Reflections of the Future

by: D.R. Humphreys (the DreamWriter)

The mirror showed a reflection that wasn't my own, then again, it was. I mean, it was an older me, wearing different clothes, reflecting the image of another bathroom. There were women's stockings hanging over the shower curtain rod. I wasn't married. I rarely had women to my apartment, and checking to make sure, there were no stockings hanging over my shower rod. Either I was delusional, or I was still lying in bed asleep, ready to be late for work.

The other 'Me' was fiddling around with something, aloof that I was studying him. I wondered when he looked up, if he could see me, as I could see him.

'What am I saying?' I said to myself. 'of course, he can't see me, because this isn't real, and I'm not really looking at him.' About that time he looked up and jumped. He appeared genuinely startled, so I knew, I was visible.

"What the hell!" he exclaimed. "Is this my imagination, or are you real?"

"I was wondering the same about you. You're me... an older me," I observed.

"OK... I can see you. I can hear a seemingly logical conversation. God, I took too many trips in college!" the other Carl commented, “What year is it there?”

"1995. How about you?" I asked, assuming that the other reflection had pertinent information that demanded a similar question from me.

"2005... How can this be? I mean... I think we're the same person, just in different times?” the other Carl surmised.

“Where did you go to grade school?” I asked him.

"St. Timothy's, in Baltimore,” the older Carl answered.

“That's where I went," I answered. Then I knew I had him. I'd ask the security question every website in the world asks, “What is your mother's maiden name?” Carl murmured.

“Vanja T. Ciezelski,” the Carl I observed, answered briefly.

I was ready to jump in the toilet. He saw the effect it had on me. That was my mother's maiden name. What were the chances of someone out there with that same exact name?

“That cinches it. We are one in the same. I don't understand it. What do you do for a living?” I asked him, for no particular reason.

“I'm a theoretical physicist. I teach at Berkeley. And you?” he inquired.

“Honey... are you on the phone? Who are you talking to in there?” came a woman's voice from the other room.

“Just thinking out loud,” he yelled, at about the time an absolutely beautiful, naked, dark haired, olive-skinned woman walked into the room and pulled her stockings off the pole, without looking at the mirror.

I was busy admiring what I saw, when my duplicate looked back into the mirror.

“Put your eyes back in your head,” he cautioned, not that he could do anything about it.

“She's phenomenally beautiful! I have good taste,” I complimented myself. “How long have you two been married?”

“Oh... we're not. We've been living together for two years. So, what do you do?” he asked me, returning to semi-reality.

“I'm a reporter for the Washington Post... in D.C.” I explained.

“I know where that's at. I have to get to work. Traffic on the freeway is fucking insane. If this...'connection' is still here later, we'll talk then. My girlfriend won't be around to freak. Let me think about this. I have an idea of what's happening. Hopefully, I'll see you later,” he told me and left the bathroom. He turned off the light before I could ask him something else.

I stood a moment in front of the mirror, seeing little, since the other apartment was dark. If I turned on my light it would illuminate the other bathroom as well. Odd... really odd. 'We're the same person with completely different backgrounds, at different times... like two different realities.' Could that be happening, I asked myself, or was I watching too much Star Trek... two distinct realities?

I left for work, thinking about things while driving. I considered it all day in my cubicle, looking at the clock. Like the watched pot, not boiling, the clock slowed monotonously to the point I wanted to yell. I had to get to the apartment for some answers.

Traffic in this area probably wasn't any better than in California. I was ready to perpetrate road rage before getting home. The first thing I did, was go to the bathroom. I didn't turn on the light, or it might have attracted the wrong attention, in the relatively dark, alternate apartment. In that other apartment, you could see directly into the bathroom and then the next room, which was the bedroom, with full view of the bed. When I looked, there was Linda, entertaining some guy, quite intensely, in the bed. She moved like a rodeo horse trying to discharge its rider. They were sensuously perceptible in the dim light.

I left the light off and listened, as they completed their act. Soon, they both went to the bathroom to shower. I could hear everything they said.

“We have to be quick. Carl will be here in less than an hour,” the woman told her lover.

“Celia will be expecting me for dinner soon,” he told her.

“Fuck her,” she said derisively. “A woman can smell another woman on her man. We need to scrub the important parts thoroughly before sending you home!”

They both spent time in the shower together playing and pushing the time. Finally, they went back to the bedroom, where he started to help her remake the bed.

“No get out of here,” she demanded. He walked out of my sight, and she followed behind him quickly, only to disappear. There was muffled speaking, perhaps a gasp, then some strange sounds and stomping on the floor. Then silence.

