Author: R. J. Erbacher

“I’m sorry, what?”

Aaron was about to tip his tray of leftover lunch into the bin and now held it frozen in mid-spill. Maybe telling him wasn’t a smart idea after all. I thought, out of everyone I knew and trusted, he would have an open mind. I had worked with him for seven years and we had become good, tell-each-other-anything, friends. My secret might have just changed the whole dynamics of our relationship.

“I said, I can move from one plane of existence to another if I really concentrate.”

“You know Zoey, even the second time, that still doesn’t make sense.”

He continued with his garbage dump and we walked from the cafeteria back to our cubicles.

“I don’t know why or how but one day while I was doing yoga in my apartment – it just happened. I went from squatting on my rug looking at the rain on my window to sitting on a rock overlooking a sunny beach and gorgeous ocean. I jumped up and flashed right back because I was so freaked out. But after experimenting and fine tuning my skills for a couple of weeks I can pretty much do it at will and it’s kind of creepy and exciting at the same time.”

“You know, I have to call bullshit on this,” Aaron said.

“I’m serious!” I said a little too loudly as we strode past other workers in the hallway. “Look I have no clue how it works. I Googled it and it has something to do with changing the structure of your consciousness or vibrating at a different physical frequency. I don’t know?”

“Really? And where is this beach?”

“I don’t know that either. I don’t recognize it. It’s isolated and wonderful. No other people around. To tell you the truth it might not even be on this planet.”

He stopped so I stopped, and we stared at each other. His face was incredulous.

I saw that we were next to the copy room, so I nabbed his elbow and pulled him in and closed and locked the door.

“Just watch.”

I hiked my skirt up a little, dropped into a lotus position, closed my eyes, took a lung-filling inhale and allowed my inner self to float into free-fall. In a few seconds the smell of the room changed from ink toner to sea moisten air. I opened my eyes and was happily no longer at work. I marveled at the beauty, breathing easily, wanting to strip and plunge into the crystal swells. The feeling that had been coming on me at these moments filled me with a sense of peace that made tears come to my eyes. I wanted to be here. Always. But I knew I couldn’t stay. I let my mind return to the jarring reality of the office. I finished with a deep cleansing breath and stood up.

“Well?”

“Yeah that’s great. You can sit on your ass and cross your legs. So what?”

“But I just went away!”

“No, you didn’t. I was focusing intently and you just fuzzed out a little.” Aaron took off his glasses and wiped the lenses with the end of his tie. “I must need a new prescription.”

“So, how did I get this?”

I opened my hand and held out a palm full of pure white sand.

Aaron gazed at it then looked at me with a smirk. “Nice trick.”

As he left the room and went back to his desk, I wonder how long it would take me to work out the details. Until I could ‘fuzz out’ completely.