The Key to Dimension Nine

It was another New Year’s Eve and another annual extravaganza at the Garrison home in the opulent Mirada Estates in Palm Springs, California.

Barbara Garrison, as usual, planned everything down to the finest detail, selecting the most expensive caterers, Waterford crystal, Mikasa china and a live twelve-piece band. She wasn’t about to let her husband Warren’s horrific taste in clothes spoil her perfect setting.

“You are not wearing that awful jacket to my party!” she shrieked. “Take that thing off and put on the beige camel sports coat I bought you.”

Warren felt the knots in his stomach tighten, but with their guests arriving in minutes the last thing he wanted, or had time for, was another argument. He took a deep breath and exchanged his comfortable suit coat with the scratchy one Barbara demanded he wear.

Between clenched teeth, Warren replied, “Fine, Barbara, whatever you want.”

Ignoring his tone she held out her wrist and handed him a shining diamond bracelet.

“Help me with this, Warren.”

It was not a request, it was an order. The words, please and thank you were never part of his wife’s vocabulary. Warren fastened the bracelet “Santa” had given her for Christmas. Barbara wasn’t a religious woman, but she did love to celebrate any holiday that included receiving presents. Giving was not a word in her vocabulary.

“I’m going downstairs to greet our guests. Fix your tie and meet me there.”

Warren watched his wife head down the stairs. He recalled when they first met how very attractive she had been. Her physical appearance emitted pure white heat, but emotionally, Barbara was the epitome of a pure white glacier. Unfortunately, Warren hadn’t discovered her true nature until after their first child was born, eleven months after they were married. Any pretense of affection vanished almost the instant Barbara added her name to Warren’s bank accounts.

Warren was devoted to his children and would never think of jeopardizing their home life for the sake of a brief affair, even if it meant his only satisfaction came from self-induced stimulation. He knew of private clubs where anything goes was the party line, but he was too nervous about someone seeing him and telling Barbara, or an important business client, to dare indulge in even one visit. The repercussions of exposure would be devastating. Warren managed to convince himself there were more important things in life than passion and sex. Almost.

After a while he became accustomed to his life, filling in the void with new additions to his house; a finished basement, heated swimming pool and several new cars. He surrounded himself with material pleasures in an effort to replace the loss of the physical kind.

For her part, Barbara kept the house impeccable and created an elegant social atmosphere whenever he needed to entertain clients. She arranged many business events so his company thrived, so he made more money, so she could spend more money. It was a comfortable business relationship.

There were times when he had considered leaving, but then thought where would he go? Divorce would ruin him and murder was out of the question. Considering the alternatives, Warren was reasonably happy. He had a good life, contented with his own reality, or so he kept telling himself, even as he straightened his suffocating tie, buttoned the irritating jacket and headed down the stairs.

Warren sighed deeply, and walked to the living room to greet the members of his office staff.

Matt Jordano, George Brown, Dan Cramer and several other top managers were sitting closely together. Warren noticed each had their right hands spread flat on the coffee table, and they were conversing in a suspiciously low volume, which ended abruptly as soon as they noticed Warren approaching. If he had been paranoid, Warren would have thought they had been talking about him.

Dan stood up and extended his hand to Warren who shook it, a bit hesitantly. He gave Dan’s wrist a quick glance to see if he could discover what the others were looking at, but all he saw was slightly tanned bare skin.

“Something wrong with your hand, George?” He asked.

“No, of course not, Warren. Just wanted to wish you a Happy New Year.”

“Happy New Year to you, too.” Warren clicked his friend’s glass and took a long sip of his drink.

“Some of the guys are coming over to my house tomorrow to watch the Rose Bowl after we’ve played a few rounds.” Matt said. “You wanna come?”

“I’ll join you at the club for golf, but I have to come straight home afterwards. Barbara wants to go to the mall for the New Year’s Day sales.”

The men exchanged sympathetic glances.

“Sure, Warren. Whatever the misses wants, right guys?” Dan teased.

“Have fun.... shopping.” George tried unsuccessfully to suppress a chuckle.

Warren finished his drink and began walking towards the back door, not fast enough to keep from overhearing the purposely-loud whispers of his friends’ conversation.

“Is that guy totally whipped or what?” He heard Brad remark.

“That’s Warren all right. When Barbara says “jump” he says “how high?”

They watched Warren exit through the sliding glass door.

“If anyone needs this,” Matt held up the back of his wrist and pointed to his, what appeared to be, bare hand, “Warren certainly does.”

“No shit!” Dan agreed, “but I doubt that guy would know what to do with it even if he had it. Well, we’d better get back to the party before they start singing Auld Lang Syne without us.”

While the men rejoined the festivities, Warren left through the back door, taking the stairs down to the desert that was his backyard. He needed to be alone, to think. In the darkness of the landscape, the stars lit up every inch of the sky above with life, in contrast to the barren sand below his feet.

Once he was a safe distance away, Warren removed his shoes and socks. He liked the way the warm, desert sand felt between his toes. A few steps along the way, he suddenly stopped.

