of the terrible thrill in store for him in the next four minutes. How could his weak mind, which had so little insight into his own nature, have doubted the competence of the tiny electronic brain which was guiding him, cushioned on air, over the concreteand- titanium super-highway? Why did he have to quarrel with Barbara, throw aside his past life and leave Mobile? Life itself moved at dizzying speed! Homer sat there, slack-jawed, hardly realizing that his car was now flying at 600 mph even though it seemed motionless. The deceptive thing (some would say ‘the paradox’) about speed was that whatever its degree, you soon got used to it and ceased to be conscious of it. Then they increased the speed. This was what made a mess of life for Homer: the continuous, mad acceleration.

Homer looked at his watch. There was still time enough before he reached his destination, he thought: time enough to be bored. He didn't suspect that he had only three minutes now. ‘Progress’, he muttered, as though it were a dirty word. Barbara, too, invoked progress, but she was really concerned only with status. Status was another illusion, as soon as it became an obsession and led you to ruin. Without thinking, he pushed the visibility button on the wall.