Confession of a Ghost. 20. 21. Theory of Time

“CONFESSION of a GHOST”
a novel by Alexandra Kryuchkova
in the “PLAYING ANOTHER REALITY” series


21 BEFORE/20 AFTER. HOUSE No. 8

*****The MASTER of FATES*****

***
Somewhere in the Universe


Climbing higher and higher along a sheer cliff under the dome of the black-black sky, we turned right and found ourselves on a huge stone plateau dotted with…

“The pilgrim ascends to the top of the mountain, passing through the shrine,” the Guardian cited the words of the stargazer. “To open the door to Heaven, one must pass through death on Earth.”

Walking through the cemetery, I read the names engraved on the monuments.

“Angel, why are some of the dates foggy?”

“The date of body’s death is not always predetermined. There are several critical points of checking. Death will occur on one of them.”

“Do they check the correctness of one’s walking the way?”

“The way is multivariate. You can’t say the right one is the only one. Sometimes it becomes clear that one will no longer be able to fulfill one’s tasks. It makes no sense to keep the soul on Earth longer. Sometimes it’s even advisable to take one earlier, before one makes Evil. Every case is different.”

“How many monuments are there? And who are all these people?”

“It’s better not to count, you’ll know them on Earth, not all of them closely, but …”

“Is there mine too?”

“Of your earthly body, yes, and the date of departure is shrouded in the Mist. Perceive the death of loved ones as their return home.”

“Is it possible to perceive Death in another way?”

“Souls become attached to each other. People over the years forget where their true home is. Many don’t believe in the existence of our Reality at all, for them Death is the final point of being.”

“What strange creatures! They are souls themselves, not people!”

Having passed through the cemetery, we found ourselves at a cliff to the abyss. I peered into the abyss and instinctively took a step back. Saturn appeared to my right. The Guardian and Saturn looked at each other, but before I could say anything, the sky was lit up by lightning, thunder struck. The earth shook and cracked open. The mountain crumbled into boulders. The cemetery collapsed into the abyss.

“More and more often you forget that you are still in our World,” the Guardian took my hand, and we walked into the stormy sky, pacing through the air.

Suddenly, someone hit me from above, “Bang!” I began to fall, but the Guardian picked me up and sat me on a cloud, next to Saturn. Uranus appeared smiling in the air right in front of us.

“That’s who wanted to kill me!” I nodded instead of greeting.

“Now it’s time to discuss options for your return!” Uranus exclaimed with joy. “I suggest that Saturn announce the full list! Being his assistant, I’ll slightly correct him!”

“There are many options,” Saturn said, “although everything is already clearly formed. The early exit formula doesn’t mean that it must be implemented. In cases I’m the Master of the House of Death, Death usually comes for a person in old age. I’m a slow planet, therefore death is protracted, suffering.”

“Not your option!” Uranus whispered. “I’m always sudden! Bang-bang! – and hello, Heaven!”

“In old age, some people plunge into deep insanity, go out of mind,” added Saturn. “The soul moves away from the body, being tired of life, while the return date hasn’t come yet. The Moon symbolizes memory and periods of helplessness, in opposition to Neptune, which casts Mist, makes consciousness clouded, ‘erasing’ of memory is possible. By the way, Rukh, have you noticed where your 8th House is located? Capricorn is conventionally a rock. I’m also associated with rocks and the skeletal system. When the thunder rang out, my assistant Uranus came into action, an earthquake happened. One may be hit and covered with stones or earth, Death in the mountains, often from hypothermia. In general, a fall from a height. Either you fall, or something falls on you. I’m a planet with restrictive rings, so Death happens in a confined space, such as elevators, cars, airplanes, in isolation, on an island, and so on.”

“We are in clouds, floating through the air! Airplane?”

“The most part of your Death territory belongs to Uranus, we are in his domain, in the air element of the Sign of Aquarius. What did you see in House No. 1 when you met me?” Saturn continued.

“The sea was raging. Thunder was booming.”

“Saturn in Cancer means a drowned one.”

“Will I drown, or will they find me under the rocks?”

“Both ways are possible,” the Guardian reassured. “Water is involved in the Death scenario. Maybe you’ll go for a swim.”