“OW! What the FUCK?”

Warren cried out as his foot landed on a sharp object sticking up from the sand. Thinking it might be a piece of glass, he knelt down to retrieve it, but the protrusion was deeply imbedded into the desert sand.

He wiggled it a few times, then gave it a fierce tug, finally wrenching it free. To his amazement, the object he held in his hands wasn’t a broken remnant, but two perfectly shaped crystal diamonds, attached at the center.

As Warren ran his finger over the smooth outer edge, the object began to glow. Startled, he dropped it back onto the sand where it immediately returned to its original shade. Cautiously, he picked it up again. At his touch, the object radiated a strange luminescence, sending a slight tremor throughout his body. He felt as if he were floating, yet when he looked down, his feet were well secured in the sand.

Warren could no longer hear the party sounds from his house and for one terrifying moment he thought he might be having a heart attack. The small hairs on the back of his neck began to rise and he started to experience a much stranger sensation causing something else to begin to rise! The longer he held the mysterious crystal, the stronger the feeling became. He was about to throw the crystal back to the ground when he heard a silky female voice behind him.

“It’s quite amazing, isn’t it?”

Startled, and a little embarrassed, he quickly spun around, clumsily trying to hide the crystal behind his back.

“What is?” He asked the stranger.

 Warren had lived in the desert community for over ten years and thought he knew all the residents, but he was certain he had never seen this woman before. He would have definitely remembered someone with glorious waves of auburn hair cascading wild and untamed down to her shoulders and deep piercing aquamarine eyes that seemed to engulf him in their intense gaze.

The stranger gently reached around his waist, intentionally pressing her body close to his. A sensation of warmth and desire flooded over him. Warren forced himself to ignore the feeling by focusing his attention on the now fully illuminated crystal in the lady’s delicate hand.

“The key to Dimension Nine. It’s quite amazing when you feel its affects for the first time.”

“This is a key?” Warren hoped she didn’t hear the tremor in his voice. “What does it open?”

Who are you? He desperately wanted to ask, but his curiosity over the mysterious object overcame his curiosity over the mysterious woman.

Her fingers caressed the top of his hand. Her eyes locked him into a hypnotic gaze. Her voice, slightly above a whisper, answered both of his questions without answering either one.

“It’s a key to any fantasy you’ve ever imagined. It opens your soul to all the pleasures of the universe.”

The woman took several steps closer and before Warren could protest, her soft, hungry lips met his in a warm, tender kiss. She placed her hands on the back of his neck, running her fingers lightly through his hair. Her tongue was sweet; her kisses filled him with a warmth and a passion he hadn’t felt in decades. Warren began to respond, then, realizing where he was, abruptly broke away.

“Stop that. What if the neighbors saw us, or my guests, or my wife!”

The lady’s responsive laughter was full of sensuality.

“Don’t worry, Warren. They can’t see us. They’re all still securely grounded in Dimension One.”

“So, I was right. I did have a heart attack. I’m dead and this is heaven.”

“Hardly dead, but you might think you’ve gone to heaven. My name is Elizabeth. Come this way, please.”

Curiosity overcame his trepidation. Warren followed Elizabeth towards the row of his neighbor’s portable toilets. Elizabeth stopped a few feet in front of the blue boxes.

“Look at the doors and tell me what you see.”

Warren squinted at the view, but nothing seemed to have changed.

“I don’t see anything but a row of smelly plastic port-a-potties the construction workers left. By the way, how did you know my name? Have we met?” Warren stuttered.

“I’ll explain everything in a little while. Look closer, Warren. You’ll see not all the doors on the toilets are exactly the same.”

Warren’s gaze scanned over the line of tall blue boxes, but noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Then, his eyes focused on one that was slightly different from the rest. Above the handle was an indentation formed in the exact double- diamond shape as the crystal he held in his hand.

“Yes, I can see the door on that one looks like this, uh, key.”

“That’s right. Now, place the crystal into the design on the door.”

Warren did as she instructed. The door was immediately encompassed with the same yellow glow he had seen when he’d first freed the object from the sand. Elizabeth opened the door and motioned for him to follow.

“This way.”

“In there? There’s hardly enough room for...” Warren’s astonishment interrupted him in mid- sentence. Once he entered the toilet, he expected to be inside a five by five plastic box, but instead Warren found himself standing in the foyer of an enormous mansion.

“I don’t understand. How? Where?”

“The entrance to Dimension Nine is very similar to the people who are invited here appear to be. So much more on the inside than what can be seen on the outside. Can I fix you a drink?” She purred.

“Absolutely! I’ll have a scotch, neat.”

“Is 30 year single malt Macallan all right?”

“All right? You’ve got to be kidding!”

Warren was stunned to be offered one of the most exclusive brands of scotch on the free market. At $670,000 a bottle, it was also the most expensive.

“Anything you want is yours for the asking.” She filled his glass nearly to the top.

