“This world is a physical world, of course. It’s not a dream world. It’s not a world in the past, nor in the future. Everything here happens simultaneously with the events in the world that you live in. Everything here has the same physical form. Well, I would rather say, a similar physical form because it might mislead you otherwise. What our worlds have in common are time, weather, the seasons, and the environment. Everything you have in your world; it all exists here as well. This is for the safety of all beings who need to move back and forth between these two worlds. What is different is the evolution of the beings of this world. You may call it ‘the parallel co-existing world’, if you wish,” Meen explained.

“The parallel co-existing world?” I repeated.

“Yes, and I’d like to confirm again that there is a real physical world that complies to the same rules of space and time as your world. Both of our worlds have 360 ​​connected portals, scattered all over the land and sea. Does that answer your question on where you are now?” he asked.

“Please don’t tell me that I accidentally passed through a multi-dimensional portal and that I’m now stranded in your world,” I said in disbelief.

“The language that you are using doesn’t quite capture the truth. It’s not about slipping or moving into a new world. And it’s not a coincidence that you are here at all,” he explained.

“Let me first explain why it’s not a coincidence. In your world, only one out of a hundred million people is eligible to come here. There are only 360 portals around the world; each portal has a different opening time of only once every 3,600 years. The portal opening is a short time window of no more than four minutes. Even if you were that one person out of a hundred million, you still had to be here at the exact time when the portal was activated. Now, do you still think this is only a coincidence?” Meen asked.

“No, it’s not a coincidence, of course,” he continued, answering his own question. “It’s been quite a long time since someone passed through this portal, and you are the first person to do so in several thousand years.”

“How is it possible that there’s a parallel world that is overlapping with mine? I find that hard to believe,” I said.

“Overlapping isn’t quite the right description. If it would overlap, then one world would have to be a physical world with substance and the other world with energy, or a non-physical world. But this is really a physical world. Both worlds have mass substances that are parallel to each other. That’s more precise,” he argued.

“So where is this parallel co-existing world, then? And why does it exist?” I asked.

“Take it easy. Please allow me to take you to my home first. I’ll explain everything this evening as it takes time to do so,” Meen cut the conversation short and started to walk away.

“This way please,” he invited me.

Meen started to walk off and I followed him. As we walked into the forest, I suddenly thought of my friends.

“Meen, wait, what about my friends?” I shouted.

“Your friends are searching for you, too. But please don’t worry about them, they are more worried about you,” he said, and continued walking.

Meen’s home was quite far. On the way I noticed that the forest here was much richer than any forest in our world. Each trunk was tall and full of small plants, moss and wild orchids that covered the branches like a primitive forest in fairy tales or in fantasy films. The trees were very dense and remarkably diverse, as were the flowers and orchids along the road. It felt as if we were walking through a flower festival. When I looked up, I saw many animals of different sizes moving along the branches that spread out like a multi-layered net throughout the forest. I saw monkeys, langurs, gibbons tree shrews, and squirrels. I had seen some of them in zoos before, but most of them were unknown to me. There were also so many birds that it almost felt like being in a large bird park. There were some rare birds that I recognised from books. There were so many of them and they weren’t timid at all. On the contrary, it seemed like they wanted to take a closer look at me as they took turns in flying down onto the nearby branches to show off their looks.

All along the way to Meen’s house I was so overwhelmed with excitement and fascinated by everything I saw that, for a while, I was caught up in the moment before new questions started coming up in my mind again.

“Am I really in the parallel world, like Meen said?” I wondered.

I was curious about everything that appeared before my eyes and didn’t want to believe it was true.

“Or maybe I am just dreaming?” I thought to myself again.

We had walked for almost three hours and came upon a meadow surrounded by rolling hills. There was a stream running in the distance and the water reflected the evening sunlight, making it sparkle beautifully. Next to the stream was a small, single floored wooden cottage. The roof was covered with wavy clay tiles like the houses in the olden days. Around the cottage, there was a small group of big trees amid clusters of shrubs. Next to the shrubs, I could count out around a dozen vegetable plots. This reminded me of a drawing I had made as a child showing a sunset over a range of hills with a small cottage in the middle of the range, a cluster of trees, and a stream passing by the cottage. It was a very childish drawing.

Walking through the meadow I saw a lot of wildlife; deer, antelopes, bison, wolves, wild cats, buffaloes, rhinoceros, bears, elephants, tapirs, as well as some strange animals that I had never seen before, such as a Kouprey, and many other unknown species. They walked around as if they were in a parade in a big open zoo.

“Meen, why is wildlife so abundant here? I’ve never seen some of these animals before,” I asked.

“There are really not that many of them here, just the right number. Actually, your world used to be like this but regrettably, you have far fewer species now,” Meen explained.

“Most of the animals here once roamed your world, but now they are all extinct. This place helps to preserve different species so that they don’t disappear from the universe. Your world has destroyed so many of their natural habitats that they could not survive. However, should your world be ready to conserve them again one day, then we would bring them back. This is the reason why our worlds have similar weather, temperature, seasons and plants, so that these animals can immediately readjust themselves if they return,” Meen added.