it wasn't that he hadn't enjoyed yesterday. in fact, it had been ne of his best Days yet. he had woken at 7am, gone for his regular morning jog, getting home by 8 just in time for a large breakfast of all his favorites. while he was eating, he watched television, VH1's House Blend, over a steaming cup of his own house blend. at nine he switched to Regis & Kathie Lee. it was Thursday today, which as it happened always meant the show would be full of his favorite celebrities. at ten, he showered. it was a long, hot, relaxing shower. he was dressed by 10:45, and sat around for a while reading Entertainment Weekly. then he planned the night's television viewing schedule. of course it was Must See TV on NBC.

by noon, he was at work. he owned a large corporation which could easily run without him, but he liked to feel he was doing some kind of work. and people appreciated his involvement in the company, he did do a good job. at one, he broke for lunch. some days, he ate lunch with celebrity-friends, some days with business-friends, some days with employee-friends, and sometimes just with friend-friends. today he happened to eat with employee-friends. he was back at work at two, and quit at six. he went out to his favorite Manhattan restaurant for dinner, and happened by chance to run into his girlfriend there. she was very smart, funny, personable, attractive girl, who also was quite well off, and like him made her own hours (and days). they dined together, and decided to get together later with some mutual friends, to watch tv at his very large, modern, nice house.

after dinner, he went home alone, spent an hour netsurfing. by 7:45, his girlfriend and their closest friends showed up. they set up in the entertainment room, all in comfortable easy-chairs, with plenty of ice-cold sodas and popcorn, in front of his 50 inch television. they watched everything from Friends thru ER, then turned off the tv for awhile and turned on the stereo. at 11:35, they watched Letterman, then Conan O'Brien. by 2am they had all left, except his girlfriend. she stayed the night. they had some very good sex more than once, and fell asleep together, thoroughly happy with the state of the world.

he woke up the next day late, about 8:35. he lay in bed a few minutes, content with life. soon, his girlfriend woke, stretched, rolled over, and kissed him. it was amazing, her breath was always sweet, even after a good night's sleep. about 9, they both got up and showered together. it was fun, but something started nagging at the back of his head.

he didn't go for his usual jog, instead having a smaller breakfast than usual. no one of particular interest was on Regis & Kathie Lee today, and House Blend was much the same one day as the next. so he turned on NPR, and they listened to some classical music. the morning was going roughly as well as most, which is to say very well indeed. still, something continued to bother him, something he couldn't pin down just yet.

he called the office to say he'd be skipping work today. he did this periodically, so no one was surprised.

he felt somehow, something should be different, but he wasn't sure what or how. life just seemed too...same, somehow. so, quite spontaneously, he and his girlfriend decided to take his private jet and fly somewhere, anywhere in the world. they left the destination up to the pilot, who chose Hawaii. he gave the pilot the day off when they got there, to do whatever he liked. the pilot liked his job very much, and his employer. he and his girlfriend bought swimsuits, went swimming in the lagoon, then they lay on hammocks strung between palm trees, listening to local music, soft and romantic, while sipping exotic drinks and holding hands as they swung slowly in the warm breeze. for dinner, they attended a luau. they all danced around the fire while a steel-drum band played. round midnight, they were back in their hammocks, where they fell asleep under the stars.

his dreams were somewhat troubled, and he woke in the morning with a start. he couldn't remember his dreams, so he decided to just forget about them. still, something bothered him in the back of his mind.

his girlfriend was already out swimming when he awoke, and he went out to join her. they ignored breakfast, and at 11, they had brunch. then they called the pilot, and headed back home. his girlfriend went to work. he also went to work, but he couldn't concentrate. something kept gnawing at him, and it grew more troublesome and irritating by the minute. finally, he gave up any pretense of work, and went home. he lay in his hot tub and thought long and hard, trying to realize what exactly was the matter.

the one thing he could pin down, if vaguely, was that something was entirely wrong with his life, these last two days. it was enjoyable, to be sure. but it seemed like it should be different. eventually, he managed to put it out of his head, as he could find no answers.

at 8 he watched Dr. Quinn, at 9 My So-Called Life. at 10 he netsurfed, at 11 he watched Mad TV, at 11:30 he switched between that and SNL. at 12 he watched the remainder of the latter, then went to bed at one.

