Gomez Calhoun agreed to give us the day off on Friday. In return for a

night shift. Wade and I traveled along the cable cars of the city,and we

reached the university where my brother attended school. It was a

large,beautiful campus. I saw many students on their prayer mats praying.

It seems most of the population is Muslim. Wade looked into a directory to

find Professor Maximilian Arturo.

"He's here,Colin," she said. "What if he don't speak English?"

"He immigrated from England," I answered. "He should speak English

better than you."

So we went to Arturo's office and waited for him. As it turned out,he

was returning from a lecture. With his Arabic-style clothing,he looked

like the guy from the Indiana Jones movie I saw about a year ago.

"Excuse me,Professor,I need your help," I said.

"You speak English," he said. "Well,normally,I ask for an

appointment,but I will hear you out,since you speak my native language."

"I am Colin Mallory," I said. "Quinn Mallory's brother."

"I remember him," he said. "Are you asking about him?"

"Well,yes and no," I said.

"For your information,he is working in a research institute in New Syria."

"Where is that?"

"Back east,you geographically-impaired twit! God,this country's

education system must be rotting if our young people can't find New Syria

on a map!"

That sounded like the Professor Arturo Quinn told me about.

"Listen,do you know anything about sliding?" I asked.

"Sliding?" asked the professor with a hint of annoyance. "Why shoudl a

professor of ontology and cosmology woory about such a trivial thing as

sliding down a slide in a playground. Yiou want to know about sliding,ask

a child!"

"What I meant was interdimensional travel. Traveling across time,as

opposed to back and forth. do you know anything about other dimensions of

time?"

"Well,yes. It is one of the subjects I teach."

He explained what my brother Quinn had explained many times. Time is

not one dimension,but many dimensions. The uncertainty principle causes

these parallel times to evolve differently. However,events in each these

parallel universes influence the probability distributions of events in

nearby universes. That is why many parallel and seemingly-independent

dimensions are similar in their histories.

The professor also said that matter and enrgy are normally confined to

a single dimension,just like electrons are confined to orbitals around the

atomic nucleus. However,it is possible to cause matter to jump out of the

dimension and end up in another dimension,just as electrons can be removed

from their orbitals.

"It was very nice to have this discussion," he said.

"There is a reason," I said. "I am from another dimension."

"What?"

I told him about how I was borbn on a parallel earth,how I was sent to

another world to grow up,and how my brother found me and took me to other

worlds.

"Sliding. Kromaggs," he said. "If you weren;t interested in my theories.

I'd call you a kook. Still,I would not know where your friends are. I am

sorry,lad."

"It's okay," I said.

"Let me give you my number,Mister Mallory," said Arturo. He gave me a

card with a telephone number. So Wade and I left.

The rest of the day,we went on a tour of the city. I was bored,since

everything looked the same except for the Arabic writing. At sundown,we

went back to the hotel. Calhoun told me,through Wade as interpreter,that a

room is available for me. I worked hard that night,cleaning the vacant

rooms and washing linens. After my shift was over,I went to my room. I

said goodbye to Wade.

I lied down and turbned on the television. I saw nothing but snow. I

kept flipping the channels,and there was stiull nothing but snow. I

wondered what was causing the interference. Anyway,I decided to read the

English newspaper. There were news about Enbgland as well as the English

community of San Francisco. There was an article about the Sultan. I fell

asleep,with the newspaper i my hand.