'I wasn't about to say anything to the future me about this. Not that he would believe me,' I said under my breath, as I watched Linda walk into their bathroom and wipe her face. It was too dark to see clearly, but their sex must have gotten rough.

A short time later, the door slammed. The physicist turned on the bathroom light and stood in front of the mirror.

“Hey!” I said, "Did you have good day? I'm Carl... I assumed that's your name as well.”

“Yeah. It is. Listen, I think I have it figured. I ran it conceptually past one of the other professors, and he agreed,” the older Carl told me.

“You mean you told someone else about this,” I asked incredulously.

“I explained it as a 'what if' scenario. I am in fifth dimensional space, you're in the fourth. I think it must be because of the work I'm doing, this is happening... it explains the differences and the similarities,” he cautioned me.

“Alright then, I'm not a physicist so why don't you explain it to me, 5D-Carl,” I asked him.

“You... live in three-dimensional space... four dimensional if you count time. In the fifth dimension you can control time. You can go forward and backward in time. You can create your own time line. For example, I am who I am in one time line and alternately you are who you are, in another. Here, we can travel back in time to meet our alternate others, only where our separate realities start. We can't cross over to other time lines in the future after the lines split. In fifth dimensional space we can transport ourselves from point to point in a second. I am viewing you in the fourth dimension from my fifth dimension,” he went on, while I listened, not sure if I believed it or not.

“I don't know, it sounds too science fictiony to me,” I told him.

“Listen Carl, that's the best explanation... the same name, the same mother's name but there are differences, including a ten-year separation in our ages. There's probably another you here in the fifth-dimension writing for the Washington Post. You're looking at me... yourself, in an alternate reality in the fifth dimension... with one of us in the past and the other in the future,” envisioned 5D-Carl.

“It just sounds bizarre,” I responded. I didn't know much about physics, or about various dimensions, other than what I read about in science fiction books, or what I saw in Hollywood movies. It just sounded outrageous.

“Hey... listen Carl. I have to go. Linda's coming. I'll check back tomorrow. If you're not around, I'll write a time on a card and tape it on the wall behind me. That way you know when I'll be free. If I don't catch up with you, do the same thing for me. We'll manage to talk, soon,” he suggested to me.

The first thing, I connected to the Internet with my computer, searching for fifth dimensional space articles. There was plenty of stuff written about it. A lot was written by New Age types, religious freaks and wanna be science fiction writers... nothing worthwhile. Two hours into my reading, I came across a couple of University physics professors that had written articles together, on the subject. They were pretty knowledgeable on it and appeared legitimate. I cross referenced them in my search engine, and their credentials seemed excellent. Living alone, I could talk anytime I wasn't working, and weekends, except if I had a date or went out to eat, that was pretty much it. Carl the physicist was a different matter, living with someone.

I posted on a card, 'weekdays, any time I'm here and anytime in the evening'. I just wanted to get some answers. My curiosity was peeked.

The next night I went to the bathroom, I looked into the mirror. There was a card on the wall. It said, 'midnight'. I guessed, the girlfriend, Linda, would be sound asleep, or away for the night. Either way I'd set my alarm and be in front of the mirror at midnight.

I walked into my bathroom later, just as my fifth dimensional self came into view.

“Good timing my friend,” said 5D-Carl, as he shut the bathroom door behind him.

“Linda's in bed sleeping, I assume?” I asked the physicist.

“Don't worry about her. She wouldn't understand, if I explained to her, what was happening,” he told me.

“I'm not sure I do. You make this whole thing seem accidental. It seems too complicated to have been accidental. How do you accidentally open one dimension into the other?” I inquired.

“Well...I'm not completely sure. We detected an increasing amount of gravitrons in our world leaking from your dimension through an extremely small, wormhole. I located that wormhole. Knowing if I could find a way to either increase its size, or decrease our size substantially, we could enter fourth dimensional space directly. I tried several things. Nothing worked. Suddenly, something happened... something worked, I just don't know why yet, in my bathroom. It isn't completely viable, or you and I could be visiting each other in person, rather than just talking and watching. We visually see each other, as two-dimensional reflections, but if you or I try to reach through our mirrors to shake hands, we couldn't,” the physicist explained.

“Can you make the opening more responsive between our worlds?” I asked casually.

“Not at this point. I have to figure what I did to get this far, then maybe I can do something,” 5D-Carl shared.

A voice from the other side of the door sounded as I saw the doorknob, turn, and open. It was Linda who walked in without clothes again. She halted, staring into the mirror.

