He realizes that something is different there as the people are dressed differently and the area is lit not with the electric light of the modern times but with open gas fires. He suddenly makes the discovery that he has somehow entered the year 1894. he sees the date on the news paper ‘The World’ that has not been published for many years. The paper that he glances at bears the date June 11, 1894. he is filled with excitement and he decides to buy two tickets for Galesburg, the peaceful town that he has grown up in. Charley discovers that he does not have the appropriate currency of that period and is therefore unable to buy the ticket.
His wife and his psychiatrist friend, Sam as well as his other friends are quite alarmed when they hear his account and forbid him to seek the third level again. They treat the incident as a figment of his imagination and attribute it to his desire to escape from the stresses of his life. However, Charley’s friend, Sam disappears and Charley finds a letter from him in an old First Day Cover dated July 18th 1894. In the letter, Sam tells Charley that he has settled in down in Galesburg and urges him not to give up his search for the Third level as it is well worth the effort.
Sam is now engaged in a nice little hay, feed and grain business, something that he has always wished he could do. The author leaves the readers wondering what the Third Level really is. Though Charley is able to find proof of his experience, is it really possible to make this transition back and forth in time? Jack Finney a writer of science fiction treats his favorite subject, Time in a new dimension. The shadowy, eerie world that lies somewhere between dreams, desires and reality is what he calls The Third Level. It is the point where the past, the present and the future meet and here nothing is, as it seems.
What does Charley, the narrator, say about the Third Level at Grand Central Station? How does does his psychiatrist friend respond? Ans. Charley asserts that there are three levels at Grand Central Station. His assertion is based on his personal experience. He has been on the third level. Among others, he talked to a psychiatrist friend about it. The psychiatrist said that it was waking dream and wish fulfillment. He was unhappy and just wanted to escape. QB. What curious experience did Charley have one day when he went to Grand Central Station to take the subway? Ans. Charley walked down a flight of stairs to the second level.
He ducked into a n arched doorway heading for the subway and got lost. The corridor turned left and slopped downwards, but he kept on walking. He heard only the empty sounds of his own footsteps. The tunnel turned sharp left. He went down a short flight of stairs and came out on the third level at Grand Central Station where he had glimpses of the old world life of 1894. QC. What do learn about Galesburg, Illinois during 1894? Ans. Galesburg is described as the wonderful town with big old framed houses and huge lawns. The branches of the splendid old trees met overhead and covered the streets.
In 1894, summer evenings were twice as long. People set out on there lawns. The men would be smoking cigars and talking quietly. The women would be waving palm leaf fans. There were fireflies all around. It was a peaceful world that had not been ravaged by the two World Wars of the twentieth century.