“It was raining!” I remembered. “In the worst scenario that they showed me! I slipped on the windowsill!”

“I’m in House No. 1, that’s another indication of a fall, or a blow and a fall. The version with a windowsill and erased memory, due to the pain of the switched-off Sun, fits into the Matrix of your destiny,” Saturn continued coolly. “Death will happen by your own fault, initiative or mistaken, although your children and or beloved men will extinguish your life-giving Sun, causing an unwillingness to live.”

“Your Death is related to marriage and or business partners,” the Guardian added. “A lot of options, starting with the simplest one – they will be nearby.”

“It’s Death not from disease,” Uranus added. “Usually a violent one, during military actions, terrorist attacks, a mass catastrophe or just… bang-bang! – due to traffic partners!”

“A bouquet of options, one better than the other,” I sighed heavily.

“Would you prefer the only one possible?” Saturn chuckled.

“Let’s clarify the details,” Uranus smiled. “I’m your Death’s assistant. I manage House No. 9. It means the Path, travel, wanderings. Abroad and everything foreign, including foreign countries and their inhabitants, as well as representatives of another, not your religion. Spiritual practices. Publishing business. Teaching and Universities, higher education. Courts, judicial system, jurisprudence. The Church, as institution of religion, any temple and spiritual places. Meditations as travels to visit us without earthly body while awake and in dreams.”

“Death during meditation and sleep?”

“An option,” agreed Uranus. “I’m in Sphere No. 5, of the Heart, that’s sudden cardiac arrest, something with Love, children and creativity. Death is lightning fast, unexpected, non-standard. My areas of control are sky, air, electricity, aviation, astrology, IT and new technologies.”

“In each passport, there is a stamp of so-called Pars Mortis, or the point of Death,” the Guardian added. “You have it in House No. 9, in the domain of Uranus, which enhances its influence on your departure.”

“Pars Mortis falls into a purely Aquarian, my own degree!” Uranus added cheerfully. “One of the best in the Circle! Death will find you active. Venus is a wonderful sweet circumstance!”

“I’m friends with your Venus,” Saturn clarified. “Venus will soften your exit from the body.”

“Let’s imagine a case!” Uranus began dreaming. “When you are old, you’ll fall in love with a business partner, perhaps a boss, because Saturn is a boss, or you’ll marry a foreigner. He will send you on vacation to my Ouranoupoli, on the border with Athos, and the plane – bang! — will crash right into the sea!”

“Great!” the Guardian agreed.

“Will I be on the plane alone?”

“Don’t worry, all the last flights gather passengers only by their heavenly passports!” Uranus reassured me. “If they don’t have my stamp, they won’t fly!”

“Death from myself doesn’t converge,” I said.

“You won’t put a life jacket on!” Uranus snorted.

“More likely,” Saturn chuckled, “you won’t give up your plane ticket. Mages sense Death through three Universes. I always warn mine in advance to let them prepare for the departure as expected. You’ll know the year and month, if not the date. A million options will fit into the Matrix, but until the last turn, no one will say in what guise and context Death appears. At the point of no return, you’ll make a step into your last corridor, and on the chessboard of fate there will be no opportunity to turn left or right, only straight home. That’s when everything will be decided. You’ll go towards your Death with your eyes wide open, welcoming it!”

“Just don’t leave prematurely!” asked Uranus. “Even slow planets are moving and forming new connections-aspects in which the situation changes, the water in the cup of suffering evaporates, and the soul becomes lighter, the desire to escape disappears!”

“Death will always be by your side,” Saturn added, “but two checking points are the most dangerous, both scenarios fit into the Matrix. In the first one, you’ll get into a major accident. Ignoring our signs, you’ll go by car to swim in the river. On the way back, after having dinner in a luxurious cafe, you’ll catch the rain, and your traffic partners will suddenly drive into you at an angle of 90 degrees.”

“Seven seconds and hello, Heaven!” Uranus exclaimed.

“A year later,” continued Saturn, “Death awaits you during the surgery. Having made the right choice determining your further path in the Matrix two years earlier, you’ll be left on Earth by the Higher Forces. Anyway, we’ll send you a hint!”