“Who are you talking to... oh!” she said, realizing she was standing in front of an almost identical boyfriend of hers, watching. “He looks like you, but younger.”

“OK... don't rub it in... Linda, that's Carl, me, in the fourth-dimension space. Carl,meet my girlfriend, Linda, in this world,”the physicist introduced them.

“Pleased to meet you,” said the first Carl.

“Same here. Carl, what did you do anyway to accomplish... whatever you've accomplished,” she asked sleepily and half-disinterested, as she sat on the toilet to pee, going knock-kneed in the process.

“Like what you see, Carl?” the scientist version whispered.

“I'd be a fool not to. She's beautiful,” I replied. Even tussled, half asleep, with her hair all askew, she was great looking.

She finished what she was doing and shuffled her way out of the room past the mirror, checking out the alter ego, and stopped.

“Hmmm, he's younger and better looking than you. Maybe I'll be spending more time in the bathroom,” she joked.

“Sorry, I'm only sort of a reflection,” I apologized to her, 'unfortunately', I said under my breath.

“What would you say if I would try to open a pathway, so we might 'study' each other's dimension?” Carl the physicist asked.

I stopped to think about it a minute.

“It would make a great story in the Post. I'm just not sure if anyone would believe it, or they might think I'm daffy,” I answered, but what I was thinking was the possibility of meeting Linda.

“An in-depth interview with pics might ad believability, and doing something on this side of the mirror might attract a lot of attention in both our worlds. It could help me with funding,” the physicist cited.

“I was wondering... would your abilities... transporting yourself across space and time work in this dimension?” I asked. I didn't know if it was a capability of five dimensional inhabitants or their environment.

“That's a good question. I don't think so. Those are qualities we have, that exist here because of the physics. This is a five-dimensional world. Most likely you would be able to perform five-dimensional feats once you learned how to use those qualities of our world, while you're in it. It would be like you living in a country without cars and going to one that had them. You wouldn't know how to drive one until you learned about it and how to,” the physicist said in simple terms.

“Interesting,” I commented.

“Just as interesting to us. Many things would be different. If I found a way to open our 'portal' here, would you be interested entertaining us?” the scientist asked.

“I said before I was fine with it... why not?” I exclaimed. Interviewing these two would be like interviewing a couple of aliens. My story would attract attention by the end of the first week of publication. I was sure of it.

The physicist worked on a solution. It was likely more power that he needed to create the necessary portal. After all, they could connect visually and aurally, with verbalization. As the physicist worked, they kept in touch, but not as much so, as Linda. That became a regular daily thing as the alternate self was working, and I 'worked' at home. She was quite the temptress. I fantasized about what was in store for me, if they were able to come through the portal into this universe. She rarely wore clothes and paraded around naturally without inhibition in front of the mirror. Linda even brought a chair into their bathroom so she could sit and play with herself in some sort of sexhibition for me.

I found myself so highly aroused by the woman, I couldn't think of anything else. She was becoming an obsession.

“I found the culprit creating the wormhole!” the physicist announced one day, “well two things, in combination. You know the material universe is based on frequencies, as well as everything in it. I created a remote device in the lab that could turn the plasma shield on and off, if it was needed. I always carry it with me because I'm running tests on it. When I 'm home or away, I turn it on, so this place is completely protected. Linda has one too so she can come and go without entrapment. The people at the lab are unaware of this shield or its remote,” the physicist explained.

“So, your plasma shield is causing this?” I asked.

“In combination with something else... an air purifier we run in the bathroom. It emits a frequency that interacts with the glass in this mirror and with yours. Since we are in parallel synchronization, they in turn interact with each other. The frequency this remote emits, in combination with the purifier's frequency is opening a visual portal, just not a physical opening. I'm not sure how yet, but we'll just leave it at that for now,” 5-D Carl told his alter ego.

“So, you need more power?” I asked him.

“I believe the answer is more decibels. I've recorded the two frequencies interacting on a frequency generator, so now I don't need either the air purifier or the plasma remote. I can play it with higher decibels. The human ear can't even hear the tones,” he added.

“Are we going to try it?” I asked excitedly. I was interested in the idea of connecting two dimensions, but I was more interested in making a connection with Linda.

“As soon as Linda gets here, I've already told her we're good to go, so she's coming home. Are you ready to have two visitors from another dimension visit you?” he asked.

“I've told you before, you two are welcome here. I 'm glad you finally solved the mystery,” I reiterated. Between the two of them, they asked me the same question several times.

