Chapter 4 Summary

It is the night before Barbara's wedding and Billy cannot sleep. Because his wife is asleep, he gets out of bed and goes downstairs to wait for the flying saucer that he knows is coming to kidnap him. Billy comes slightly unstuck in time and watches a war movie backwards. Then it goes forward again. Billy walks outside.

The flying saucer from Tralfamadore arrives. It shoots him with a ray that makes him want to climb the rungs of the ladder it lowers down to him.

The Tralfamadorans ask Billy if he has any questions. He asks, "Why me?" (76) They simply respond that there is no why for him or for them. They are all there because the moment is structured to make them pick him up and carry him to Tralfamadore. They administer an anesthetic to Billy.

Billy falls asleep and wakes...