Short story                                                      The perpendicular world I was unhappy; I had been unhappy for quite a while. The banker had call back the business loan one year after I invested it in a second art gallery. Besides that, it had been a tough year. I had taken a partner and he revealed himself a thief stealing money and paintings and when I talked to him about it and told him I was considering calling the police, he threatened me. I had been sick and my wife wanted us to move back to Montreal. Sometimes, I could see an image for a fragment of a second in the corner of my left eye and the image disappeared too quickly to leave enough detail to remember. It seems to me that it was a landscape, a wheat field giving into a forest of gigantic trees. These images came more and more often, many times per day now and it worried me. I thought I was losing my mind or my sight. I went to see the good doctor Johnson and he said there was nothing wrong with my eyes. I remembered a book about astral trips that had profoundly affected me. It was mentioning a group or a sect called The Rosicrucian and this group was working on keeping the world safe for a period of 60 years. Then the group would cease their activity for 40 years and resume for another 60 years. The book said that The Rosicrucians were led by an angel. They were using astral trips to influence the world. They were able to move their soul outside their body and visit the world at incredible speed. They were able to go into the bedrooms of powerful people and share their mind while they were asleep and influence their decisions. They could go to the moon possibly to the stars while their bodies rested in their bed. I used to go to a Benedictine monastery for 4 days of silence when I was in my 30s. I went there every second year for a while. This is where I practiced the teachings of that book on how to induce astral trips. I had to achieve a total absence of thought without falling asleep and then try to move outside my body without moving my physical body. Once I succeeded and I was instantly floating at the ceiling looking at my body lying on the bed and I got scared. I panicked for I was sure I was dying and I quickly went back into my body. In the following years I did two astral trips; involuntary ones. The first time it happened, I was cutting the branches with an electrical saw and I heard a tremendous click in my mind and I was instantly flying to the sky at incredible speed. There were ghosts talking to me but I did not pay attention for my little daughter was right beside me when the click happened and I was afraid to cut her head off with the electrical saw. I was fighting to get back into my body and I did. It had lasted just a second perhaps and no harm was done. The second time it happened, I was mowing the lawn with my daughter beside me and it was a repetition of the first experience. Now I remembered all of that and I thought that perhaps these visions on the corner of my left eye were somehow related to my ability to do astral trips. What if I could prolong the visions? I thought. Could I possibly go into that world? At that time, I was living in Naples, Florida in a condo on the shore of an alligator infested lake near Marco Island airport. On the other side of the airport strip there was another lake, smaller and this one infested with crocodiles. Then it was the Everglades going up to the very tip of Florida. There was a lot of wildlife there. There were deers, black bears, Florida panthers, raccoons, wolves and a trail where I was walking every morning at dawn. I was the only one walking that trail that went along the two lakes and it was a dangerous walk. I always carried my long knife and held a quarterstaff for if I was attacked, I wouldn’t go without a fight. There was a clearing by the trail about one mile from my condo where I used to sit and meditate and this is where I started to try to hold on to the left eye corner visions. I practiced every day. Now I could see that world and I felt that I could move into it, I just had to try. I tried and there was a blur and suddenly I was sitting in this other world wheat field. I could see a moon and it had oceans and continents and clouds and it looked way bigger than our moon. I was sitting in another world! I heard all kind of roars, squeaks, shouts and birds’ calls. I stood up and the wheat was rising up to my chin. I saw a huge beast from a distance and it looked like a Tyrannosaurus Rex and it emitted a tremendous roar as it charged towards a group of massive beasts. I realized that this place was far too dangerous for me and I headed up towards the gigantic trees. I reached the first one without incident. It was about 200 feet in diameter and was reaching up to perhaps a thousand feet. The bark was so deeply dented that I could easily climb it and I didn’t wait. I climbed up to the first branch coming out of the trunk horizontally at a height of perhaps 75 feet. I was afraid of the heights and did not look down as I climbed it. I reached the huge branch and it was as wide as a street. I stood on it and looked at my new world. It was magnificent. Blossoming trees and colorful bushes were contrasting nicely with the gold of the wheat field and the blue of a nearby river. There were beasts of all kind, some were grazing, some were playing and some were hunting. Birds of all kind and all colors were singing or calling happily. The air smelled fresh and good and the tree had an odor too, it smelled great. I suddenly realized that I was hungry and some branches were growing out of the main one on which I was standing; they carried large and thick leaves and I could spot one kind of nuts and three different kinds of fruits. I walked to one of the nearest sprouting branches and pulled out a leaf. The leaf was heavy and it held something liquid inside. I cut it open with my knife and there was a kind of syrup coming out. A drop fell on my jeans and did not burn it. I touched the syrup with my finger and there was no burning or acidic feel, my skin was totally unaffected and it smelled real good. I tasted it and it was delicious. I waited for a while and tasted it again and then drank some. I waited an hour or so watching the wild life underneath and just felt unaffected by the sap. I then pulled out 4 more leafs and cut them open and drank the sap. I filled me nicely and gave me some energy. I decided to try the fruits and they too were filling me nicely and tasted wonderful. There were zillions of leafs and fruits on that one gigantic tree and here, I thought, on this world, no one would ever be hungry. I tried to get back to the clearing of my original world and there were no vision on my left eye corner and no way to do it. I was trapped! Weeks have passed. I found shelters in some huge cavities of the trees. I climbed and ventured through the country, traveling from one tree to the next one through the interlacing branches. I felt stronger than ever before and I knew I was getting younger. It could be the sap or the fruits but something in what I was eating was slowly giving me back my youth. I found some stones at the base of a tree that I used to produce fire and I started to bake