Summary

In “Blink and You Miss It” by Alex Garland, an unnamed narrator sees his five-year-old neighbour Sammy from England cross the street, looking carefully to his left and right. The narrator recalls that he was just as careful when he was the boy’s age but that he has changed in time.

The story jumps to when the narrator is seventeen on a beach in South Asia, were a small community of backpackers lives under the leadership of a beach guru. The community experiments with drugs and is preparing for a full-moon party with visiting guests from as far as Goa, India. However, before the party, the police raids the beach for drugs. Although the community is tipped off in advance and nobody gets caught, much of the drugs are lost; either confiscated by the police or thrown away in the sea.

Since nobody sells drugs anymore because of the raid and the c...