Erwin woke to the sound of pots and pans clanging in the kitchen.

“It must be Sunday,” he thought dreamily. “Mother’s in the kitchen, making bacon, eggs and pancakes.”

Bacon and eggs was their Sunday breakfast. It wouldn’t be long and Mother would be at the door telling him breakfast was ready. After breakfast, they’d go to church.

Erwin snuggled deeper under the covers and stretched contentedly, but only for a second or two. “Boy,” he thought. “Mother’s making a lot of noise. What could she be doing in there”?

Then, memories of the night before came to mind and Erwin sprang upright in his bed, causing his forehead to pulsate and throb.

“Wait a minute!” he thought. “That’s not Mother. It’s the guy who invaded my house last night.

Now in the light of the day, Erwin wasn’t sure what to think about the man who had appeared in his living room and apparently taken up residency in his home. He was surprised how nonchalant he was about the whole thing. Drawing his bedspread closer to his chin, he wondered if he should be afraid.

The man wasn’t even a man really. What was his name again? Ethan. Ethan looked to be a few years younger than Erwin, maybe 23 or 24. He reminded Erwin of one of those hippies. Long brown hair, slight build and kind of a laid back attitude, and friendly. He had made Erwin feel like he was his friend.

The main thing Erwin didn’t mind about Ethan was he conveyed a sense that he knew what was going on. More than most people. Definitely more than Erwin and it came through as a kindness and sincerity in his appearance. Although already attractive, it made him more attractive.

“Dang it!” Erwin thought, after Ethan caused a particularly loud clatter. “I have to get out there before he destroys the place”.

Erwin got up, and to brave whatever elements awaited him, wrapped a quilt his mother had made around himself.

After a few moments, Ethan noticed Erwin, standing quietly at the entrance to the kitchen from the hallway.

“Hey buddy!” Ethan greeted, sounding chipper as can be, like one of those early risers. Although Erwin forced himself to be an early riser, he was not. “I’m making breakfast. Where do you keep your bread? I still have to make toast”.

“No toast. We have pancakes on Sunday,” Erwin replied.

“But with toast too, right?” Ethan asked.

“No. Just pancakes”.

“But you must have some bread laying around”?

“On Sunday, we have pancakes. I buy a loaf of bread after church so it’s fresh for sandwiches to take to work the following week”.

“Well, I don’t know what we’re supposed to dip into our eggs. Seems to me, you might have a loaf of bread lying around”.

Then, after a final hopeful look around the kitchen for bread, Ethan looked at the food he had prepared. “I guess we’re ready then,” he sighed. Bacon, eggs and hash browns sat on the kitchen table. There were no pancakes. He didn’t know how to make pancakes “How’s your head”?

“Sore,” Erwin responded, never one to hold back if someone asked how he felt. “It’s throbbing and now my whole head aches. I think I might have a blood clot. They can travel through your body, you know. They get logged in an artery and then it’s over. You’re dead. I doubt I have much time left, if you want to know the truth”

Ethan took a closer look at Erwin’s bump. It was there, but had gone down considerably since the night before. It didn’t look like anything other than your ordinary, run of the mill, bump.

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“Sit down and have some breakfast,” Ethan said. “It will make your body strong so you can fight it off”.

“That’s exactly what Mother would have said,” Erwin thought, as he sat down obediently.

They sat across from each other eating silently. Ethan dipped his hash browns, then bacon into his runny eggs. It wasn’t the same. Dipping his toast was his favorite part of bacon and eggs. He lost all interest in the meal and turned his attention towards Erwin.

“What kind of life does this guy have?” he wondered even though it was obvious. The whole house was like a giant womb.

“So, what do you do, Erwin ?” he asked.

“I’m an archivist for the San Francisco Library”.

“A worthy profession,” Ethan replied.

“Thank-you,”

After a few moments of silence, Erwin asked. “Ethan, do you think you’ll be leaving today”?

“No”.

“Why not?” Erwin responded, disappointed.

“Because I just started my quest and you’re part of it. I landed in your living room for a reason. You can rest assured, whatever I’m to do here, you’re going to be a big part of it”.

“But I don’t want to be a part of anything. I want my life. I think it’s best you leave. I’m sure there’s other people out there who can be more helpful to you. After all, you can’t just barge into someone’s home and expect them to drop everything and follow you.

“I do it all the time,” Ethan replied. “Listen Erwin, I know I’ve placed you in what looks to be an impossible situation, even to believe, but I am from the future. I come from the same earth, only about 100 years ahead of you. Our technology is advanced by computerization so powerful, it can build new Virtual Worlds, and this is what I did here.

In the future, people build their own Virtual Worlds to understand themselves and get more out of life. We build our own virtual world, or we go on quests where the computer builds a simulation of a past time and place on earth that has a potential to impact our life. While on our quest, we are given the opportunity to discover and influence the situation. By removing barricades of the past, we open ourselves to our true potential, which is to merge with the Collective Consciousness, and in turn, the Universal Frequency.

I hate to break it to you, but you are not the same person who was sitting at your table last night when I dropped in. You’re a simulation of that person. You are part of my quest. Who you think you are now lives beside you in the Space/Time Continuum. You are two completely different people, exactly the same for now, but who will experience polarized future lives. This is my recompense for involving you. In creating a simulation, I also create a new Duality out of you. You and your counterpart are connected and from here on will bump into and influence each other through life. Eventually you will merge as a greater life force because of this quest and you will live on into eternity.

Erwin, not receptive to a word Ethan had just said, pushed up his glasses thinking if he was better focused, he could see what was going on. The lenses were rather thick and gave him an owlish look. “What?” was all he could say and then he turned his head away from Ethan, also reminiscent of an owl. He was thinking of pretending Ethan wasn’t there again.

Ethan looked reflectively at Erwin. It was a lot to take in. “I’m sorry about how confusing this is Erwin, but I find the best way to tell people they’re a simulation is to come right out with it. Rip off the bandage, as they say. The thing you have to know is I come in peace, and you will benefit from this experience and its challenges.

“Challenges!” Oh, Erwin hated challenges. “What kind of challenges,” he asked, still not looking at Ethan.

“I don’t know,” Ethan replied. “I won’t even be born for five more years. I wonder if I’ve come to kill myself”?

Ethan of course meant to somehow sabotage the birth of Eldon, but Erwin didn’t know that. Erwin was now looking directly at Ethan. None of what Ethan had told him made him feel any better about the situation.

Ethan knew Erwin needed time to process things, but like others in his past quests, would eventually come round. Eventually he would accept the reason given to him, because there wasn’t any other explanation. It was kind of like being hypnotized. A hypnotist will do something to disrupt a person’s equilibrium, while providing a suggestion on how to deal with it, which is to sleep. The person, without a ready response of their own, yields to the suggestion and sleeps. Ethan’s presence disrupted Erwin’s equilibrium, and his suggestion to follow was the only one for him to grab onto.

Ethan found a stack of newspapers Erwin had neatly placed beside the dining room table. He picked one up and settled into the plastic covered lounge chair. He had grabbed an underground rag called ‘Good Morning Teaspoon’. Erwin was still staring at Ethan. Ethan gave him a nod as to say, “Take your time,” and opened the paper. There was an article about the first Kwanzaa, which Ethan read. Then he turned to the notices and advertisements on the back page. Terence McKenna, a student at University of California, Berkeley, was giving a talk on the Mind Expanding Potential of Psychedelic Plants.