some bread made out with the sap, the wheat and the tree nuts. Delicious! I saw some predators on the branches; some were feline, panthers like, but they left me alone. They did not identify me as a potential prey or perhaps I did not smell right to them. But on the land, with those dinosaurs roaming around, I knew I would not have survived a day. So I kept to the trees. One day, as I was standing on a branch, a very strange being walked towards me. It was walking on spindly legs ending in powerful talons. It was just as tall as me and covered with feathers. It stopped at a certain distance and opened up its large wings. The colors were beautiful. It had two appendages ending with some kind of fingers, more like short tentacles, coming out of its chest just under the wings attachment. It had a leather belt holding  something metallic, perhaps a laser gun. It had a bird like head, an eagle head, but the head was slightly disproportioned to its body, a little too big perhaps. But it gave the being a wisdom look. It looked at me and I sensed that it was looking straight into my soul. I did not know its intentions but I didn’t pull out my long knife from my belt. I did not sense that it intended to attack me. - Hello beautiful being! I said with admiration. - Hello stranger! I came to investigate who or what you are. Replied the birdlike creature. I heard the being voice right into my mind. It was a telepathic communication! - I am a human and I come from another world. I said. My name is Richard. - You are gifted with intelligence. I appreciate that. Said the bird. My name is Krzzzurr and my species is spread out on this world. We also came from another world; our spaceship landed here thousands of years ago. - A spaceship, wow!  Your species must have achieved a high technological level. I said. We humans could only reach the moon and we did it only once. Is your spaceship still functioning? Could you use it again and travel to the stars? - Yes but we like this world, it is the perfect world for us. Didn’t you come here on a spaceship too? - No, I came here by wishing it. I saw an image of this world through the corner of my left eye; I kept the image steady and then wished to be in it and there I was, suddenly, sitting in the wheat field close to the forest. - I sense something that hurts me; a new and powerful emotion comes from your mind right now! Said the bird. - It is called sorrow. I said. I miss my companion, my wife, and when I told you how I came in this world, I thought about her. Don’t you have sorrow when you lose a friend? - We never lose a friend. Said the bird. If one of us is killed, its essence moves into the closest relative or acquaintance and share his/her mind. That is rare. - Don’t you age and die? - No we don’t. - Then you must be very old, ancient. Did you travel yourself in that spaceship thousands of years ago? - Yes, I was one of the crew. - Did you visit other worlds? - Yes and many of them were life sustaining worlds. The conversation went on for hours. I wanted to know everything about Krzzzurr. He was a male and was sharing his mind with a dozen relatives and close acquaintances that had been killed over the millenniums. Some of them would take over the control of Krzzzurr and speak to me directly. I started to like Krzzzurr; I started to love his face and his strangeness. - I sense a new emotion and it has a deep effect on me. Said Krzzzurr. It is offering comfort. - I started to like you. I replied. It is the beginning of a sentiment of friendship. Don’t you experience feelings of love and friendship with your friends and mates? - No, I/we never experienced what you talk about. I/we appreciate it and we will now be in need of your presence. Can I/we take you to our village? - Sure! I would love that since I am feeling very lonely and I will never get tired of listening to all of your adventures amongst the stars. I have now spent twenty years with the Birdies. They learned about music, love and friendship. We built musical instruments and I started to paint and write. I was young again and I looked like a 38 years old powerful and slim man. But I was missing my wife and my children and my life on Earth. I could not believe that I had been unhappy there before I came to that world. I understood now that these problems I had at that time were not important. I started to have fast disappearing images again in the corner of my left eye. I talked to Krzzzurr about it. - I might be able to return to my home world, Krzzzurr. I said. - Now I experience a feeling of sadness. He replied. - If I do, I will try to convince my wife and some other people to come over here and start a new civilization. I will get one more art book (Riverin Modern Impressions Book 3) published and I will write in it a short story about this world and tell them how they can hold on those fast disappearing images at the corner of the left eye and wish to get there. Perhaps many that will read the short story will develop the ability to hold on the fast disappearing images that come at the corner of their left eye and like me, will cross over. - I/We would so much appreciate your return. - If we come back, will you help us build villages and achieve a high technological level society and help us build our own starships and one day perhaps, some of you would come with some of us to the stars? - Yes Richard. We will help you and some of us will visit the stars again in your company. Days have passed since we had that conversation and I have practiced in holding on to the fast disappearing images at the corner of my left eye and now I am ready. The whole village were assembled around me, hundreds of Birdies had come from other villages to witness what was about to happen. - Goodbye my friends! That was my last words on this beautiful world for at that moment there was a blur and I was back in the clearing I had left 20 years ago. I walked back to the condo and knocked at the door. I was sure that after such a long absence, my wife was long gone. Somebody came to the door and opened it and it was Lise, my wife and she looked not a year older than she was when I left. I took her in my arms and hugged her and kissed her. - What is happening to you? She asked. You look different and happy. She had seen that I looked thirty years younger but her mind had just rejected the impossible. She had instinctively convinced herself that I was just looking younger and there was nothing there. I knew there was no point in telling her what happened to me, she would not believe me. That world was from a different time line. I spent twenty years on it and came back on my home world at the same time I left it. The time line of this world was perpendicular to our time line here, and no matter how long we live on it, we could return at the same time we left so I decided I will call it the Perpendicular World and that will be the title of my short story in my art book 3. In a few years, I will disappear. You will read articles about that strange disappearance. I will convince my wife to come with me and get young again and have children again on this perpendicular world. Some of you that read my short story will come also. I will see you there my new friends.