# Short Fiction — Chapters explained

> Chapter companions for Short Fiction by R. A. Lafferty.

- [The Six Fingers of Time](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/the-six-fingers-of-time.md): Charles Vincent, having mastered the ability to accelerate his personal time by a factor of sixty, uses his power to read thousands of books, learn dozens of languages, and play ghostly pranks on the world. He is haunted
- [McGonigal's Worm](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/mcgonigal-s-worm.md): The chapter describes the global catastrophe of sudden infertility affecting all chordates, the discovery that only McGonigal's Worm remains fertile, and the establishment of the M.W. Institute to study it. It follows Ge
- [The Polite People of Pudibundia](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/the-polite-people-of-pudibundia.md): Marlow learns about the extraordinarily polite alien species known as the Puds from a briefing officer, who explains their customs of never looking directly at others, using color-coded glasses, and speaking in elaborate
- [In the Garden](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/in-the-garden.md): The crew of the Little Probe lands on a moon-town and encounters a man and woman, Ha-Adamah and Hawwah, in a pristine garden. The beings claim to be the only people, possess a preternatural intellect, and live in perfect
- [All the People](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/all-the-people.md): Anthony Trotz, a man who suddenly knows every person in the world, interviews a politician, a philosopher, and a priest to understand the limits of human knowledge and connection. He is confronted by Colonel Peter Cooper
- [The Weirdest World](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/the-weirdest-world.md): The chapter explores the bizarre and inexplicable nature of reality, focusing on the absurdity of existence and the limits of human knowledge. It delves into the strange events that challenge characters' perceptions and 
- [I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/i.md): A starfarer, marooned on an alien planet by his crew after failing a psychological test, records his observations and encounters with the local life forms. He communicates with bird-like creatures and is captured by thre
- [II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/ii.md): The blob, now calling himself George Albert Leroy Ellery McIntosh, is sold to Billy Wilkins for his reptile ranch. He is placed in a snake house with a python named Pete, and later meets Blackjack Bracken, who proposes a
- [III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/iii.md): The blob narrator observes the polarity between two types of people (Beta and Gamma, or Boy and Girl) and finds himself attracted to Margaret, a Gamma singer. He uses his superior mathematical understanding to win at the
- [IV](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/iv.md): The blob recounts his sudden downfall after a court ruling declares that a blob cannot own property in Florida, stripping him of his fortune. His friends abandon him, Margaret leaves him, and he retreats to the woods to 
- [Aloys](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/aloys.md): Professor Aloys Foulcault-Oeg, a brilliant but impoverished scholar, receives a prestigious award and travels to a great city to accept it. Overwhelmed by fear and self-doubt, he nearly disintegrates before the ceremony,
- [Seven-Day Terror](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/seven-day-terror.md): Nine-year-old Clarence Willoughby builds a 'disappearer' from a beer can and cardboard, causing objects and even people to vanish for exactly seven days. His younger sister Clarissa, who knows how to reverse the effect, 
- [Dream World](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/dream-world.md): Bascomb Swicegood overhears Teresa Ananias describing a grotesque dream to her friend Agnes Schoenapfel, and realizes he had the identical nightmare. The shared dream—featuring a world of green rain, warthog-like people,
- [Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_45_se/chapters/sodom-and-gomorrah-texas.md): Texas Manuel, an unqualified but earnest census taker, is assigned to count the population of the Santa Magdalena sector. Despite clear instructions to count only people, Manuel's literal interpretation leads him to also

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