I came close, close and nestled into the screen, just like my mother.

– Look me in the eyes," she asked.

I tried to do it, but my eyes were blurry. What happened in the next second I didn't understand, much less explain to myself. A faint light flashed in my mother's gas, and a slight shiver ran through my nerves.

My mother broke away from the screen, I did too, more by reflex than consciously, and Uncle Gostomyslom jumped up and stared intently at the screen and into my eyes. Then he turned to the unknown observer with a question:

– What just happened?

But in that second, I was preoccupied with something else. Something that I feared like some kind of mental illness, but at the same time I was also glad. It was something scary, strange and joyful at the same time. I couldn't understand what was happening, but I couldn't exactly deny it.

Having dispelled my suspicions about my mental illness, I recognized reality: I had heard my father's voice. Yes, I did hear him; the instruction I had received earlier had worked a hundred percent, but I didn't let it show. I recognized Dad's voice clearly, and most amazingly, I heard it silently, inside my head, directly in my brain. It was a miracle, and only the warning of the computer speaking in Dad's voice brought me back to reality:

– Don't let it show, son. Mom reset the unlock code. I designed the system to be unbreakable. Don't worry, I'll try to explain it to you tonight.

Magda hugged me again and asked:

– Iris, are you okay?

– How can I be okay when my dad died and you won't let me see my mom!

– I understand, sweetie, just what can I do… I'm trying to help you.

– I'll come for you," Mom said firmly, then added: – If you can, go out into the world, it's no longer scary for you.

– Stop this at once! – shouted Gostomysl. – I told you to control yourself! This is impossible!

– Then why don't you let me see him! – His mother shouted angrily at him.

– Not yet! With all due respect, not yet!

– Son, don't believe them, run away from there! Run for your life! – Those were mom's last words.

Gostomysl has disconnected the connection. I stared at the blacked-out screen for a few seconds… then I ran. I didn't know where exactly to run, but my intuition told me that I should go to the installations that my father had shown me secretly. He tried to explain how they transport a person to a parallel world. Already on the run, hearing shouts behind me "catch him! block the exit!", I remembered my father's story about these installations. Dad told me that they transferred consciousness to another world and there they put it into a body similar to their own, or even into another body. I was not thinking about the magic of such a method, but was strengthening my hope and faith, which suddenly appeared in me: my father was not dead, his body was lying there, and his soul was in another world, in a parallel one.

As I passed the third door, I began to notice that they opened automatically in front of me, and I could hear them behind me:

– Why didn't the lockdowns work, who gave him access?

I rushed into the laboratory hall with the installations, literally jumped into one of them on the run, pulled the optical unit and pressed the dot with big letters. It was Moscow. The system asked aloud:

– What location?

I could not understand what to do. They burst into the room, and overcoming my fear, I shouted:

– RAN!

Magda grabbed me, the bright beam blinded me, a powerful discharge went through my body, my consciousness blacked out for a while.

Chapter 3: The Reality of the Possible

When my vision returned, I couldn't immediately recognize what was happening. The surroundings were different. Magda was gone, and so was everyone else who had run after me. The first thing that caught my eye was the calendar on the wall; for some reason it had the year 2050 on it, even though I'd seen 2020 in my dreams.

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