The shift on the following Monday seemed to drag on eternally. Yet Pam would be disheartened to find that barely a few minutes had elapsed since she last checked the time on her fob watch. There was an ominous increase in bed-calls and new admissions, for which Pam wished she could borrow some life-force from the next day to deal with it all. Not that she made any actual mistakes, but maintaining her concentration during drug-calculations and medicine administration was nearly painful. As if that was not enough, there was a deplorable shortage of staffs, because some nurses and associates from her ward called in sick that day, which, Pam was sure, was actually courtesy of the world cup tournament. She soon became aware that her regular time-checking, struggle to focus on the tasks and general unease was beginning to get noticeable, since that was quite out of character. When asked as to what was ailing her, she chose to exaggerate her early symptoms of the imminent "that time of the month", including a muscle pain, for which she could not wait to go home. Although she was aware that this was hardly the reason for her unease at work that day, the early symptoms still did not help. Every now and then, she just had to remember to bend down, wince and smile apologetically to someone who would care to notice.

"Dear universe please stop this monstrous conspiracy against me", she pleaded with her head thrown back during break time, as she prepared to bite the bullet for the last few hours. Much to her disappointment, the rest of the shift rolled with similar kindness, as Pam went through this annoying ordeal amidst the unusual rush and stress of nursing duties. When her fob watch graciously marked the end of her shift, she had to forcefully contain the cry of relief, that was menacingly close to escape from her throat. While changing into a pair of leggings and tank top, Pam thanked her lucky stars that she did not drastically age by a few decades after such an extra laborious shift. She tidied her dishevelled hair and splashed cold water on her face, hoping that would retrieve some of the lost freshness, before she could face the world outside; or more precisely, before she got to see him, somewhere outside.

That strange anticipation that he would appear still lurked, bright and bold, in the corners of her mind, as she squinted into the glare of the late afternoon. Her eyes barely adjusted to the outdoor brightness when they began their hunting expedition. Despite the urge to sweep every possible site with clear vision, she decided that putting a pair of sunspecs would mask some of the desperation, in case he found her searching for him a little too enthusiastically, which might not feel appropriate or even be embarrassing. With her eyes hidden behind dark glasses, she had the freedom to continue her search confidently, as she walked further out towards the main driveway entrance. To prolong her exit, she walked around the security office, which almost meant a detour, and slowed her pace; just as an insidious coil of disappointment was about to strangle her, she spotted the much coveted sight of him through tinted glasses. He took his niche at the other side of the security office, which was an unusual place to find him. Unsure as how to approach him, she proceeded very self-consciously, although trying to fake nonchalance, wishing that he'd make the first move that day, too. As she appeared within his field of vision, her nerves got the best of her and she started to dart away in an almost bizarre manner, when at last she drew rein to her firing neurons and half crouched on a knee to do her laces, which was the only pretention she could think of at the moment to buy some time. She was already half way past him, and the only way to find out if he intended to talk to her was to halt now; the furthest corner of her left eye confirmed that a late afternoon shadow of a tall man was drawing closer to her, then seemed to have stopped a few yards away from her spot. Rising up, she twisted her upper body a tiny fraction towards him and started to walk off gently; as if grasping an unspoken cue, he followed in her wake. Without fiddling about finding a reason, she allowed herself to feel the satisfaction to have him tread on her heels, which inspired her to add laces of feminine grace to the back profile of her body as she moved. When they cleared the exit and walked up on the kerb adjacent to a bus stop, Pam decided to stop – Nathan walked past her by a few paces, stopped and mercifully twirled around to face her.

"Greetings Pam", he beamed a smile as sweetly provocative as to melt granite in seconds. Although metaphysically she was knocked off flat on the pavement, she replied "Hello Mr. Knight", with warmth and articulation, extending her arm to shake his hand.

"Nathan would be just fine", he corrected her as he took her hand – but instead of shaking it, he gently turned it 90 degrees sideways and lifted it to his lips to kiss. Pam blushed crimson at his outlandish gallantry and could not help a girlish grin.

