Well, if I had not been tipped off by Lewis in his PREFACE, I would really be reeling right now, as this story starts off with a man walking through a fairly desolate town. Feeling lonely and/or bored, he gets in a line at a bus stop, as that seems to be the only activity he can find.
Like me, he quickly becomes consumed with himself. A couple bickers and leaves the line, but he thinks about the fortune of moving up two spots in the line. A fight breaks out in front of him, where the shorter man gets punched and walks off. Others gripe about the "sorts of people" gathered here and leave. A woman offers her spot for money and gets outraged when shortchanged, but bumped out of line from calloused people and she marches off. There was plenty of room on the bus, so our character moves to the back -- away from these unpredictable and slightly uneasy people around him.
A young lad comes and sits next to him, stating that "I've noticed that you feel just as I do about the present company. Why on earth they insist on coming I can't imagine. They won't like it at all when we get there, and they'd really be much more comfortable at home. It's different for you and me."
This is puzzling and strange.
Our character asks the lad, "Do they like this place?" And the answer is "As much as they'd like anything. They've got cinemas and fish and chip shops and advertisements and all the sorts of things they want. The appalling lack of any intellectual life doesn't worry them."
Later they notice that they're flying. Our man looks out the window and sees the houses starting to get smaller on the horizon.
Very strange. I wonder where they're going. Perhaps it's a place where they can see the consequences of their thoughts and actions better. Maybe it's a surreal place where actions are exaggerated to a caricaturistic extreme. Or maybe it's like a heaven. Who knows?
I can relate to the guy thinking about himself and being consumed with his problems. It's hard not to spiral down into a depressed state when things seem to be going wrong. Without a healthy routine that involves talking to God, reading the Word, and talking with people, circumstances could easily defeat a person. But there is hope in prayer. There is hope in the Word. There is hope in people. Sometimes the answers to your problems might come from unexpected places. It can be hard to press on in faith when things look glum, but it is the way out of here.