Events in Professor Beck's life have been converging in uncanny ways. This convergence grows beyond his ability to understand after aliens visit him and coerce him to visit their planet, along with his cat Jerry. It is a mystery to Professor Beck that of the 6 billion people on Earth they chose him. Once he arrives on Zoropeterius this mystery is not as it appeared on Earth. One alien proclaims, "In constant momentum, nothing is itself," so it is on Zoropeterius, where being, language, time, and matter are all in flux and nothing matters unless it does, except death. Death always matters, this Earth and Zoropeterius share, if nothing else.The short story "The Word, Matter" is a tour de force of imagination. A speculative fantasy incorporating elements of science fiction and themes derived from modern philosophy. Abstract and built upon bold ideas, the story may cause one to wonder if our assumptions of the physical world, and the aliens in it, always hold true."The Word, Matter" is the fifth story in "The Extraterrestrial Anthology, Volume I: Temblar." The anthology contains ten short stories about Aliens.