“Are you sure I’ll hear you on Earth and understand everything correctly?” I whispered incredulously.

“You’re a mage, Rukh!” Uranus laughed. “If you don’t hear on Earth, you’ll come to visit us and ask once more!”


***
Library of the Universe


“It seems to me more and more, that I’m somewhere here,” I sighed, taking a seat in the Reading Hall.

“Your book is here, what’s so strange?” the Guardian smiled.

“No, I come here often. In my Future. Do you see how many incarnated ones come here? So do I. I don’t know yet why I feel it now. Anyhow, I’ve already passed through 8 Houses out of 12, and there are still neither parents nor joy.”

“All the worst is over. The hardship planets have already met you. Do you want my advice? You have the drug addiction formula in your passport. In order not to get addicted, channel your energy into service line, help addicts. Similarly, in House No. 8, help suicides.”

“How? And where would I find them there?”

“They will find you! You’re a magnet for everything related to the House of Death and Magic. You’ll find the right words at the right time and keep them from escaping. You’ll appeal to them, but in fact – to yourself.”

The book opened at the story “The Master of Fates” about an old lady whose efforts to save potential suicides were instantly nullified by a maniac-executioner.

“God punished me! I considered myself to be the Master of Fates! I resurrected them and doomed them to death… He is a maniac… find him! He killed everyone but me… I must die! It’s unfair if…”


*****THEORY of TIME*****

***
Moscow


“What do we have in the chest?” Ray asked, entering the secret room through the door.

“My legacy… A photo of my great-grandfather, found in a pile of others, with a letter on the back to a certain lady with my name, but those words were written as if to me. His glass. A book of fairy tales with old letters, from the Silver Age, illustrated by the famous artist of ‘Murzilka’ magazine with a dedicatory inscription to my great-grandfather. A curl of my mother’s hair, her pomegranate beads, letters to me and my handmade cards to her. Dad’s foreign letter and postcards, a patent for his invention, a newspaper clipping about him, shoulder straps. Collection of pocket calendars. An old wooden spindle of my granny the witch. My initials on the handkerchief, embroidered by my other granny, who lived in Paris. And here, in a wicker box…”

“Oh! Finally! Yesterday in the Court, they were just talking about that!”

“Tarot cards by Aleister Crowley,” I sighed heavily.

“Don’t be shy, just say as it is!” Ray scoffed.

“A pendulum on a chain with an amethyst tip. A Tibetan singing bowl. A set of Scandinavian runes. The Book of I Ching. A looking-glass in a silver frame… Ray! Why did I go to Hell when I was still alive on Earth? You know it! Was I a witch? Did I descend to Hell to make a deal with the Devil?”

“Aren’t you interested in what is happening in the Court here and now? Are you more concerned with the Devil in the Past? You descended into Hell while you were alive. I certainly know why and who you met and talked to there!”

“Don’t torture me!”

“You are torturing yourself, you don’t want to remember. Yesterday they analyzed your tricks in the Magic Sphere. When did you use your magic items, Alice?”

“Taro? Pendulum? Runes?”

“Well, yes, is there also a broomstick somewhere around here?”

“Long ago, since they were locked in the room even before the erasure of memory.”

“I have always wondered why you need intermediaries. Well, relax! The priest in the Court has said you confessed him your fortune-telling about twenty years ago. Therefore, the devils, although they did their best, couldn’t take you into their ranks for that sin.”

“What else did I do in the Magic Sphere?”

“Something much scarier! It’s too late to be afraid of… I encourage you to remember!”


***
Ouranoupoli


“Hello,” Kiri said to me as I sat in the cafe with freshly squeezed orange juice. “You asked me about ‘The Virgin of Death’, so I found out.”

“And yet Death?”

“Yes, ‘Haro’, ‘Haros’, ‘Haru’ means ‘Death’ in Greek. Charon transports the souls of the dead across the river of oblivion Styx. The icon is rare, and so it is called ‘the Virgin of Death’. She mourns for her already crucified son. In 1600, monks from the island of Patmos, where St. John wrote the Apocalypse, brought the icon to the opposite island, Lipsi, and founded a monastery there. The icon is still in it and considered miraculous. In 1943, a girl brought an iris flower, which was attached to the icon. The flower withered, but wasn’t thrown away, and a few months later, on the icon feast day, the iris blossomed again. The miracle is repeated every year, so in the spring, pilgrims bring ‘Irises of the Virgin’ to Patmos, which die and are resurrected by August 23.”