“Well, we haven't solved it yet... we need to test it. I could be wrong We should test it first with inanimate objects, but under the circumstances I'm going to be less than proper,” the physicist warned me.

“Then let's test it. If it doesn't work, you and Linda will be disappointed...but then, so will I,” I told him. “Shall we?”

“Let me turn off these other things and turn on the two-tone frequency generator,” he suggested, as I watched him through the mirror, fumbling with his device. There was a brief interruption, where the mirror's image flickered. Briefly, I thought he looked different than me, but I chalked that to my imagination. Things looked normal again, without anything to look at except myself. Then suddenly there was the physicist, standing in his own bathroom.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Just a brief transmission interruption, while I turned off the purifier and the remote, then started the generator. If you want, try touching your mirror. See what happens,” he suggested.

So, four dimensional me put my hand up to the mirror. Nothing solid was there. I pushed a bit and felt a slight tingling. As I continued to push my arm through the opening. Carl's countenance on the other side... was pleased. He reached out and touched my arm. Both of us could feel the reality of the moment. I pulled my hand back, through the mirror.

“It works! I can't wait until you guys climb through the mirror. I'm glad our mirrors are big enough for the portal,” I suddenly recognized, somehow, we had lucked out having large mirrors in our bathrooms, almost as if by design.

About that time Linda entered the bathroom. I watched her come through the door, and I grew excited at the thought of meeting her physically. I was even more so, with the idea of her fulfilling some of the fantasies she had helped create in my mind, over the last couple of weeks. I looked closely at her, trying to see any cuts around her mouth and deduced I hadn't seen blood as I thought.

“So how are we doing?” she asked, coming into the bathroom, glancing at her boyfriend, but then casting a quick smile at me through the mirror.

“It works. I'm leaving the portal open. I have a spare frequency generator I'm taking, in case something happens to the other one. We can turn it on from the other side and reopen the portal if needed... I think, but I've connected the generator to an uninterruptible power supply, so even if power goes off it will stay open. Everything is still within the plasma shield, so no one's going to be able to interfere with the portal,” he assured us. I was more than OK, if Linda got stuck here in this dimension.

Linda was the first to climb up on the bathroom countertop and climb through the mirror. I stayed standing on the floor to help her through, in case she lost her balance. She smiled widely into my face as she emerged through the mirror, and I helped her, but she was cold to the touch. She hugged and kissed me, ecstatic to be there. The physicist climbed through the opening and we both helped him step to the floor. I noticed how cold he felt.

“It works!” the physicist said, looking back at the mirror. “Seems condescending, having the first test in a couple of bathrooms.”

“It works,” I seconded, as Linda pressed her buttocks against me, not accidentally but purposely, remaining there for several seconds, moving seductively. I almost immediately felt the results.

“I have so much to see here... fourth dimensional space! I want to experience the difference. It shouldn't be too different... it's three quarters like our home. We just won't have our powers here that make us different... time travel, walking through solid objects... transporting from one point to another instantaneously,” the physicist declared.

“You go right ahead and explore. I'm not that interested in seeing what I can't do here,” Linda informed him, winking at me while she went around my apartment, inspecting things.

As she explored, the sun dipped below the horizon, and it suddenly became darker.

“Now that it's dark, and being the night lifer I am, I am going to explore the city. If either, or both of you would like to come along and join me, you're welcome,” he invited them both.

Linda cast a side glance to me as she continued inspecting my apartment, picking up pictures and other objects to study. At first, in my periphery, I thought she changed somehow.

“What are you going to do? Make a nuisance of yourself here?” 5-D Carl asked her.

“You don't mind... do you?” she asked me, smiling slightly, knowing I wouldn't.

“No, I don't mind at all. I'm sure we'll have things to talk about,” I told my duplicate.

“Alright. If you would, jot down your address and phone number in case I need to reach you. It's a parallel universe, not an exact duplicate,” he told me, laughing a bit.

I handed him, a paper, which he studied momentarily, and left. I stood and watched my twin walk out the door. I had my wish, and I wondered where to start. Then Linda's voice came from behind.

“Well... what do you want to talk about?” she asked seductively.

Turning to answer her, she was standing in a pile of her clothes, naked. 'Well,' I thought, 'there's no need wondering where to start'... she's already begun. I'm certainly not going to dismiss her. I went to her, and kissed her, as sensually as I could. Linda, exuded a sexually hungry presence. I became mesmerized, enveloped by her kisses. She sucked hungrily at my tongue in a way I had never been kissed. I took her by the hand and led her into the bedroom, where we climbed into bed to begin our explorations.

