LUCID

CHAPTER 19

I had no idea how time works across the dimensions, except that most places, up to then, had followed the normal cycle of day and night. I had no reason to expect these cycles to be synchronized. And when I teleported off my island and manifested in my apartment, I had no reason to expect it to be evening there. But it was, fortunately! The clock in my kitchen said 23:30.

Aiden and my father were home – I guessed Kiefer and Anika were at their own places. My father was slumped in my armchair working on his newspaper crossword puzzle, but I could see from the dipping of his head that he was on the verge of dropping off. He'd be ready for bed soon. Aiden was stretched out on the settee watching micro-lighting videos on his laptop. He was sleepy too, I could sense it – I could sense his frequency dipping and rising, like he was trying to keep himself awake. There was an almost-empty whisky bottle on the coffee table, and I'd noticed two empty wine bottles in the kitchen – both were in for a heavy night of sleep.

I sat on the floor between them, just watching them, just happy to be with them. My father suddenly gave a loud snort and jerked back in his chair – the way you do when sleep momentarily overcomes you.

"Someone's ready for bed," Aiden said.

"Yeah, you're right," my father replied. He put his newspaper away, reached for his whisky glass and emptied it, let out a loud belch, and wrestled himself up out the chair and onto his feet.

"Well – see you in the morning son," he said.

"Sleep well," Aiden replied.

My father shuffled off towards the bedroom. Aiden put his laptop down, sat up, rolled a cigarette and made his way to the balcony for a smoke. I followed him outside, manifested a cigarette for myself and stood with him in silence, gazing at the stars together as we'd done many times in the past. Aiden was the only person I knew in my whole life who saw the world exactly as I saw it. We had the same values, the same insights, many of the same interests. He was like a twin although our ages were six years apart. He'd followed a different path to me, stayed single, drifted around, moved seamlessly from place to place, job to job, relationship to relationship, all the time following his passion for flying microlights and paragliders. We didn't see each other that often, but when we did, it was like we'd never been apart, and our different paths merged as one for the time we were together. Contrary to what people believe about brothers, we've never fought, never argued, never competed with each other, and never not been there for each other. Despite our similarities though, despite our age, despite that we are exactly the same height, there is one difference that can never be changed, one fact that can never be shared – I am, and will always be, Aiden's big brother.

It was Aiden actually who got me into astral travel in the first place. It was he who researched and found the technique that gave us both our first out-of-body experience. He'd been practising lucid-dreaming techniques for a while – something I'd always been interested in – and found the OBE technique while he was staying with me. We put it into action together over a weekend and had immediate success – then spent a whole week raving on about nothing else.

After he left, he eventually got side-tracked into other activities, but I continued my practice obsessively, which brought me many more experiences over the following two years. But this is why I was now certain I'd be able to reach into Aiden's dreams – he was already open to this stuff, and receptive, and convinced of the reality of the Astral.

As we stood there smoking, I allowed my frequency to find his and resonate with it. It wasn't difficult to find a connection. He took a last drag on his cigarette, threw the lit stub over the railing into the street, gazed up at the sky and said aloud: "So where are you Taylor?"