This story can be read in isolation, or as a continuation of Finding the other.

Asleep once more, Jake imagined some rockets onto his feet, and propelled himself up into the sky to get a better view. Beyond a giant wall was a flat, greenish ocean. Out on this green ocean was a house, and in that house was a door.

Having destroyed the house that surrounded the door, he glided down to the ground, letting his rockets slow his descent like a Pixar superhero. He opened the door and looked in, wondering what he would see. As soon as he did this, he remembered that he had tried to look into the door before and had never been able to see anything. He stepped through the door.

His consciousness fell into something that was not another Jake. His subconscious brain could cope with the way he could see, but his conscious brain could not. He was able to see a much wider angle than he usually could, and yet it did not look like he was looking through a fish-eye lens. Rather he could see much more, while everything looked natural.

Jake tried to glance down at his arms, but quickly realized that his head was not able to move relative to the rest of himself. He tried out his arms, but found he had more than two, and that his legs were indistinguishable. When he thought about his limbs, he was able to think of six, and there was no hierarchy.

Jake pondered then, how it is that you know where your arms, fingers and other body parts are, when you cannot see them. If you close your eyes and lift your arms above your head, you know they’re above your head, even though you are not touching them with any other part of your body that has a sense of touch.

Jake mentally explored his body. He could feel a tail, although it had a very restricted range of motion. He could feel wings, and six legs, and two antennae. This was a great experience. All the time he was thinking of this, he suddenly realized that there was movement visible above him.

The white ceiling that he had been aware of was gradually getting closer and closer to him. He decided he should probably move, in case it hit him, and so he flew away from the moving ceiling. As soon as he got further away, he realized that a creature of some sort – it was not human – had been attempting to swat at him with a newspaper. Even as he looked back, he could see the newspaper still moving slowly down to where he had sat a few moments before. The creature appeared to be moving in slow motion.

Amused at the speed at which the creature was moving, Jake took off again, and decided to look for a mirror, or reflective surface, where he could see himself fully. He looked for where the light was coming from and saw a window. Without thinking about the individual wing actions, Jake headed over to the window and realized there was no glass – just a hole in the building. As he noticed this, he heard a loud smacking noise coming from the table where he had been sat a few moments ago. The creature had succeeded in bringing the newspaper to the surface where he had been sat.

Jake smirked, internally, because it turned out he did not have control of the shape of his proboscis, and flew towards the opening in the building which he had previously considered a window. As he reached the opening, he felt a sting on the front of his face, and he found himself bounced back several inches. Before he thought it through, his forward momentum threw him into the glass a second time. I cannot see glass! Of course not!

He turned around and started flying towards an opening that might have been a door. Perhaps these creatures have bathrooms and bathroom mirrors, Jake thought. The sound of barking woke him from the dream. He heard loud attempted-whisper admonishments from the dog’s owner, and the dog fell silent. He heard the man and his dog leave. And he lay there wondering what he had looked like in his dream.

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