***
Tower of Ouranoupoli


“Joice, I’m scared.”

“Everyone gets scared. It’s the fear of pain and hopelessness. Tell me better, what are you drawn to?”

“To the Library, but it’s also scary to learn something about myself there.”

“Usually, there is a key behind every fear.”

“One of those that St. Peter holds in his hand?”


***
Library of the Universe


“The word ‘destiny’ in Russian = ‘sudba’, or ‘judgment’ (‘sud’) + the ‘soul’ (‘ba’ in Egypt). The judgment of the soul over itself means the soul’s self-determination in the posthumous state. What will it be attracted to? Is there its place?”

“24 years and a week ago I died. I didn’t remember the rest of the border dates. How many lives do cats have? How much blood was poured into me then? Probably almost as much as a person has totally. From 3 pm until midnight they poured different things, endless drip-drop-drip. Somewhere in the middle of infinity, a needle came out of the vein. The nurse, guarding me in this world, came out as well. Nobody was around. I couldn’t shout, couldn’t even whisper… The nurse returned, I pointed her with my eyes at my vein, the hand was swollen, it hurt, I wrinkled. So they changed it putting on the other hand. My blood is rare. As Professor Vasiliev said, one can make one’s dissertation thesis on me. Appreciate life.”

“Tim Ragulin called me. His friend after the Evening Moscow TV broadcast, where I had performed, said that Death was standing next to me. He didn’t know about the accident that had happened afterwards. ‘Well, Death is gone now!’ I laughed, ‘Are you sure?’ ‘If not, that would have been the end!’”

“When you play Another Reality, either you change, or the space changes, but rather both. Stunning things are happening. On October 4, I fly to Venice. Initially, in May, ‘I’ll fly to my favorite city, where I may be buried one day, but this time they promise me a groom there’. June, I’ve changed job, ‘May I fly?’ July, ‘Fly!’ July, ‘What do I need their groom for?’ August, Alina the astrologer, ‘Take a nuclear physicist or Uranus one next to you on the plane, so there is a chance to come back’. The delegation consisted of 20 people, there was neither nuclear physicist, nor Uranus one. ‘I won’t fly’. Early September, Olga, ‘Daddy is a nuclear physicist!’ ‘I’ll fly.’ September 10, 20 people gathered in our delegation, who had already paid (!) for the trip, suddenly cancelled it one by one (or sent someone else instead of themselves) because of… heart attack, stroke, amputation of a leg, daughter’s wedding, etc. I looked at the transits on the flight date, ‘The Master of Death makes an exact arc to the House of Death’. At the same time, I found a clip for my favorite song, and it showed Venetian cemetery with Brodsky’s grave … ‘I won’t fly!’ (who knew what were the dad’s stars showing?). On the 18th, the Italian (!) partner proposed to postpone the trip. Olga was categorically against it, but a woman came to Olga on another occasion and during their conversation said to have a friend in Italy. Olga contacted him. On the 19th, she called me, ‘You’ll fly on the 4th to the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, you’ll live in the Russian Metochion in Bari.’ How do you like it? Anyhow, to fly to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Bari by 2 planes it’s somehow more pleasant than to Brodsky in Venice by one. The icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker lay in my cup holder next to the gearbox (below) during my car accident. When I woke up, the icon was on the dashboard near the windshield… For the first time I read exclusively in Italian. Moscow-Milan-Bari-Monopoli-Matera-Grassano-Bari-Rome-Moscow … T-i-r-e-d.”

“Recently, a major publishing house released a book ‘50 Steps to Suicide’, they say that the circulation was immediately withdrawn from sale and almost prosecuted. All people are suicidal. They die various deaths, but after once they seriously thought that there was no point in living anymore … Today I’ve been ‘dragging’ a person out of the state I was myself last week. Life is an interesting web of coincidences, just have time to realize! The words that I’ve said to that person are what God Himself has spoken to me today through my own lips.”

