LUCID

CHAPTER 9

Another night had passed. The soft light of dawn had gently roused me from a deep, pleasant and dreamless sleep. I took a few moments to remind myself I was still in the Astral, my body was still in a coma, and everything that had happened over the last few days had really happened regardless of how unbelievable it all still felt... then, careful not to wake Ember, I slipped out of bed and wandered onto the apartment balcony.

The view was stunning. We were the equivalent of maybe forty floors up, overlooking a wide bay flanked by low mountains. The sea was about three hundred meters away, rose-tinted from the newly risen sun, and dotted with an armada of sailing yachts, drifting silently on the gentle tide. Farther out to sea, faint silhouettes of distant islands broke up the horizon line.

The bay itself, inland from the beach, looked from this height to be all park-land – green, tropical, purely pedestrian. A few low building structures were visible amongst the green – cafes and terraces as far as I could make out, maybe some stores. But it was the apartment towers that really stood out, rising up out the park-land like pins in a pin-cushion.

They weren't like the concrete-monolith tower blocks of Earth – built floor upon floor upon floor – but tall, slim stalks studded on the outside, in random intervals, with half-disc shaped apartments. Each apartment had, like Ember's, a spacious garden-balcony... and a strange pod-like contraption tethered to one side. I guessed they were vehicles.

I lit a cigarette, blew fine puffs of smoke out to the ocean. So this is fifth-dimensional living, I thought to myself. Not bad at all!

I was lost in thought, staring out to sea, when Ember joined me – slipping her arms around my waist and squeezing her naked body against my back.

"Morning," she whispered.

Then she released me, snatched the cigarette from my mouth, took a drag on it, blew the smoke up into the air with a deep sigh, and stuck it back in my mouth. "So what do you think?"

I made an obvious show of looking her body up and down.

"Of the view... over the bay..."

"Another beautiful day in Paradise," I said.

"Always is!" She reached up and kissed me, "I'll make some coffee."

I watched her head back in – she knew I was watching and gave a little wiggle of her butt to let me know she knew. And I was thinking, 'Another beautiful girl in Paradise.' But for how long? Just like a holiday romance, this was doomed to end. And when I did get back to my world, it wouldn't be miles or ocean separating us, but time and space and dimension... can't run a long-term relationship with those differences. Still, I got to spend a full night with her. I couldn't complain.

She came back carrying a tray with the coffee and a breakfast – fifth-dimensional croissants and confiture... very civilized! I realized I hadn't eaten since I was on the island and I was suddenly famished.

-----

We ate in silence, just exchanging glances and smiles, our feet keeping contact under the balcony table, hands held on top of it, fingers intertwined and exploring each other's touch. But I started drifting off into my own thoughts and she noticed.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked.

"Everything," I said. "About time and space and life and existence and relativity and infinity and eternity..."

"Oh dear!"

"Yeah! You know I traveled a bit when I was younger. Got to visit around twenty countries or so. But it's nothing. I haven't even been to most of the places in the country where I was born. Not even to all the towns and villages of the region I grew up in. The world – my world, the Earth – is so big, it would take hundreds of lifetimes to get to see everywhere. And now I'm here, in your world, in your little bay, and I'm wondering, how big is your world? How many countries in this world? How many worlds in this dimension? How many dimensions? How many hundreds, thousands, millions of lifetimes are needed to visit them all? There's so much to see."

"But you have eternity, you know that don't you? You never die, you just move on, and on. All the time in existence is yours. And, on the higher dimensions, space and time are fluid enough to be able to experience multiple places at once – even multiple lives at once."

"Yeah I know that. But from here, from the perspective of this little 'Earth-brain' of mine, it can be overwhelming sometimes. I have this trick when I find myself worrying about something for too long – I look up at the stars from my balcony on a clear night. Faced with that vision of infinity, whatever I'm worrying about becomes completely insignificant in comparison. I can't always grasp the concept of infinity, it's just too overpowering for my mind, but I get a sense of it in a sort of 'Ah-ha!' moment. But that's always from the reference point of my balcony, with my 'being' fixed in one pocket of space and time... infinity was always 'out there' and abstract. Here though, it's like that pocket has burst open, and infinity is all around me... something I can touch, see, feel... And as I said, it's sometimes overwhelming."

"I understand what you feel," she said, "but I can't say I know how you feel. It's different for me. This is all I've ever known, and I've never experienced the third dimension – not as a physical being in any case, I've only visited in astral form."

"And what do you think of it?"

"Intense! But what you say about being overwhelmed... most third-dimensionals experience that. Many can't handle it without a lot of counseling. I'm talking about those who have passed on from your world – travelers are never here long enough for it to be a serious problem. So you're handling it pretty well really."

"Is that your job... counseling dead people?"

"It's more a calling, but yes! I'm also a Frequency Medium – I facilitate contact between lower and higher dimensional beings. That's the work I do for Kat."

"How so?"

"Kat can't tune to frequencies lower than the fourth dimension, without serious consequences, so he needs my help from time to time."

"He's helping me deal with the Durge. Can I trust him?"

"Of course. Why would you ask?"

"Well I only met him a few days ago, I can hardly say I know him."

"You only met me yesterday, and you already know me quite intimately."

"That... is an entirely different thing. And you know it!"

She stood up then, grabbed my hand. "Come," she said.

"Where are we going?"

"Kat wants us to meet up with him."

"Oh... okay."

She led me to the bed, fell back onto it, pulling me on top of her.

"I thought we were going to meet Kat," I said.

"That's later. Right now I want you to get to know me intimately some more..."

Author Note

Does it ever overwhelm you too - to just gaze up at a starry sky and wonder...