I stayed in my room the whole night. I mostly just stared at the wall thinking of ways to conquer the world, well, my parents, who were the force behind the whole world to me.
Suddenly, I heard the rain again. Pit pat. Pit pat. Pitter pat. It made this rhythm over and over for about an hour. Then it got faster and louder until it sounded like golf balls hitting the roof. I never fall asleep unless it rains. Lucky for me that was most nights. Tonight, however, it was even harder to sleep due to my overwhelming guilt. I could not stop thinking of what could’ve happened to my brother and how it could happen to any of us, at any time. I knew I needed to dream. It was the only way to make me feel better: to find an answer. I thought of earlier that day when I was in the forest and imagined the magical smell, the delightful taste of the rain, and the striking appearance of the lush trees and plants. It captured my heart as I fell into a deep, deep sleep.
I woke up, or I thought I woke up. I was not in my room, and, as a matter of fact, I was not even in the world I knew. I looked at my hand; it had turned purple and was hairy. I was fuzzy and purple! I could not believe it. I must still be in my dream! But it felt so real- what was going on? I checked my surroundings and all I could see were these little green plant-like organisms that sprouted up everywhere, but they were nothing like I had ever seen before, and I know my plants.
All of a sudden, they looked up at me and they were alive! I was scared at first but they seemed friendly enough. I think they greeted me, but I couldn’t be quite sure, since they spoke in a language I had never heard before. They kept staring at me and each had an individual eye that looked like a nose. Over and over they also said: “Geeshga! Geeshga!” I wasn’t sure where the noise was even coming from; they didn’t appear to have mouths, but they certainly seemed happy to see me.
I kept walking, making sure not to step on any of them, waving with my new fuzzy purple hand of which I found myself growing quite fond of. The land was covered with these creatures as far as I could see. The flat land went on for miles and miles with no sign of an end or different landscape. I was walking for so long my feet should have hurt, but they didn’t. All I felt was a light softness, like I was gliding on a cloud. Just as I came to this realization, I fell through this cloud-like land and surprisingly, I didn’t get that ‘stomach flying out of the body’ feeling as expected.
I was then surrounded by another flat, soft landscape, but this time there were creatures that looked very similar to the brand new appearance I adopted. They had fuzzy soft purple bodies and their faces, like the other creatures, each only had one eye that looked like a nose and no mouths. They also had paws for hands and feet and their ears were rounded like a bear’s.
One popped up in front of me excitedly, as if it knew I was a foreigner and started speaking really fast, “Geeshga, wooda wooda, ooki, tee tee, rum rum, hur, lito, bya, oopee, bonjour, aloha, hola, hallo, ciao, hello…”
“Hello!” I said loudly to let the intelligent creature know what language I spoke.
“Aah, yes, an English-speaking human. We have not had one of those in a very, very long time. It is my pleasure to welcome you to Geeshgawoodiooki. It is named after the three ways to say hello on our dimension. ”
“Dimension? I thought this was just a dream, or at least thought it was just another planet.”
“Oh no, young one, you are in another dimension, or as you might say another time in space. We exist at the same time and location as you exist. This is why I know all of your languages, and I also know all of the languages that exist in the universe,” the furry purple creature said proudly.
“Wow. That is amazing, but how did you come to learn all of these languages, when I have never heard any of yours?”
“Well, that is a very long story, my friend. Come, let us eat first, and then we will share. ”
I was not going to argue with that since my stomach was grumbling- which I thought was strange because earlier my feet didn’t hurt and I never felt that weird falling feeling. My mind quickly wandered back to my stomach. It was now making louder grumbling noises. The funny little creature assured me that we would be there soon and sure enough, he didn’t lie, for in seconds we were there.
It was the biggest gathering I had ever seen. Every creature in this dimension ate together at the exact same time. I was so shocked that I almost couldn’t eat, but the smell was too alluring to resist. I came to what was their version of a dinner table, but they did not call it that and it didn’t even look remotely close to any dinner table I had ever seen, for it was completely invisible. The only way to know it existed was to run right into it.
“Stop! You will knock over all of the food!” my purple friend warned me as it pulled me back before I ran into the table. “I am sorry, I forgot to mention that every object we possess is invisible, so you have to be very careful and learn to rely on your sense of touch. “
“Well, I haven’t run into anything yet, so you must not have very many material things.”
“No. We find no need for them. We have created a few practical objects. Like this grand food placer. It holds our food higher than the ground so we do not have to eat right from the ground.”
“Hmm, that makes sense. So this is the food then? The bubble things floating over there?”
“Yes, but they are not floating my friend. And I must warn you, they are quite filling, so as you humans put it, try not to stuff your face.”
I giggled, and then replied, “OK, I will try not to.”
Abruptly, my purple friend’s voice echoed in my ear, “GEESHGAWOODIOOKI! Chi ikki oodiu tu dri! Tiu ir” As he stopped suddenly mid-sentence, he whispered to me, “….sorry I did not catch your name?”