"So Nathan how you're doing today?" Pam asked, anxiously seeking a more stable ground to trade on.

"Very well…so how was your day?"

"It was very hectic, I must admit", Pam said as she let a shaky breath out in a chuckle, reminiscent of the shift she had served under.

His expression turned into one of sombre and somewhat pained, as if he lost some inner battles that he had been fighting, as he stood there, her hand still in his.

"Pam I need to talk to you." He seemed to have taken aback at his own abruptness, but Pam was concurrently glad and excited that he seemed to be jumping on the core subject without much extravagance.

"You sure can."

"Not here, we need a more appropriate place for our discussion. Mind coming with me to the park a few blocks from here?"

Overwhelmed with emotions and cross-fired by curiosity and intrigue, she shyly nodded her affirmation, to which he half smiled in the most contagious of ways.

For a good few minutes they sat on a bench in silence, listening to the chirping of homeward bound flocks as they flew across the amber sky. The park was located quite off the road, with a low gate as the entrance beyond which a long winding path led to the park itself, eventually dividing the two massive lands of greenery. The bench they occupied was much deeper into one of the divisions, with denser dominance of pines than on the other side. From their location, they could spot a family or two on the opposite side, towing their unwilling kids as they were moving towards the central path. Other than a few cyclists and pedestrians who appeared on the path and some pet-walkers on the other side, the park was mostly deserted. It took them much longer than Pam anticipated to reach the park; the golden afternoon was already rolling into a mellow dusk. The silence offered Pam an opportunity to uncoil and detangle herself from the turmoil of the day, as she could reconnect with nature and tune in to her inner self, with him by her side – for some reason it helped her to calm down even more – possibly because in his presence, her mind did not go haywire wondering about him. Finally, Nathan broke the silence. "Feeling any better? Away from the crowd and stress?"

His voice carried sublimely as a soft echo in the silence, gently caressing through her unwinding senses.

"I am feeling quite rejuvenated…thanks for choosing this place to talk, Nathan", Pam softly smiled her gratitude.

"I knew this place would help you relax", Nathan let out a long shaky breath as he continued, "I wanted you to be calm…and be mindful…to rewire your connections to your spirituality…for what I am about to tell will require you to focus, from every aspect of your awareness."

Pam wore a blank expression on her face, although she was struggling hard to repress the wild smokes fuming from all those emotions, questions, expectations and desires boiling inside the huge cauldron of her mind. She could sense a strong vibe that he was about to divulge something that would relate to her strange visions last Friday. "I am all ears and attention", she said politely, with an underlying desperation in her voice which somehow escaped from the smokes she was suppressing. The look he shot her clarified that the desperation concisely conveyed to him, which made her flush and softened some of the rigidity that was on him. He took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his thick mane of dark hair before he spoke. "You see…I needed to relax and focus as much as you did…you came out quite late today, which almost made me think if you considered extended hours – waiting aimlessly is not in my book; but I had a vague hope that today I would be able to tell you…all about our unexpected encounters; hence instead of loitering in the usual places and attract unwanted attentions, I had to relocate my myself. And luckily…you appeared shortly." Pam was silent, but the way her honey eyes sparkled, invited him to continue. "Pam, I don't know if you believe in reincarnation or not…and I am clueless as to how you might react if I let you know that we..." he seemed to readjust his composure before he tumbled down what seemed like a path of mortification, "…that we knew each other – from a previous life." Head drooping in surrender, he literally sighed out the last two words, as if he was confessing a hideous crime. The world around Pam somersaulted twice, broke apart then…fell perfectly into place. The green-eyed soldier she had visions of earlier evanesced past her mind, graciously kissing the back of her hand. She was swept away in a whirlpool of sentiments and excitement that the information he shared rendered; if she were honest with herself, she was utterly clueless as to how she should respond. Whatever words she tried to formulate, faltered at the tip of her tongue. With some strenuous self-resolution, she confined it all tentatively, as this was not the ideal time to deal with the enormity of the knowledge he just disclosed – she decided to engage in the situation at the very moment instead. By the time she focused back on Nathan, she found him leaning against the back rest of the bench, head tilted upwards with distant eyes, looking much beyond the coniferous silhouettes against the darkening sky for sure. To offer some sense of acknowledgement, that whatever he said at least registered in her, Pam placed a hand tenderly on his shoulder. All at once his head shot back down, turned to face her and a tensed deltoid shuddered under her hand – it was apparent that he was not expecting this gesture.

