A Moment in Time

Joe rushed into his new apartment in some of the worst projects in the city, he still believed it was better than the various adoption homes he’d lived in since he was fourteen. The death of his parents had weigh heavy on his heart and spiraled him into drug abuse for most of his teenage life. Now eighteen, and an independent young adult, he got himself a job at the steel mill near by, but most of his money came from his drug sales him & his buddy Andy sold. Except on this day, he was celebrating his birthday with a special drug Andy had given him. “This shit will knock your ass dead!” he recalled the warning he was given by his only friend. “Well... Happy birthday to me,” he spoke into the content inside his plastic baggy as he sat in his filthy living room. Since drugs were the only thing he’d truly known for the last few years of his young life, he was well aware of the dangers. “DMT” The streets called it. He heard of people having outer body as well as near death experiences, under the drug’s influence. Some were known for having major life changes afterwards, but others accounts had lead to people committing suicide. Joe was determined to change his life and with no other guidance, besides his buddy Andy, he was ready to seek within himself for the answers while induced in psychedelic drugs.

“Lets see what you‘re all about.” He whispered to himself. His water pipe was filled to the rim of the bowl, and he picked his favorite lighter and ignited the drug into vaporing smoke. It sizzled as it filled his lungs. He consumed a large amount and upon exhaling he lost motor function of his body. First he drooled, and nodded off for a few seconds until he choked on the remaining smoke and then he fell over on his Mayan carpet. His breathing stopped for exactly twenty-three seconds. Suddenly his phone rang and jolted his body back to a lively form. He rose deranged and absolutely perplexed as the phone ringer roared in his head. He noticed the caller i.d. read “Andy.” It took him a couple of more rings before he could answer it. “Hello?” he spoke into the end of the phone while wiping his drool, “Well how was it, my boy?” His smug friend asked. “Can I call you back?” Joe responded to Andy, “Why? You good?“ Andy asked sounding a bit worried for his friend, “Yes... everything alright. I just know what I must do with my life now.” He hung up the phone.

Eighty-two years have passed since then.

Joe retired early for the night, into his multi-billion dollar estate, leaving his guests to enjoy the party. Now celebrating his one hundred birthday, with all of the employees to a company he created at age forty. He was also celebrating his ultimate invention, “Dimensional Engineering“ he called it, a software platform that allowed users the privilege to not only design parallel dimensions but to travel to them. After twenty years of achieving top degrees as an astronomer, physicist, geologist, and paleontologist from all major universities and his research that expanded throughout all of his life, his body was withering away. He knew that this journey he began eighty-two years ago was a cause of an epiphany he had during his drug induced state all those years prior. It was that vision he had seen that drove his life’s passion, that lead him to create this ingenuity. It was those visions he had that led him to study ancient civilization, mainly those that vanished from history, such as Machu Picchu. “You must be very proud of all your accomplishments, Mr. Guzman.” His lovely assistant Delilah stated to him as she pushed him in his wheelchair into his study. “Please, Delilah, I’ve told you... just call me Joe. The Mr. makes me sound old.” Joe humored her. “I must thank you for the careers you’ve built for us. We’re all very thankful for you,” she said to Joe. “You’re welcome Delilah, you’re all very welcome. I will enjoy the last few hours of the night alone, please make sure all of my guests enjoy themselves... eh, tell them that joke you know.” Joe said to her as she pushed him near his desk. “As you wish... and, Happy Birthday, Joe.” She said in her soft voice as her kiss left her lipstick on his right cheek. The doors slid shut automatically behind her, and he was left in solitude as the party continued outside.

He opened his holographic desktop and in it was a window that displayed his health status. He saw that the heart and lungs had not improved, along with many other aspects of his now aged human body. It was as if he was staring at a hourglass that was now nearing its last grains of sand. He stared at an old picture he had framed on his desk of his friend Andy and him back on his eighteenth birthday in the year 2018. His friend had been killed in a drug deal shortly after that day. He missed him very much, for it was his friend who had secretly shown him this path he had been on all his life. He sighed and with a gesture of his hand the computer opened up the portal. The door way into Dimensional Engineering, the machine and technological achievement he had created. Except he had been designing a new platform on which inter-dimensional traveling would exceed that of just existing parallel dimensions but to travel beyond this physical planes far beyond time and space.

“Lets see what your all about,” he spoke to his creation, and with his last bit of strength he stands up and begins to walk into the blinding light after pressing the ignition button on his holographic computer. He walks into the portal and whispers to himself, “Well... Happy Birthday to me!“ The machine takes his physical body across billions of dimensions on his platform Dimensional Engineering. He peeks into the worlds people have created, but then he is flushed into other existing dimensional planes older than time itself. Worlds beyond comprehension and understanding of human psyche, it was waves of colors foreign to human eyes. Realms of pure wonder and awe, he felt his tired heart but endured the surprises of each second. Just then, before he felt himself over exhausted, a final portal opened. From the over powering light that expanded before him, a tall shadow emerged from it. It was crowned with a feathered head, and it stood up right as a man. The light faded behind a man holding a staff, as he approached, Joe began to recognized details of his outfit. He was an ancient Mayan from some lost civilization. He wore a crown of feathers and aged old stones carved with the idols of their gods. The staff he possessed in his weathered hands was a testament to the astral dimensional planes he had traveled too. It, much like himself, was fused with some sort of technology that was of another time, far beyond ours. The blue paint on his face and body appeared to pulsate with electricity as he walked towards Joe. Joe fell to his knees as he felt the excitement take a toll on his heart, he grasped for air, as the ancient towered over him. He now understood that this ancient civilization had discovered the same secrets of the universe as him, they had vanished without a trace since and had been walking through time and space. Now they had found each other.

Without saying a word he spoke to Joe telepathically, and said “This was once your vision. You have manifested this into existence. You had to unlock this timeless wisdom to create it.” The dimensional traveler raised his hands and his staff floated on its own next to him burning a pixelated flame that appeared to be some sort of power source from some future unknown. With his open palms reaching out to Joe, he saw a flurry of sacred geometry, shapes and devine lines that spilled from his hands. All the secrets to the universe were bestowed upon him, as his body took its last breath, he felt his heart stop. The ancient’s eyes flashed a powerful white light that covered his entire vision along with the majestic patterns he was given. Joe’s life faded away in the white light.

Suddenly his phone rang and jolted his body back to a lively form. He rose deranged and absolutely perplexed as the phone ringer roared in his head. He noticed the caller i.d. read “Andy.” It took him a couple of more rings before he could answer it. “Hello?” he spoke into the end of the phone while wiping his drool, “Well how was it, my boy?” His smug friend asked. “Can I call you back?” Joe responded to Andy, “Why? You good?“ Andy asked sounding a bit worried for his friend, “Yes... everything is alright. I think we should stop selling drugs. I just know what we must do with our lives now.” He hung up the phone.

The end.