“I would like one person to read my books, but he won’t. Not because he is not interested in it in terms of Another Reality. I think he is interested even very much. He is afraid that I have written something there that he doesn’t want to know… My son asks me about Another Reality. My book has the answers, he started reading it. I asked, ‘So why don’t you read it till the end?’ And he replied, ‘I’m scared…’ I’m scared of my ‘tomorrow’, but I keep repeating as mantra, ‘God sees and knows everything, he won’t leave me’.”

“The letter touched me to the core. Dream Hackers would say, the world sends us something to which we involuntarily give out our response. I tried many times to write something in response, but erased – not that. I wanted to put a link to my verse without comments, but I deleted the link as well. I thought it would be better reply verbally, but I’m an introvert, it’s hard for me to talk. The text of the letter was neutral, but there was something elusive about it. I wanted to write something light, kind, not stereotyped. In the end, all I wrote back was ‘thank you’.”



“A certain situation is so painful that one can neither accept it nor voice it even to a friend. For example, a burnt bridge or a broken thread, there is something in the Past and something in the Present, between them there is an abyss, and one can’t understand why this happened and doesn’t want accept reality. The Subconscious will try to help, offering a choice of reasons as a link between ‘before’ and ‘after’. If they don’t suit, the Subconscious will offer to replace the Past or Present (‘here and now’) with one of NOT existing / unrealized versions that will suit the person. Here one clearly finds the suitable. So one begins to live the non-existent, because it suits at the level of Consciousness. A substitution takes place. One gets absorbed in the non-existent so much that completely identifies oneself in a different scenario and projects it onto those around him. ‘Ah, it’s not hard to deceive me! I’m glad to be deceived myself.’ One declares an invented story as real, lives it and merges with it. Those who don’t know the truth won’t even think that a person is lying. Gradually, the real scenario is pushed further and further into the black box of the Subconscious. However, the pain of the not accepted truth is still pressing from the inside and controlling the person. Sometimes the repressed Self slips out, you face 2 people at once – a minute ago he said one thing, but he is talking completely different now. If you don’t want to tell the world the truth, don’t tell it, but declare it at least to yourself, and preferably to at least one more person out loud, and write the rest in stories and novels so that it won’t eat you with giblets from the inside. You should always do something, physically, in this world, for the world and people. To work and not to stay alone with yourself for a long time, so that there is a constant exchange of energies with the real scenario – the living world. Otherwise the energy will flow into an unrealized, and therefore not having its own energy, space.”

“I entered the Temple of the Soul. The Patriarch came out of the door, which was the entrance to the Library of the Universe, smiled, said mentally that he had been waiting for me, and we went together up ‘to mine’ on the 2nd floor. It was amazing. There were no curtains (black and thick ones), that had covered the windows in the room the previous time. The stars were falling beautifully outside the window! Such a magical Christmas night (it was on the 8th of January) … A large table was covered with a white tablecloth. Astral food was served. ‘Mine’ were all there, all of them! They got up from the table and hug me, cheerful, joyful, congratulating me on ‘The Book of Knowledge’. The room was decorated in a New Year’s way – silver tinsel, blue balls – amazing! We drank champagne from transparent glasses… The Patriarch called me to the Library of the Universe. It was decorated too, shimmering in glow. I passed by the hall where the Patriarch had showed me my books for the first time. Somehow I knew that I needed to move on, to the next hall. In the center of the Library, in a niche, there was a huge Staircase connecting the numerous floors, and something small like a podium with about 5–7 low steps on the sides. The podium was flooded with light, and on the pedestal my ‘Book of Knowledge’ lay glowing. The ghosts began to flock. Elena Petrovna descended the main Staircase. Thoughtfully serious, she came up to me and hugged me with heavy sadness in her eyes, but said nothing. I asked her to let me get the book out at random to read written in it as a hint (R.A. Mansurova’s task before we went to the Temple of the Soul), and I walked to the next hall. It contained literary works on the same topics as my ‘Book of Knowledge’, from the most ancient to the present day. Several shelves were still unfilled. On one of them I saw my book. I went further, climbed the Stairs to the top shelf and thought about what book to pull out. Finally, in my hand, I got – to my greatest surprise – the same book that I had pulled out my first visit there! With the title ‘Word’ on the cover. I went downstairs. I stood with my back to the Door… We said goodbye… Raisa Akhmetovna’s voice heard, ‘Open the Door!’ I reluctantly opened it. I didn’t feel like leaving at all. I came back through all the rainbow colors. There were a few more fragments, too sacred, so I don’t want to write them down.”

