The Elephant Vanishes: Stories

One Sunday evening, the “TV People” come to the narrator’s apartment. He explains that the TV People are just like ordinary people, except that they are about 20-30% smaller. Three TV People enter the apartment and install a television on the sideboard, ignoring the narrator and disorganizing his wife’s magazines. The TV People turn on the television and flip through the channels, all of which are blank. Eventually, the TV People turn off the television and leave the apartment, never having said a single word.

The narrator’s wife says nothing about the television when she comes home, which the narrator finds odd. He himself checks on the television a few times, but the channels are always blank. At work, the narrator continues to encounter TV People. One day, during a meeting, he sees the TV People carrying a television into the conference room before leaving. But when the narrator mentions this to a colleague who was at the meeting with him, the man begins avoiding him.

One day, the narrator’s wife does not come home. Instead, the narrator sees the TV People on the television screen. One of them emerges from the screen and explains that they are making an airplane. The narrator is skeptical and wonders what is going on but is too tired to do anything.