“How about a cigar to go with the scotch?”

“Certainly.” Elizabeth opened a cabinet and handed Warren a Gurkha Royal Courtesan.”

“Oh my God!” Warren shouted. “This has a price tag of $1.36 million dollars. Is it ok if I smoke in here?”

“Warren, you can do anything, be anything and have anything you desire in Dimension Nine.” Elizabeth clipped the tip and lit the cigar. We’ll be more comfortable in the study. This way.”

As he followed her down the hallway, Warren could see every detail of Elizabeth’s slender figure. Her hips gently moved with the grace of a tiger on the prowl. Warren felt like her prey.

Once they were inside the opulent office, Elizabeth walked behind a large mahogany desk and sat down in a plush leather chair. She motioned him to be seated opposite.

“I don’t understand any of this. I found this crystal,” he put it on the desk.

“No, Warren, you didn’t find the crystal. The crystal found you.”

“What do you mean, it found me? I stepped on the damn thing.”

Elizabeth smiled warmly. “True, but that was no accident. It was an invitation, albeit an unusual one. The crystal is very particular as to whom it invites into Dimension Nine.”

“Why did it choose me? I’m no one special.”

“Warren, you’re a good, decent man. You enjoy your work. You have a wife, children, and a good home. Everyone who knows you sees you as happy and fulfilled, but contentment and happiness are two completely different ideals. You know there’s been a huge void in your life for many years.”

Elizabeth leaned forward across the desk exposing her deep cleavage and voluptuous breasts to a thoroughly mesmerized Warren.

“The fulfillment you seek will never be found within the confines of reality. You’ve been grounded under the weight of responsibilities, family and business obligations and feel a profound sense of guilt. You’re living your life pretending you had everything you wanted, but there’s a large piece missing, which is no way to live.

Dimension Nine is eight dimensions above reality. Here, you’re completely free to experience every fantasy you can imagine. D9 is a place of unlimited pleasure, and unlimited desires realized for the mind, the body and the soul.” 

Warren took a large sip of his scotch. The idea of a place as Elizabeth described couldn’t possibly be real, and even if it were, he thought, there were always consequences.

“It sounds wonderful, Elizabeth, but what if someone finds out?” Warren’s old fears and anxieties began to damper his enthusiasm even as Elizabeth’s words were enticing him into a world he desperately wanted to enter.

 “Dimension Nine is a place of ultimate freedom, complete safety, and total secrecy. And now,” Elizabeth picked up Warren’s right hand and pointed to his wrist, “you’ve been officially invited.”

Just above Warren’s fingers on the back of his hand was a small golden imprint of the double-diamond. Startled, he pulled his hand back.

“What the hell did you do to me? What is this?” He tried to wipe it from his hand, but it was imbedded into his skin.

 “From the moment you crossed the doorway, you were branded with the symbol of Dimension Nine. It can only be seen by others who have been invited here and it’s invisible to everyone else. Only those who are invited can enter and none who leave may ever return. If you do not wish to accept the invitation, your key will dissolve and the imprint on your hand will vanish.”

“The guys at the party were looking at their hands. Have they all been here?”

“Yes, Matt, Dan, George and several women from your company are all guests.”

“That could be a problem. If anyone saw me and it got back to the office...”

“Warren, I told you Dimension Nine is a place of complete and total safety for everyone who enters. No one can speak of anything they see or do here except to other guests. If they do, the design on their hand will ignite and they will be instantly incinerated. Trust me, you’re completely safe in the real world, the world of reality, what we call Dimension One.”

“Wow, that’s some guarantee.”

“Everything here is for your pleasure.” Elizabeth opened the side drawer and handed him the jacket his wife had made him remove earlier.

“How?”

Warren removed the camel sports coat, tossed it onto the floor and put on his comfortable jacket.

“Just say the word, Warren, and it’s all yours. Whenever, wherever and however you desire.”

“And, all I have to do is find a port-a-potty to get here?”

Elizabeth’s responsive laughter was delicious.

“No, Warren. The entrance to Dimension Nine can be anywhere. You need only hold the crystal at the points and the impression will appear on whatever doorway that will transport you to any fantasy you desire. Dimension Nine is limited only by your imagination. Shall we begin your journey?”

Elizabeth rose from her seat and walked around to the opposite side of the desk. She knelt on the carpet, loosened Warren’s tie and slowly began unbuttoning his shirt. Her long fingernails traced delicate circles over the tiny hairs on his chest. She moved lower so her mouth was mere inches away from launching him on a voyage he had wished to travel his entire life.

“No expectations.” Elizabeth gave him one light kiss.

 “No fear of disappointment.” Another little kiss.

 “No rejection or refusal. Unbridled passion, unlike anything you’ve ever known. All you have to do is say yes.”

Warren closed his eyes and surrendered himself to the dizzying passion he was feeling throughout his body. All his earlier trepidations, all his former apprehensions and all the bonds of reality vanished as he slowly exhaled one word.

 “Yes.”