"I…I am astonished that you are still not laughing your head off – or disdaining me as some mental case."

Pam could not help a chuckle at that remark, as she softly gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Well...well you might have known me before," she threw a quotation mark in the air, "but looks like there is still a lot unknown to you about me." Nathan's eyes grew quite incredulous as she continued. "I am aware of the concepts of reincarnation; I came across this several times in interesting fictions and even envisioned myself as ever being some queen of Egypt" she dropped her head with a shy smile as she conceded, to which Nathan let out a laugh that was partially a sigh. "I do understand that this concept is still strictly theoretical, but…" she looked up straight in his eyes, which required her to gather some vital strength to keep her neurons focused, instead of dancing a fiery tango, "…but I believe that you have valid reason to claim that we have been reincarnated."

"I must admit that I did not expect this reaction from you, and I am very much glad that you are even willing to give me the benefit of the doubt," much of the embarrassment disappeared from his expression, replaced by a subtle touch of optimism.

"So how did you...uh…conclude that yours was a case of reincarnation?" Pam asked, eager to plunge deeper in to his story. He looked down, took a deep steadying breath and as he faced her back, he seemed adequately resolute to walk her into his world.

"I started getting random recurrent hallucinations – the common element in every vision I used to have was – was a beautiful brown-eyed woman, with blazing red hair." He intently observed her face as her eyes slightly widened. "I had visions of my childhood from another life, places that I visited that ominously felt familiar in the hallucinations – I also saw myself…" his voice was trailing off as he kept recalling his visions, "…mostly attired in the crisp uniform of a soldier." He watched, with some concern, how most of the colours faded from her face. "Are you alright, Pam?", he voiced his concern, with an almost certain feeling that something he said rang a bell in her. "I...I guess I am. Please go on," although Pam found her voice with some effort, she was thankful that it did not horribly croak as expected.

"The most unsettling of the visions was the one where I saw my own death; I would feel the unnerving sting of bullet," he touched his chest as he spoke, "whenever the soldier got shot in my hallucinations." He found upon inspection that her expression turned into one of horror, despite her struggle to hold herself into place. Without allowing himself to think any better of it, he moved closer to her as his arm, on its own accord, rested gently on top of her shoulders. Pam already felt shuddered to the core as she sensed an urge to revisit

the bloody vision from last week; the striking association with his visionary encounters ran a chill down her spine. His closeness was all she could ask for at this moment, with the comforting warmth that radiated from his body, while his arm offered a good support for her shoulders to keep upright. "At one point I decided to seek help; it was then that I turned to an alchemist." He rechecked her face and was glad that much of the terrified expression was toned down into something more curious, with a touch of calmness. "This is more than I could have asked for…she is demonstrating no signs of ridicule", he thought.

"How did the alchemist help?" she prodded.

"Do you believe in hypnotherapy?"

"In theory…I mean I never had any personal experience, but they seem very effective in fictions", she said with a hopeful smile, already allowing her cosmic-exploring, surrealistic self to take over. He flashed a grin that could illuminate the darkest of tunnels, clearly encouraged to continue.

"Very well…so the alchemist guided me through a series of hypnotherapy, each session successively revealing more of my past life - the haphazard pieces of the jigsaw puzzle finally began to fit in place. And..." he took another deep breath, resolutely maintaining composure although the cherubic reddish glow in his cheek behind those stubble was giving him away.

"…and I found out that the red-head was none other than yourself – and who I once were and how we were connected", he was discomfited for mentioning her first, but his prioritisation seemed to have ignited some inspiration in her, as he discovered that her hand on his thigh gave a satisfying squeeze at the mention of herself. They both looked down at his thigh, much to her embarrassment, but in place of muddling to enunciate some apologies, Pam boldly patted his thigh, as though it was a gesture of active listening and to encourage him to continue. She amazed herself for having the upper hand over her jittery nerves.

