While walking to visit her publisher, the narrator sees the Memory Police raid a safe house and take away those who can remember things that have disappeared in their trucks. She recalls that the police have only been around for 15 years. Upset by the sight of a young fugitive falling while trying to get in a truck, the protagonist drops her manuscript, but a nearby unnamed boy helps her collect her pages.

Once inside the building, near a fountain in the lobby, she talks with her editor, R, about the police raid and the possibility of genetic testing to find the people who can remember. The protagonist questions whether the Memory Police killed her mother after taking her, and R isn’t sure but notes that the “island is run by men who are determined to see things disappear [...] they force it to disappear with their own hands” (25).

Their conversation then turns to the manuscript. R marvels at the protagonist’s imaginative ability in the face of the disappearances. The protagonist voices their greatest fear: “What will happen if words disappear?” (26).