“Hello, and welcome,” Meen’s wife greeted me warmly.

I was completely stunned by her beauty from the very first moment. I had never seen any woman in the world as beautiful as her. If the most beautiful woman in the world stood beside Meen’s wife now, that woman would pale in comparison. Seeing his wife, I now understood what the expression “as beautiful as an angel” meant. The first thing that caught my eye was her bright complexion, radiating like a light from the inside as bright as the skin of a newborn baby. Her oval face framed her big round eyes and her perfectly proportioned nose. Her lips were naturally pink, without any lipstick, and her body was slender. At first glance, I thought she couldn’t have been older than fifteen or sixteen years.

She was dressed similar to Meen in a simple hand-woven but fine-textured fabric folded in layers without any visible cuts. She also wore a few pieces of jewellery that looked as if they were made of gold.

“Hello,” I greeted her back with my head bowed. I wasn’t familiar with their tradition, so I followed my instinct.

“My name is Napa,” she introduced herself.

“Napa? Shouldn’t it be pronounced ‘Nap-fa’?” Meen commented.

“I’m not sure. I just intuitively pronounce it that way,” she said with a little embarrassed smile.

“My apology. We are not so used to articulating our thoughts,” Meen said.

“I think the name Napa is easy to pronounce – and it has a good meaning, too. In my language, Napa means the sky,” I offered, trying to ease the situation.

“Oh, that’s nice. I like the meaning,” Napa said with a smile.

“What about your name? Please tell me how you pronounce it,” Napa said, turning to Meen to see if he could do better.

“Well …” Meen seemed a bit shy to answer.

“It’s Meen,” I replied.

“Oops! Ha ha ha” Napa laughed, her hand covering her mouth, not really concerned if she had broken any etiquette by laughing at a guest.

“Please excuse my bad manners,” Napa seemed to have gathered herself and stopped laughing.

“My name is Tim,” I introduced myself.

“I totally forgot; I should have introduced myself to you as well,” I said, turning to Meen. “We’ve talked to each other for several hours, and I didn’t give you my name.”

“We already knew your name,” Meen and Napa said at the same time.

“How did you …” I was about to ask, but then I realised that they both understood the language of the soul.

“You are right,” said Meen, confirming my thought.

I said to myself that it would be good if I understood telepathy as well, and we wouldn’t then have to exchange a single word between each one another.

“Soul language is the universal language that we use throughout the universe. Your language has a much lower communication potential as it is generated by the vocal cords in the throat. I have to be very careful when speaking in your language as there’s high possibility for error. There are several challenges that can lead to misinformation: the skills of pronunciation and interpretation and the beliefs of those who listen, the listening skill, and the difference in language. In your world, 90 percent of the problems are caused by miscommunication,” Meen added to my thoughts.

We stood talking until sunset. I noticed that the sun was much bigger here than the one in my world, almost double the size, but its light was gentler. I started wondering where this parallel world was actually located.

“Yes, our sun is about 70 percent bigger than yours, but her energy is less than 70 percent of that of your sun,” Meen read my thoughts and answered my question.

“Let’s go inside, it’s getting dark now,” Napa invited me.

In fact, I wanted to see the sun go down and wait until her light had faded as it was so beautiful to watch. But as my hosts were waiting for me, I had to pull my eyes away from that awe-inspiring scene.

“Alright, I’m coming,” I agreed.

When I stepped through the door, the first thing I noticed was the stove. It was square in shape and set in the middle of the house. It was bricked up around all four sides, and its height almost reached the ceiling which made it look more like a fireplace. The difference to a normal stove was that there was an open space for firewood at the bottom, and more curved spaces for cooking on the top and on the sides. This stove seemed to serve several purposes: for cooking, obviously, as a big iron pot hanging in the middle indicated, but also, to illuminate the room and warm the house.

On the other side of the room, I noticed a large wooden table by the window. This was probably used for multiple purposes, not only for dining, but also for creating crafts, as I saw a basket filled with fabrics on it, which had been moved to one side. At the back of the fireplace was a wall, separating the main room from another one, which I guessed to be the bedroom.

“Please have a seat,” Napa invited me and went to the stove to prepare dinner.

I sat down and Meen joined me at the table. He pulled out a knife tucked at his waist and laid it down next to him. I took the opportunity to look around the room.

“How do you like my house, will it be homey enough for your stay?” Meen asked me humbly.

“It’s very cosy,” I replied politely. On the other side of the room, I noticed a lot of logging and agricultural tools hanging on the wall, but while I recognised most of them – saws, axes, hoes, spades, shovels and rakes – I was surprised to see that there were no hunting weapons.