he awoke at six. he called his folks back home in the country. his mom answered the phone. she had just finished setting breakfast on the table, and his father walked in the house, having completed the morning chores. he told his mother he'd fly in that morning for a visit. when he hung up, he called the pilot and told him to get the jet ready. by 7:30 they were in the air, and by 8:15, they were at the airport in the nearest city to his hometown. he caught a cab to the house he kept in the city, and from there drove his own car to his parents' farm in the rural suburb. he got there just a minute before 9, just in time to bring his single suitcase up to his old room, and hop in his parents' car. they all went to church together. for the next couple hours, he managed to avoid thinking about whatever was bothering him.

at 12:30, they were back home eating Sunday dinner, always the biggest meal of the week, except on Thanksgiving of course. his parents could tell something was bothering him, but he tried to fill his end of the conversation with pleasant stories of all he'd been up to since they last spoke, about a month ago.

he stayed around the next few days, and helped out on the farm. Wednesday afternoon, he decided to go home. he called his pilot, and they were back in New York by 3. after watching Guiding Light, he called his girlfriend and made plans to get together that night. at 6 they went out to dinner, and at seven they went to a movie, which they both enjoyed. they were back at her place by 9:20. at 9:30 they watched The Naked Truth, at 10, American Gothic. they checked the TV Guide, no one terribly interesting was scheduled to be on any late night shows, so they looked through her video collection.

he came to Groundhog Day, which he realized he hadn't seen yet, though he had meant to. enough time had passed since she had seen it, so she agreed they could watch it. they both liked Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott. something about the movie tugged at his imagination. the plot started meshing with what had been playing in his head the past week.

after the movie, he started thinking along those lines. he knew he hadn't been reliving the same day. every day was different, time was progressing for him and all around him just as it should. but something seemed similar, there seemed to be _some_ connection between his problem and the movie. but before he could come to any conclusions, his girlfriend interrupted his thoughts, and he was relieved to let her.

they went to bed together, going straight to sleep. the next morning, he awoke at 6. the radio alarm clock came on. luckily, it wasn't playing "I Got You Babe." they got up, had breakfast, and each went off to their respective jobs.

he had lunch alone today, at noon. it was unusual for him to eat alone, but he wanted to think without distractions. he tried to put together what he already knew. first, everything seemed too SAME. there was a feeling that things should be different. and then there was this identification with the idea of living the same day over and over. but his life was as it had always been, or at least how he remembered it being.

he started thinking what he could possibly do that would be different. he'd already done just about everything there was to do on Earth, many several times. perhaps, he thought, he should try doing something on another planet. at first, it seemed a passing fantasy. of course he couldn't really go to another world. but suddenly, it seemed possible, somehow. soon, he was remembering being on other worlds. he knew he had always been here on Earth, but... then he remembered being other...beings.

his first thought about these strange memories was of reincarnation, but he rejected that idea. these memories were too close to the present. it seemed to him the last time he'd been someone/thing else, somewhere/when else, was last Wednesday. only it hadn't been Wednesday there, it had been somewhere where time wasn't measured in days.

that word, days, triggered something in his mind, suddenly. he mentally capitalized it, Days. the word drilled through his head, and suddenly he remembered everything.

he was not just this one little being, he was a Being. there were trillions of trillions of Beings, nearly infinite Beings. and nearly infinite Dimensions, each with nearly infinite worlds. every Dimension is incomparably different from every other. Time was recognized in every Dimension, to varying degrees, and in most Dimensions, there were Time units called days, though in each, the word day meant different things, were measured in different ways. here on Earth, a day is a planetary rotation. in many Dimensions, there weren't even things vaguely similar to planets. his Earthly vocabulary couldn't adequately describe all he was remembering, but he understood, wordlessly, in his mind.

there was also an OverReality, called Night. the Beings were Awake in Night and when they Slept, they entered a Day, a different DayDream each time they Slept. each Day was time spent in a different dimension, as a different being. a Day usually synched with a day in the world the Being was currently Dreaming of. while living in a Day, the being would have a memory of its entire life in that world, a life the Being never really lived. it didn't remember any other Lives, only the Life it was in at the time. but when it Woke into Night, it would remember all its Days, the entire Lives lived and but remembered in each Day.

but he hadn't Woken after his Day on Earth. he had remained here, for a week now. suddenly, he realized why this was: because in his last Day, the world he was in had had no days of its own to anchor him to the OverReality of Night. now he remembered that Day. he had barely managed to escape it, after a time there roughly equivalent to a week here on Earth. he hadn't then Woken into Night, but instead had segued directly from that DayDream to this one. now he knew the truth, now he could Wake.

but first, he decided to finish this day of this Day. he paid the bill, and left the restaurant. he walked down the street, whistling his favorite tune, a song he wouldn't remember Tomorrow.