4. Time Is Not What You Think

In response to Slaughterhouse Five Chapter 4 (page 35-42)
Letter to Billy's daughter
(Billy Pilgrim's perspective; captured by Tralfamadorians)

Dear Barbara,
I know you are upset with me, although I do not really understand why. I am telling people what they need to know about Time and the Tralfamadorians. However, I am sorry I did not tell you about the kidnapping before the plane crash, I did not see the point and it was not the proper time. I want you to understand fully what happened to me before the News Leader publishes the story.
It was the night of your wedding. I couldn't sleep so I got out of bed. I shuffled around the house, and I knew I was going to be abducted. I saw it and felt it happen before, and knew it would be that exact night.
I grabbed a bottle of champagne, and I started watching a movie on the War. I saw it forwards and backwards and it brought back memories.
I went into the backyard. Thats where the flying saucer would be and get me, and I knew it. I heard a sound above me, and it sounded like a melodious owl, but it wasn't. It was the Tralfamadorians and their ship. It was one-hundred feet in diameter, which portholes around its rim. There was a purple light from the portholes. I was enclosed in a cylinder of purple light. The saucer opened and down came a ladder. My mind was momentarily paralyzed by some sort of gun and all I could do was grab ahold of the ladder as I was pulled up. then once I was in the airlock, my mind was working again.
I saw the aliens. They had no voice boxes, they communicated telepathically. They spoke to me through a computer that knew Earth language. I asked why they took me, and they said that there was no why. The moment simply is.
They gave me an anesthetic, so I could fall asleep. As the flying saucer took off, it bounced me out of time. I was back in the war. I was in the cars, and I couldn't sleep laying down, because I was awful rowdy in my sleep. Days would pass. People died. We had arrived at the prison camp.
Then I was back as a child. A baby. Then back as an optometrist.
I woke up and I was on Tralfamadore. This is where they told me about time. The Tralfamadorians said, "All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is. Take it moment by moment, and you will find that we are all, as I’ve said before, bugs in amber” (Vonnegut, 41).
Now do you see? Please tell me you do. I'm not crazy like you think. This happened and this is why I have to tell everyone. Time does not change. And I must tell everyone the truth.
I will see you soon.

Dad