The story begins with the mention of a third level at

the Grand Central Station (which only has two levels in

real). The protagonist himself is aware that even the
Presidents of New York Central and the New York, New
Haven and Hartford railroads would express great
confidence in the existence of only two levels but he
himself has been to the third level. Considering the
entire scenario, Charley, the protagonist had a word
with his psychiatrist friend. He explained that Charley
was experiencing a ˜waking dream wish fulfillment or
in other words, hallucination. According to the
psychiatrist, Charley was unhappy (the fact her wife did
not like). Upon explaining further, it became clear that
it is the burden of all the modern problems that is
pushing him to experience the apparent perception of
something not present. He tends to escape the reality.
Charley agreed with what his psychiatrist friend had to
say but he still found it a bit odd to have been to the
third level of the Grand Central Station. Charley begins
to believe in the possibility that he has been
experiencing all this to escape the harsh realities of the
modern world. His friends agreed to it as well. Even his
stamp collecting is a sort of asylum he resorts to in
order to feel protected. On the other hand, he starts
thinking otherwise. His grandfather started his stamp
collection but in those days, they had not seen the
consequences of war and there was peace, harmony
and security. His grandfather must have not been
insecure. The collection, moreover was amazing, with
blocks of four of practically every U. S. issue. Even
President Roosevelt collected stamps. He starts
explaining what exactly happened and begins with how
he chose to take the Subway to his apartment instead
of the usual bus after a late-night shift. He did this in
order to save time. He describes himself as an ordinary
man of 31 dressed in a tan gabardine suit and a straw
hat with a fancy band. It was so ordinary that he could
see other similar men at the station. He explains how
he was in his normal state of mind not wanting to
escape from anywhere. All he wanted was to be with
his wife Louisa at that hour. He still doesn’t understand
why this happened with him. Charley comes to the part
of the incident where he entered the Grand Central
from Vanderbilt Avenue and took the stairs to the first
level where one boarded trains like the Twentieth
Century. Then he went down another floor to reach
the second level from where the suburban trains leave.
From there he entered an arched doorway and got
lost. It was nothing unusual for him because even if he
had come to that station a thousand times, there were
occasions he bumped into new corridors and
doorways. Once he entered the wrong lobby and
reached Roosevelt Hotel and another time in an office
building which was three blocks away. He wondered
that Grand Central was expanding at a very fast rate
just like a tree and with its roots. He it is no big deal
that they even have a secret tunnel under the city to
the Times Square or maybe the Central Park. He feels it
might be because Grand Central is a place of exit for
innumerable people, he also managed to escape reality
because of the same reason. Although he never shared
it with his psychiatrist. The unusual corridor he had
entered into began angling left and slanting downward
which he felt odd about but nevertheless, he kept on
walking. There was no one except him and the voice of
his feet echoed. He finally heard the sound of people
talking from a distance, then he took a left and walked
down the stairs again only to reach the third level of
the Grand Central. He thought he had somehow made
his way back to the second level but as he noticed, the
room was smaller, there were fewer ticket windows
and train gates, and the information booth in the
center was wood and old-looking. The man in the
booth was also different and the station was dim-lit for
there were open-flame gaslights. Charley could see
brass spittoons everywhere when suddenly a glimpse
of light caught his eye and he saw a man pulling his
gold watch from the vest. He was dressed in an old-
fashioned style. Suddenly, he noticed that everyone
was dressed like the nineteenth century. It was
basically the time before deadly wars. So many beards
and fancy mustaches all around, something that the
protagonist had never seen before. He even saw a very
small Currier & Ives locomotive which made him sure
about which time he is in. To validate his suspicion, he
went over to the newspaper boy who was selling The
World, a newspaper which was discontinued years ago.
There were some headlines about the then President
Cleveland. The date on the front page was also June
11, 1894. He was now sure. Immediately, he went to
the ticket window to get the tickets for Galesburg,
Illinois for him and his wife. It was a wonderful town
with a lot of greenery. He was well aware that from
here one could buy tickets that would take them
anywhere in the United States. He describes how
things were in 1984 before the two World Wars took
place. Evenings were twice as long as they are now and
men and women living in peace and serenity. As the
clerk calculated the fare, he looked at Charley’s
fancy hatband. Charley just had enough for one sided
journey. Just as he took out money, the clerk informed
that this is not the acceptable legal tender and by any
chance if he tried to be smart, he won’t be able to
get away with it. He glanced at his cash drawer and
realised that currency used back then was different
and almost double the size. He ran out because he
didn’t want to go to jail. The day ended after he
came out. The next day he went to withdraw his entire
savings and got them converted into old money by
paying some amount of premium. It cost him much and
even worried his psychiatrist friend but he still went
with it. Back then, eggs cost thirteen cents a dozen. But
unfortunately, he could never find the way to the third-
level corridor again despite hard efforts. His wife Louisa
was pretty worried when she got to know about it all.
After a while, he went back to finding distractions with
the help of stamps. Somehow, Sam, the psychiatrist
disappeared out of the blue. Charley suspected that he
had gone to Galesburg. He finds himself in the time-
space of 1894. One night Charley came across a first-
day cover. It is an envelope (with a stamp on it) that
stamp collectors mail to themselves on the first day of
its sale to mark the date. They’re just blank inside
and are not meant to be opened. That night he found
by surprise one of his grandfather’s old first day
covers. Someone had mailed it to his father at his
home at Galesburg, as he saw from the address on the
envelope. The post mark showed that it had been
there since July 18, 1894. The stamp had a picture of
President Garfiled on it. It was a six cent, dull brown
colour stamp. His grandfather had put put it in his
stamp collection and the Charley now discovered it.
The paper inside and a letter written in it. The letter
read as: The letter talked about how the writer wished
his third level story was true until he actually started
believing it to be true. He had found the third level and
had been there for two weeks. He describes the place
he was at that time. He asks Charley and Louis to never
stop searching for the third level and come back. The
letter had been signed off as Sam. Charlie found out
from the coin store that he used to visit that Sam had
bought old currency worth eight hundred dollars.,
which was to be utilised in a hay, feed and grain
business, which what he always wished to do. He could
not go back to his old business certainly not in
Galesburg, Illinois. The story ends at a mysterious note
where Charlie is wondering that Sam is psychiatrist.