Ten Second Vacation

 Ten Second Vacation

A Memory of Virtual Teleportation

 

It was many years ago, during my graduate-school days. I was standing on a street corner in Berkeley. There was traffic, crowds and noise. I had places to go and things to do, but the WALK light had not yet turned, so I had nothing to do. It was a moment that did not count, and I had no expectations of it.

I looked up, I looked down the street, and there beyond the end of the street, beyond the edge of town, across the bay...

... a mountain.

It was small and blue with distance. It was streaked with brown and green. Its profile was rough and fractal.

I tuned out everything else except the unturned WALK sign. In my mind I stepped over to that mountain, and I took a vacation there. I hiked up and down that mountain, I inspected its plants and rocks, I climbed to the top...

- then BLINK -

... and I was back on the street corner, looking at the WALK sign, which had just turned. I looked both ways, I stepped off the curb, and I crossed the street.