An Afternoon Nap

 

An Interesting Afternoon Encounter

--------- It was a day of mid-afternoon summer. At such a day, there is nothing more indolent than taking an afternoon nap and to push all thoughts into hibernation--------

“Hello?” I answered the phone with a half-awake voice and still sleeping on bed.

“Lun!” said by the other person on the call, vaguely resembling Jennifer.

 “Hey, it’s my favorite person! What’s up!” replied knowingly as I slowly become aware of my surrounding. For a second, I thought I am still in some arbitrary states of lucid dreaming, so I decided to look at palms, feel my heat from the surrounding, talk loud with what I am thinking to confirm that I am in reality.

“I need to ask you an honest question.” said Jennifer in an always distinct but plain voice. “What is the science behind matters and dimension? What is the physics of the fifth dimension?

It is always a delight to get any calls or be able to Jennifer. There is just something about her words and thoughts, in all shapes and forms, that are so unorthodox and spiritual; revealing such a distinct contrast relative to the present number-based world; as if the struggling of a firefly escaping from the city of lights.

 “I guess the science behind matter and dimension are physics? The derived science principle or mathematics is simply a language representation of our observation and …”

“But observation comes from our conscious; And nobody shares no unified consciousness.”

“Sure. But it appears that human share identical sense of observation; and therefore, our science is understood, educated, and accepted by the real world.”

“But what if it doesn’t”

“Then I guess there can be a different science”.

I turned toward the window as I am a little stunned from the conversation giving me a sense of a doctoral thesis defense. But that is something I enjoyed. We held a moment of silence waiting for the other to speak. Meanwhile, I was starring through my window, situated at the top floor of a three stories condo, with probably one of the best views of the city of Montebello. For a temporary moment, I was feeling how real this moment was.

“Perhaps the science is described differently, but I would say our language of description follows Murphy’s law. Whatever had a chance to happen, it will happen. If perception is not unified but a particular one was still observed, then one should eventually see what other people see.” I continued trying to structure my own thought and keep my own wording logical without being a scientific ass.

“Then what is science behind the fifth dimension” Jennifer asked.

--- I felt a sudden sink and opened my eyes on a speeding subway. The subway train appeared futuristic. My half-opened eye started to screen over the train and stared at a digital screen showing the stop of the red route. It was a typical style of graphics in the subway system in Hong Kong, and it appeared that I was traveling to Hung Hum – a transfer stop to the inner city--- 

“I must have just felt asleep over this ride.” I murmured. “What a dream of having such a crazy conversation. Now it’s time to go home.”

I left the train at the Hung Hum station and began toward the exit through a long humid corridor. As I walked over the corridor, I saw a few convenience stores and a group of vagrants gathering at the 7-11. For whatever reasons, I decided to go to the store and bought a cake.”

“What the fuck are you doing here?” a familiar-looking man appeared in his late 30s hollered.

“What are in the world are you doing with these people? Can’t you find any better thing to do?!” I whispered without triggering the attention of the other crowd.

All of a sudden, he grabbed my sweater and pushed me against the refrigerator.

“You’ve fucking went away! You’ve fucking left! You’ve fucking left!” He bellowed as if he owned the fucking store, and the other vagrants began to walk toward me.

I looked at the cashier and felt sorry for him, in the meanwhile I was totally unexpected of the situation.

“I don’t want no troubles.” I said. “nor I know your friends do”.

The man decided to drag me outside of the store to a mahogany long bench.

“You know father left (passed away) a long time, ago right?” said the man with a totally different tone.

For a moment I suddenly became aware that this man is my brother. The 6^th in my sibling tree who I have never talked to since he was born.

“I do not…..”

“because you guys fucking left. And I was the only here.” “There was no way for me to contact any of you as if I am the only son”.

“I have always wanted to connect to him. But our life is just so different even though we were born via the same dad.” I replied.

He stood up from the chair and walked away. I felt a sense of guilt dissolving in the hovering tears of my eye bag. In the meantime, I feel powerless in resolving this feeling.

------ End Note-----

The two sections presented above were dreams of my afternoon nap, which I tried to write down and depict as accurately as possible. The transition from scene 1 to 2 can be sudden and perhaps confusing, but these two sections were completely written with a different voice, as ascribed in my dreams.

A common theme I postulated from my encounters is that our perception is just so experienced based. I was a total mind blown when I actually woke up and realized that both of what became so vivid were in fact “dreams” from an afternoon nap. These visions, thoughts, and conversations are very often the reminiscence of our previous experience, and our subtle reflection of these encounters.

Despite I was “situated” at a different reality, my consciousness continued to think, create, and reflect; meanwhile trying to sustain my day-to-day logics, and connect these “situations” through the tangible human emotions. It can be a being nervous, feeling loved, falling in remorse, being excited. But most important of all, these feelings are real, and are a great part of being in life.