Life, the Universe, and Everything

by Douglas Adams

Ford got out his Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matic. It was making vague humming noises and a tiny light on it was flickering faintly. ‘Flat battery?’ said Arthur. ‘No,’ said Ford, ‘there is a moving disturbance in the fabric of space–time, an eddy, a pool of instability, and it’s somewhere in our vicinity.’ ‘Where?’ Ford moved the device in a slow, lightly bobbing semi-circle. Suddenly the light flashed. ‘There!’ said Ford, shooting out his arm. ‘There, behind that sofa!’ Arthur looked. Much to his surprise, there was a velvet-paisley-covered Chesterfield sofa in the field in front of them. He boggled intelligently at it. Shrewd questions sprang into his mind. ‘Why,’ he said, ‘is there a sofa in that field?’ ‘I told you!’ shouted Ford, leaping to his feet. ‘Eddies in the space–time continuum!’ ‘And this is his sofa, is it?’ asked Arthur, struggling to his feet and, he hoped, though not very optimistically, to his senses.