Unconscious

N leaned in a bit closer to M and tried to ask quietly.

N - So, when did you wake up?
M - You don't wanna know.

The waiter interrupted the conversation to serve the food. The endless clanking of knifes forks and spoons continued in the background, with muffles of high-society conversations about the next big project in the city of dreams. The yellow lighting in the restaurant atop the tallest tower added to the surreal ambience of .... yes, we are sitting in an artificially cooled glass restaurant rotating at its own axis, about a kilometer high from the desert level, overlooking the underwater hotel rooms. Height of human of achievement? Who knows.

M starts to dig into the food. N cannot control his excitement, ignores the food and starts his string of questions again.

N - Hmmm.. .Then it must have been a pretty long time indeed.
M - The point is ... its better if its left unknown. Why add to the misery by questioning everything.
N - How can we not question? I mean, that's what makes us ... "we" ? different from them?
M - I am one of you, But I am also one of them.
N - I am only looking it from my perspective. My experience. My thoughts.
M - That's the right path, I'd say. Trying to think of it from everyone's perspective will probably lead you nowhere.
N - Precisely. I gave up on that approach a long time ago. How many times have you woken up?
M - Lost count. It doesn't work that way. Being conscious once does not mean you carry all the information throughout awakenings. Think of it like memory. Do you remember being here before?
N - If you consider it similar to memory, you are just saying that we cannot recall it. But it exists nevertheless, right?
M - Existence in one plane can be non-existence in another. Think of popping in and out of existence, like a time machine.
N - But , why did you say that some are superior to others. You mean, there is a heirarchy?
M - Well, one thing is for sure. There is no distributed consensus of everything . Democracy can only scale so much. At some point, brutal intervention is required, and yes there are hierarchies , though not in the sense that you have witnessed.
N - How much control do you have over it ?
M - Over... ?
N - Well , over everything.
M - No, that level of control is not available to anyone. You get a taste of control. But let me tell you this, its best you don't have the control. If you know everything, would you want to experience something?
N - Most of the times, I feel I am unconscious. Not really connected. You know the feeling? is it because I don't know the entry and exit points?
M - You mean, how many levels down or up?
N - Yeah, at least a hint of it ?
M - I can tell you that you are pretty deep in. At the point of a break-out
N - A break-out ? Whats that like?
M - Like Death?
N - wait a minute.... Death?
M - oh well, think of it as sleep then.
N - I don't want to sleep.
M - In your case, its not a want. You can't. You are awakened.
N - Can I go back to unconsciousness ?
M - It probably is not in your control. I would say, don't try something stupid.
N - I don't mean that. I mean, perhaps exchange awakenings in short duration. I can't handle this much wakefulness.
M - You will get used to it.
N - Thats the problem. I don't want to sleep. You know what happens when I close my eyes.
M - But you do sleep, don't you?
N - Yes, when i collapse and black out
M - Ah well, thats the best sleep ever! Its a time for your consciousness to recover.
N - Wait, don't leave yet.


N looked around. M had vanished into thin air. There was only one plate on the table. No sign of another person having sat across him or used any of the things around. The waiter came in and gave the bill. The bill read - "Table for 2, booked by Mirror". N looked at the bill and said to himself "Thanks for the gesture. Otherwise I would have thought I just spoke to myself".