For three hours it was non-stop, intense sex. I was on top, then Linda. She talked dirty, heightening my experience. It made my head spin in a way that I felt I left my body. Nothing was off-limits for her. In fact, she welcomed every type of interaction she could get.

As we laid in bed talking, she asked me again.

“It's OK then for both of us... for me, to come to your home whenever we wish?” she sighed.

“Honey, you two are welcomed here anytime... especially you,” I rolled over onto her and kissed her again. She returned it, and then slid down my body, engulfing it in wet kisses until I became so excited, I was ready again for sex.

5D-Carl, two hours later, came back excitedly through the door without knocking. Linda and I had finished our debauchery and were dressed, going through some scrap books I had made during my time as a reporter.

“That was incredible! This place is so much like home... but subtly different,” 5D Carl told us. “I could easily have gotten lost if I based my direction on similarities in our dimension.”

“Are you alright, Carl? You have blood on your shirt,” I noticed.

“Oh, that. I ran into something, not paying attention to where I was going. I'm fine,” the physicist answered. Linda didn't seem concerned. Then having this male, female relationship the couple had, seemed odd.

I didn't want to say anything to either of them or make inquiries about their relationship that could upset things. If you sound like you're passing judgment without knowing everything, you might be mistaken. It would serve to alienate you. You're best not jumping into the middle. Truth eventually comes to light.

“I'm afraid after last night I'll have to sleep today. How about you my dear?” he asked Linda.

“I haven't had much sleep this week and I didn't rest well last night,” she said, looking at her watch, which was unusual to see these days, then glancing at me.

“Let me show you to your room. It isn't large, but it does have its own bathroom. I'll get you towels, and a few other things you might need, "I told them, and brought them the items.

Wishing the couple, a good night, I went to bed. and thought about my earlier encounter with Linda, hopefully, to be the first of many. It was easy, getting excited, thinking about her, and I did. My hand accomplished what she wasn't there to do.

The day at work went fine. I confronted the editor with the idea of interviewing a couple of people I had ample reason to believe were from another dimension. The editor thought it was new age crap and no one would read it because no one would take it seriously.

“If that's the case, we expose them as fakes in the paper,” I recommended to my editor. I thought it was a win-win as far as the article went. Dangling believable aliens in front of the public would be the most attention-getting. I was hoping to start the interviews that evening, when I got home.

Traffic was slow heading home. I planned on taking my guests to dinner. When I walked into my apartment... they were both still asleep. I thought to myself, these fifth dimensional people must need lots of rest. Then, just as the sun was setting, both guests emerged from their room.

“Hi there. How was your day?” I asked the couple.

“It was fine. We caught up on some needed rest.” said 5D-Carl.

“I was hoping to take you both to dinner,” I suggested.

“We appreciate that Carl, but until I see how your food in this dimension interacts with our bodies... we'll have to refrain,” the physicist replied.

“Of course! I didn't even think of that... “I responded.

When I awoke, I saw two strange people, then as I focused, there stood my alter ego and Linda, peering at me... hovering. I thought I had just dozed off for a few minutes.

“It's early morning yet. Get up for work, while we discuss something with you,” the physicist suggested.

I stood from where I last saw the couple, come from their room earlier. I had passed out, but the shower awakened me. As I washed, 5D-Carl leaned on the door jamb and spoke. Then the unexpected occurred. The shower door opened, and Linda stepped inside, arousing my curiosity and other things.

“It's alright,” said Linda to me, "he knows... he knows, we fucked each other.”

“He does?” I asked quietly and self-consciously. Hey, as a reporter, I see and hear all kinds of things... nothing is too odd that happens in this world... it just doesn't happen to me.

“I don't care. Do her all you want... we're vampires,” the physicist confessed.

“Did he say, vampires?” I asked while washing.

“It's true,” she added.

“It's all very true... sorry for the deception. I used your naivete about science to deceive you to get here. Back in the fifth dimension in 2005, we've run out of the living. A number of us use our time travel to help us get what we missed the first time. We can venture backwards in a person's life, killing them multiple times for blood. Eventually though, we outnumbered the living. Then, there eventually no more living...” he explained, as his appearance changed to what he really was. Linda became old and disfigured.

“You lied about everything!” I accused him. Everything he said was fabricated.

“We need blood and flesh. We tuned into your dimension after discovering the connection. All we needed was your invitation to come here. I want to thank you, my friend, for opening the door for the delightful smorgasbord you've opened for Linda, myself and our friends.”