I am going to begin with beginnings. Each story in ISS begins with an arrival – a space or a consciousness is invaded by an unknown presence. But the nature of the invading presence differs: in ‘Constant Death’ and ‘Blacamán’ it is human (Onésimo Sánchez and Blacamán respectively); in ‘Very Old Man’ it is part-human (the bird-man); in ‘Drowned Man’ it was formerly human (Esteban's corpse); in ‘Sea’ and ‘Incredible Story’ it is a natural phenomenon (the smell of roses and a wind respectively); and in ‘Last Journey’ it is an object (the ghost ship). But in four of the stories the source of the invading presence is the same: in one way or another, the sea is associated with the arrival in ‘Very Old Man’, ‘Sea’, ‘Drowned Man’ and ‘Last Journey’, and in the first two of these the invading presence returns to the sea at the end. And in all of the stories the arrival has the same extraordinary effect – it becomes the focus of widespread, sometimes all-absorbing, attention – and in each case the arrival represents the inception of a series of events that will occupy the remainder of the story. The effect of the arrival is to disrupt – it introduces instability into a pre-existent situation, and that instability produces interest and also movement. The interest stimulated by the new arrival centres on a common reaction in several stories: the need to discover the meaning of the disruption.