***

Having closed the diary abruptly, I decided to take a step towards my fear at all costs and found myself at some bookshelves, next to Me in the Past on a ladder.

“Alice, hello!” I exclaimed with joy that everything had worked out.

Me in the Past looked around and stared at me in surprise. I was about to explain who I was when all of a sudden…

“Alice, hello!” exclaimed… another Me, manifested out of nowhere at the same ladder, but from the other side.

“Who are you?” I exclaimed together with Me from Nowhere, while Me in the Past turned to both of us,

“Who are you?”

The pause seemed an eternity, but both of us, standing on the sides of the ladder, exclaimed,

“I am you!”

Alice descended the ladder and carefully looked first at me, then at my unknown copy, and turned to me,

“You appeared first. Who are you?”

“I’m you in the Future, or rather, your ghost. I died on Earth, but stuck on the border with Heaven. I need to talk to you. You should help me!”

“And who are you?” Alice turned to my copy.

“I’m Rukh, or simply ‘a soul.’ That’s the name of everyone before incarnation on Earth. I’m you in the Past, or rather, I’m descending the Stairs from Heaven to Earth to incarnate and become you. I need to talk to you. You should help me!”

Alice sank to the floor, trying to comprehend what was happening, while my copy and me, sitting nearby, continued to look at each other with interest. A strange thought passed through the ether, and I exclaimed,

“Listen, but… it can’t be like that! We can’t all three be real. I’ve already died, today is the 20th day after, and in real time, I’m here and now. Both of you are phantoms of my Past, but the script of destiny has already been implemented on Earth by me, it can’t be changed! I’ve come back here because I decided to erase my memory for some reason during my lifetime, and it’s important for me to remember something. Now, while reading my diary in the Library, I’ve found out, I was here in a conscious state during meditation at the seminar of Raisa Akhmetovna Mansurova, and decided to talk to myself. It’s the only opportunity for me to be heard. In Ouranoupoli on Athos, where I used to live in the summer, Alice doesn’t notice me.”

“Wow! You lived in Ouranoupoli!” Rukh exclaimed happily. “Great! The real one of the three of us is me! You both are phantoms of my unrealized Future, since I’m not on Earth yet! I have more 20 steps to go down. I’ve seen my last minutes on Earth from the worst scenario, but there are many scenarios! While reading my future book about ghosts here, I felt that Me in the Future would visit the Library. So I’ve moved here mentally to warn myself of the worst scenario in which I’ll erase my memory.”

“Wow!” Alice exhaled. “You can say whatever you want, but I’m definitely real! You both seem to be phantoms of my Past and Future. I’m really at R.A.M.’s seminar now. She has given us a task to find a book as a hint in the Library!”

An Angel appeared right in front of us.

“Ah, there you are, my soul! I guessed it. What a funny meeting!”

“Guardian,” Rukh exclaimed, grabbing him by the wing, “tell me, which one of us is the real one? They say I’m already incarnated! So is the worst option the only feasible one?”

The Guardian smiled mysteriously and said, turning to me,

“Alice going to Heaven, what did you want to know from yourself in the Past?”

“Why did I descend into Hell? Was I in cahoots with Satan? How am I related to the two-faced Woman and to the Boy who told me ‘Sorry’ in the Court? I haven’t done something important in time, but if I remember and do it now, this good deed will be credited to me in the Court! I would also change the script, since one can’t live without memory!”

“Do you remember why you erased your memory?” Rukh asked me.

“No,” I sighed. “Maybe there was nothing in particular. It happens when you’ve got a lot of things, one by one, at different periods of life, and then the cup overflows because of a tiny drop.”

