All were silent, all were silent -- as if struck
by
insurmountable sadness.
No one said anything.
Then (of all things), Arthur Dent stepped
forward and said, slowly and with deliberation:
"I didn't really know Douglas, but I
felt like I was very close to him. Well,
I'm not saying this very well. But, when
you think about it. The vastness of the
universe, that any of us, that any of us
can know any one else -- I mean, er, ah..."
He stammered off, and then Ford Prefect said,
"Go on, dear chap, you've started. Now you
must finish..."
Arthur looked back and saw Zaphod standing there,
the second head winked at him, as if to encourage
him. Trillian, tears running gently down her
face, sobbed quietly. Slarti stood near her,
trying to comfort her as best he could.
Even the Vogon guard, standing over to the
side was silent. Painfully silent.
For a moment, a small smile played about
Arthur's mouth; a vogon who was silent.
Then the words found themselves to Arthur's
tiny, little humanoid mind and he threw back
his shoulders and his voice actually
resonated out for all to hear...
"Yes, I didn't know him. But, he knew me.
And he knew Ford, and Trillian, Zaphod,
and even that triple-breasted whore. He
knew a lot of people and he knew a lot
of things.
He knew.
If maybe our generals and presidents, and
kings, and emperors knew half as much ....
and the CIA, if they knew half as much as he did,
then perhaps all of the worlds in all of our
galaxies wouldn't be in half the mess they are
today.
I think that we can only say this one thing:
Time itself is a puzzle,
the cover to which we lost
a long time ago.
But, I think
that this crinkly bit goes over
next to the Fjords.
Those were the words of Denib-12's
greatest philosopher-poet.
Some where in time, Douglas Adams has yet
to write anything.
Somewhere in time, a thousand, hundred
million years from now they will still
remember me and Ford, Zaphod, and Trillian,
and even the Vogon Guard who didn't quite
get "da da da dum".
And they will always remember this..."
And at this point his voice openly broke,
and slow tears ran down his cheeks. And his
voice boomed with pride...
"Never forget your towel. And never,
never feed a Vogon's grandmother to the
Ravenous BugBlatter Beast of Traal."
There were a few that laughed at that, a few
that openly broke into tears.
And as the sun slowly set, a parade of four
dolphins flew into the air, they traced amazingly
amazing perfect half-arcs, that Archimedes would
have been proud of. Then flattened out to form
a slowly rotating circle 30 metres up. They were
then joined by 20 penguins, that flew directly up
and through the center of circle of dolphins.
When the penguins reached the Zenith, they arched
out in a fountain of orange, black and white,
their outstretched chests glimmering in the
setting sun.
Their arcs descended, cresting just before they
reached the ground.
And then, the dolphins joined them and
up, up, up into the air they flew
and formed in perfect formation the
number:
Forty Two.
Noder's note:
This has been floating around newsgroups for weeks. I tried in vain to find the original author.