What surrounds us, on the one hand, is our present, familiar and accessible. On the other hand, everyone can have their own world, their own ideas about it. The “second reality” is usually limited to the framework of human fantasy, but sometimes it can powerfully declare itself... And what will happen then? Will it be possible to distinguish true reality from fictional reality? And how to do this? The heroes of Arthur Alekhine's short stories are not just in a parallel world: they are intensely searching. These people (or images of people) are in search of themselves, in search of the meaning of life, in search of a way out of the difficult situation in which they find themselves. And, as in real life, the result can be unpredictable... Yes, the past cannot be changed, the present is in our hands, and the future... the future has many options, and at every moment it depends on us what it will be like. The future is always unexpected. For connoisseurs of modern prose.