“Yes, I understand what you mean,” Alice sighed. “So, in the worst-case scenario, you erased your memory, but still escaped ahead of schedule.”

“No,” Rukh answered categorically. “I was there the moment she left. Of course, she wanted to, but it happened another way.”

“Rukh, what did you want to say to yourself in the Future?” the Guardian interrupted our sweet conversation.

“Before incarnation, each soul is shown its destiny on Earth. The Path is predetermined, but within the labyrinth you move through, even if its corridors are narrow, there are almost always some options. This is called the Matrix of Destiny, which is inscribed in the overall Matrix of Time Space. You are very strong, Alice. You are a magician, but you shouldn’t practice magic. Just remember yourself descending the Heavenly Staircase, and don’t erase your memory so as not to leave prematurely! Accept troubles with humility and serve the world – write and help whomever you can, even with words!”

Alice held out the book she had pulled out of the Library of the Universe as a hint to herself, with the title “The Word.”

“You see!” Rukh smiled. “Write about me, that is, about Rukh incarnating, about all the 40 steps of the Stairs!”

“Exactly!” I exclaimed. “According to my diary, I kept putting that book off for later, but now I regret it!”

“Besides,” the Guardian added, “I’m always around, Alice, and I try to do my best to help you turn in the right direction at the right time in the right place.”

“Stop!” I thought. “Which of us is the real one? Or can the Past be changed?”

“There is no Past, no Present and no Future,” said the Guardian. “Time is one of the coordinates of Earthly Space. All three times coexist here and now constantly in a single One. You are part of a whole. Life in a physical body is movement through an individual labyrinth, the Matrix of Destiny. The entry point is one’s incarnation. There are options – corridors through which one may get to the exit point – return to Heaven. The options are not infinite, being limited by the Matrix of Destiny of a particular person. All possible variants of all destinies are already registered in the Book of Genesis, that is the Universal Matrix. If you wish, you may see them. Even before the incarnation, at every point of each version of the Alice’s Matrix, there is a phantom of Alice, playing its role. As you go through the labyrinth, each step is fixed, but other options – corridors that the soul didn’t go through, don’t disappear. They have always been, are and will be forever. If you wish, you can get into any of them and find out what is there. It seems to people on Earth that Time is passing, but they are walking along the Space of Time, therefore, ‘acceleration and deceleration of Time’ at different moments of life for a single person is real. It’s not the speed of Time that changes, but the speed of personal perception of information and reaction to it while moving in Space. Alice in the earthly body will learn to create ‘miracles’ with Time, for example, she will move in Space 2.5 times faster than usually. Having reached the exit, in the Court, the soul passes an exam relating to its labyrinth. According to the results, either the door to Heaven opens, or … Don’t think of the worst! Moreover, one labyrinth will be followed by another one, at a different level. The Universe is a multi-stored House, each floor has its own labyrinths, its own Matrix.”

Suddenly we heard a voice, “It’s time for goodbye!”

“Raisa Akhmetovna Mansurova,” I commented, remembering my Teacher. “She is calling the seminarians back to their physical bodies. If you don’t return in time, you can pack yourself up incorrectly. Oh, God, I forgot! Alice, what do you need to do in time? Do you know the Woman with two faces? And the Boy who told me ‘Sorry’ in the Court?”

“I’ve met women only with ordinary faces and a lot of boys! Well, I would publish my poetry!” said Alice and waved to Rukh and me, “Good luck, girls!”

“Have you ever been to Hell?” I shouted after her.

“Oh yes! Exactly! I have been! Sorry!” Alice answered and disappeared.

“Although both of you are in so-called Non-Existence,” said the Guardian, “the Time is already or still running out for both of you!”

“I hope to be the real one,” Rukh said. “However, get to Heaven, okay? As my insurance! One shouldn’t get stuck at the border and wander around the world as a restless ghost even in the worst scenario, not to mention…”

There was a bell ringing, the morning liturgy began in the church of Saints Constantine and Helena in Ouranoupoli. The Guardian and Rukh disappeared. I closed my eyes out of habit, and, opening them, found myself in the Tower.

“You look tired,” Joice smiled. “Tea?”