“That’s okay. My name is Elizabeth.”
“ELIZABETH!” Everyone started making all sorts of noise that sounded like cheering. “Hee iktu tom EARTH!” Again, everyone started cheering loudly. I felt like a celebrity. Never in my life had I experienced so much appreciation, especially without doing anything to deserve it. I was so touched, my eye began to water. The energy was so powerful, yet so uplifting I could not help myself.
“Oh don’t cry my friend. We are your friends now and are here for you. Now let us eat!” Immediately, everyone started eating the bubble food. I picked one up ready to put it in my mouth, when I realized I did not have a mouth. “Excuse me, um, purple friend, how do I eat?”
“My name is Oochoo, and here let me show you,” Oochoo said as he popped one of the bubbles on his head. So I did the same and never had so much fun eating in my life! And I never felt so full! I ate three bubbles, and that was one too many, but Oochoo let it go. I think he knew I hadn’t had a good meal in a long time.
After my crazy, yet miraculous experience eating, I followed Oochoo to his house, which of course was also invisible. I knew we were inside when a thin wall rose up in a circle around us and we could no longer see outside except through some oval shaped windows. I thought this was strange since everything was supposed to be invisible, and it was- from the outside. Maybe it was because - like a house on Earth - it was there for security. I could have asked Oochoo about it, but instead I decided to enjoy the unfamiliarity.
I began to feel around for something to sit on. Oochoo guided me to what felt like a bean bag chair floating in the air. “These chairs are very comfortable, thank you.”
“Oh you are quite welcome, Elizabeth. Comfort is very important in our dimension. We strive to always be comfortable and have full bellies. We believe if we can accomplish this, then everything else will fall into place. Our happiness comes from this place of comfort and satisfied bellies. It makes us feel safe, and when others give us gifts that support these things, then that is when we feel love.”
“On Earth, having full bellies is more of a luxury. For most of our kind this is hard to come by or sometimes never comes at all, while some of us always have our bellies full - too full actually. I guess if we too strived to feed everyone, then there would be more happiness on Earth. Also, comfort is an interesting concept on Earth. Again, it is more of a luxury, only few of us are able to be comfortable all of the time. But I agree, feeling comfortable also denotes a sense of safety as well.”
“You are very insightful my friend. You understand more than creatures on earth realize I bet. This is why they have chosen you.”
“They? What have they chosen me for? I don’t think I’m that smart. I’m only eleven.”
“Age is not important. Some of the most intelligent creatures are very young. Do not put yourself into a certain category before you discover everything.”
“Well, it would take some time to discover everything. I don’t think I will live that long!”
“Again, age doesn’t matter. Do not put limitations on yourself. Your capabilities are endless. As you have discovered today, or tonight in your dimension, anything is possible, right?”
“Yes. You have opened my eyes to some incredible possibilities, but I’m still confused about something. If our dimensions exist exactly at the same time, then why is it day here and night on Earth?”
“That is a very good question. It is kind of like time-zones on Earth. Everyone exists at the same time, but it just happens to be dark in one area, and light in another. Some might say one part of the earth is ahead of another, but really it is not; it all coexists at one time. We happen to have a very short night that lasts 2 hours. We also sleep during this time, but we do not need as much sleep as humans do. Two hours is enough to feel fully energized and leaves us more time for fun activities.”
“Can I participate in one of these activities?”
“Well, yes, you did already. Eating! Which we do for a half an hour 10 times a day, every 2 hours. As you might have calculated, that equals 25 hours plus the 2 hours we sleep, which is 27 hours in a total day. Now, I know what you are going to say, ‘How can that be when our time exists at the same time earth does?’ Well, this is simple: our hours are shorter. What you may call an hour, is not equivalent to our hours. That is putting it simply. It is much more complicated than that. And as you discover in other dimensions, you will see many different ways of looking at time.”
“Wow. Okay. I just wanted to learn one of your games, but all that is good to know. Thank you. And – wait - you said I will discover other dimensions?”
“Yes, Elizabeth, as I said, you were chosen to be a traveller, as was I.”
“But who chose me and why?”
“Well, you were chosen by the wise ones. This is a group of spirits who look over the dimensions. This will become clearer to you as you discover more. But for now you do not need to know why, and I am not even sure if I can explain that to you. I know why I was chosen, but I found this out after years of travelling. The important thing is that you were chosen for a reason, and now we finally have an appropriate traveller from Earth. The spirits have been searching for a long time. Feel honoured Elizabeth, for you have a great job ahead of you.”
I was taken completely by this explanation and suddenly felt a huge sense of responsibility on my heart. Oochoo could see this in my eye, and said sweetly, “Don’t you worry. You will be amazing. Just think of it as something fun you get to do every night. Do not put too much pressure on yourself. Your job is to learn for now.” He gave me a very long and comforting hug. I cried briefly and then spoke with every sincere inch of me, “Thank you.”