I came into the world 12 January 2023, not pink and vulnerable, with sobs and tears, my mother holding me to her breast - but full grown, bearded, scarred, with a distasteful vaping habit.

It’s best that I explain myself. I’m Jonathan, pleased to meet you. Some three months previously my life was very ordinary. I received the letter in the middle of a stack of mail. No, you misunderstand me. I examined the pile of letters and there was one embedded in the middle of the rest – it was as though someone had held the narrow envelope like a dagger and stabbed the others through the chest. I had to tear the others apart to get to it. The letter smelled of strawberries.

My postman was a “vaporetto”. It’s a phenomenon. He hooked me up with his guy and soon I was slowly drawing on a vape, holding the sickly strawberry-like substance in my lungs. But nothing was happening. More of that later.

The letter: it was addressed to me. I had sent it, but I’d never seen it before. The me in this world wrote that letter to the me in my world. Inside the envelope was a one page letter pleading for help, and a thin notebook with journal entries and an explanation of whole “vaporetti” thing. Compelled to act, I easily worked myself into the postman’s confidence, all it took was buying a pack of 10 “Strawberry Clouds” vape cartridges. I entered the vaporetti subculture where people got off on tripping to the alternative world – this one. Trouble was, the vape did nothing to me except turn my eyes a little pink. Then the postman talked me through it:

“You’re trying too hard. You’re too intense. Clear your lungs. Get some oxygen in there and we go again, calmly.”

I was trying to relax but the letter made it plain that the stakes were high. I needed to reach “my brother”. In my pocket was the small key he had asked for. I drew deep on the vape pen and tried to chill as my eyes burned.

“Okay mate. Relax those muscles. Good, now visualise your brain tilting 90 degrees to the left as though you’re lying down on the side. Now, close your…”

His voice faded. Real panic filled the reptile part of my brain. I wanted to throw up, run, lash out. I was… nowhere. There was a true blackness in front of me - not the ‘Eigengrau’ we see when our eyes are closed. A long beat and the nausea returned. I felt the universe rotate around me. I awoke, seemingly in my own bed, to a fresh new world.

I gasped for air. Immediately, I felt in my shirt pocket for the key, finding blood. The key stuck out of my chest, at 90 degrees to how it was in the old world. Reeling, I went to the bathroom mirror and tore off my t-shirt. Only the tip was piercing my chest. I pulled, slowly, firmly and it came out. I dressed the small wound and cleaned myself up.

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…and so on… I was interested more in the rules of this universe and how the transition works. I think I will write a full story from this soon.