At Hauptbahnhof
You’ve exited the tram at Essen Hauptbahnhof and are now having a look around. By now you know to take a few steps out of everyone’s way before you begin reading. You alternate between reading and looking around. You’ve learned that, too.
Now we’ll walk together towards the ticket hall and Exit A. Then you will continue following signs for the Kundencenter (“customer centre”) and the Hauptbahnhof (DB), until you arrive at Ausgang Freiheit. It’s the rear exit. “Exit Freedom”—no doubt, countless people have already made jokes about this wild choice of a name for a station exit. You won’t find any here.
Just the thought that real people made the decision to name the exit that.
And at some point their reasons for doing so faded from collective memory. But nothing disappears entirely just because it’s no longer actively remembered. Problems arise and opportunities open up—with every decision.
With every decision—made by you, by me—the dimensions split up. Over and over again, every second.
So get going right now.
Please use Map A to orient yourself for these last metres. I’ll leave you alone here for a moment.
On the next—the last—page, I will have to part ways from you entirely. Let’s use this final walk to look neither forwards nor backwards, but gaze directly into the present. Look for cracks in the interdimensional wallpaper yourself, and become aware of the multitude of possibilities, dimensions, perspectives. Now please follow the path marked on Map A, leading to the advertising column at Essen Hauptbahnhof.
Once you’ve arrived there, please continue reading on page 70. It will be our last page together.