"So how did…uh…this revelation affect you? What did you do afterwards?"

"I had to find out if you were reborn as well."

"Wouldn't it feel like a wild goose chase? I mean even if I were reborn, I could have been living in the Antarctic or either be a baby or even an extremely frail elderly woman," Pam allowed her curiosities to pour out.

"Now when did I mention that I was looking for an acquaintance from another life to make a potential lover?" he jested with a pleasantly teasing tone. Pam blushed at her folly but she was unwilling to hold her inquisitions that day, even if that meant her questions did not pass through logic. "I wanted to discover your existence, in whichever stage of life, should you have been reincarnated as well."

"But why did that matter in 'this' life of yours?" At that moment Pam met Nathan's eyes, where a mossy green hue shrouded the emerald brightness, clearly from a tinge of dejection. She at once regretted her lack of discretion in blurting out the last few words, wishing she could take them back. Her mind was working to verbalise some sort of apology or to find some words to at least take the edge away from what she asked, but to her relief, he continued, leniently choosing to ignore the question.

"Pam tell me one thing…do you practice mindfulness or familiar to meditation?"

"I sure do…sometimes when I go biking in the riverside paths, I often stop at a quiet spot to reconnect with nature out in the peaceful wilderness; I believe that as human beings, we are but mere fragments of nature but when connected to the largeness, we are part of an invincible force. I also meditate at home – it is quite vital to submerge deep within your inner-self to keep in touch with the tranquillity that can often be superficially eroded away in a stressful life, given my job and all. Mindfulness allows me to stay grounded with my inner peace." The emerald brightness subtly danced out of the mossy shroud as a dreamy smile fleeted across his lips. He repositioned himself to face her squarely, maintaining a solemnly sincere intensity in his eyes as he spoke.

"Can I ask you to trust me for a few moments as I explain something to you?" Pam stared thunderstruck at him, thinking if she had not already demonstrated enough trustworthiness and also imagining what more magnificence he had in store.

"I have been trusting you all along. And you have my full attention."

"Well…thank you." He drew yet another calming deep breath. "As far as the multiverse is concerned, our vibrational field of potentials strengthens when we meditate; the strength builds as we continue to oscillate at higher frequencies – that is to say, the deeper we can meditate, the higher the vibrational frequency and stronger the energy field – and the less connected you are with your physical world;" Although what he was telling could be best described as "facts", Pam observed that his face bore a pleading expression. She did not know why it dismayed her. "Since we both practice mindfulness, there is this uncanny possibility that your energy field merged with that of mine when we were deeply meditating with our vibrational frequencies sufficiently high."

Pam felt an irrefutable determination to trust him – even if that meant superseding every law of judiciousness and setting recourse to surrealism; she hushed the rationality that tried to speak otherwise. "Are you with me?" he asked, when she looked too lost to be engaging.

"Oh sorry…yes I am," she blinked to tune back.

"From what I gathered at the alchemist's and from personal research, this fusion of energy fields stimulated the dormant memories of my past life, hence I got those hallucinations to start with. And... disregarding the hypothetical nature of the theory, it invariably claims your existence in the same plane as myself."

"But how did you – uh – track me down?" Not only did Pam wanted to believe in him, but she knew that she needed to allow herself to be carried with the flow in order to dig further in to this…wonderland? Yes, perhaps so, and to associate closer to this man she was so clearly drawn to; she would only allow this much of logic.

The smile that stole at his lips started with a smugness but gradually dipped into one of shyness as he spoke. "I worked in the intelligent department of the Police force for about ten years, before starting a small business of my own. I had a vivid picture of you inside of me; with years of experience in the intelligence department and with cooperative associates, it was not as big a deal as I fretted. Specially with your lack of privacy in terms of social networking." Pam could not help an embarrassed smile as she remembered her galore of glamorous and silly images she posted all over her social networks.

"But discovering that you were so easily accessible when it comes to distance…was something attributable to my lucky star…or the one that shot." The manner in which his voice lowered as he said the last few words made Pam feel that he meant them for himself, leaving her to wonder their significance. "The baptism of fire remained in approaching you. I felt degraded to my bones. Fortunately, you turned out to be quite impressively amicable.

"Who in their right senses can be mean to a man like you?" Pam thought subconsciously, which consciously bloomed into a sweet smile. Then, without much prefaces, Nathan shoved aside all the barriers of decorum as he grabbed Pam by the shoulders, peered straight into her eyes, vivid green over warm honey, and asked in a hypnotically calm voice, "Can you convince yourself that NOTHING happened to you last Friday when I walked up to you? Are you sure you saw no more than a stranger every time I came across? Can you deny your growing interest…or should I say fascination towards me?"

Pam was intrigued beyond measures by this audacity. And on a different yet inevitable note, she could feel the wrong parts of her body vivaciously responding, despite the solemnity of the situation; but nothing ever felt so right; or so exciting. She shook her head, partly as a response to him and partly to ineffectively shake away that feeling. "I guess not", she chose to be honest. "I had visions; similar to the ones you described."

"I can help you retrieve the memories from your past life, should you desire to discover; I have been learning hypnotherapy myself…solely to practice it on you for this very purpose, if you consent to it. Upon your agreement, I would very much like to perform it at my place of residence…now I know…" he squeezed his eyes shut in chagrined despondency for a good few moments before continuing, "…it's understandable that it might not feel safe for you and I will totally appreciate if you bring a chaperon or two with you. Success or otherwise, you will decide what happens thenceforth. I promise to disappear forever from your life if you would so desire. But…" his grip around her shoulders grew slightly tighter, "…I sincerely wish that you allow me to take you down that long lost world that beckoned to you...the world that we once shared."

Nathan was unaware as to when his hands moved up her shoulders to cup around her jawbones, his thumbs delicately brushing dainty strokes on her cheeks, cautiously proceeding to her lips – the sensation rippled southwards. Pam sat frozen in his grip, but all she could feel was melting down deliciously all over his sturdy body. As a little moan managed to make its way out of her throat, the vibration he felt on his hands lurched him back to awareness and he quickly withdrew his hands. The abandonment stung, whether Pam admitted it to herself or not.

"I would very much appreciate if you be so kind as to guide me through this unknown realm which strangely feels familiar," once again, Pam's emotional judgement triumphantly resurfaced, propelled by her cosmic-exploring self, superseding and pushing aside all the conventional doctrines of pragmatism that tried to get the best of her.

A soft gleam of reassurance washed over his face as he expressed his gratitude for allowing him the curtesy that he so fondly premeditated; a brief interaction of exchanging contact details for future correspondence followed shorty.

"So I shall see you, first thing this Saturday morning."

"I promise no binge-sleeping for this Saturday," she said with a light humour, to which he could not help a reproachful smile.

"I never approve of binge-sleeping, although a nurse kind of earns the privilege."

As they started to make their way towards the exit gate of the park, Pam observed that the ultramarine violet ink of twilight had now blotted much of the redness away from skies; she thought, with some concern, how easy it was for her to lose track of time when she was with him, with the tedious shift from earlier completely trashed in some black hole of her mind. They bade farewell once out in the streets, and went in their separate directions.

"I wonder how hard would people deemed as 'normal' laugh at my decision…or condemn me as naïve and imprudent…but did their opinions ever bother me? Certainly not…perhaps this time my own self is somewhat trembled at my decision…but did ever anything feel as appealing as this invitation from him?" Before a preachy voice in her head tried to convince her that there was still time to cancel this ludicrousness, another stronger voice silenced it and reminded her of all the inexplicable feelings she experienced, including the visions she had in his presence. Besides, she realised that the whirlpool of emotions that Nathan incited in her could not only be the work of hormones, but extended way beyond – there was no scope to deny that any longer. "I feel ready to take his hand to let him lead me through this mysterious dark tunnel at the end of which lies a whole forgotten world," Pam mused, as she hopped on to a bus.