The Third Level
by Jack Finney
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A scientific fantasy that intertwines fantasy and reality, the story is narrated by Charley, a thirty-one-year-old New Yorker. Everyone knows the Grand Central Station has only two levels, but Charley insists he once found a third level belonging to the year 1894, with gaslights, old-fashioned dress, brass spittoons and a newspaper (The World) dated June 11, 1894. He longs to escape the insecurity, fear, war and worry of the modern world and buy two tickets to the peaceful town of Galesburg, Illinois, of 1894, for himself and his wife Louisa. But the old-style clerk rejects his modern currency, and Charley leaves. His psychiatrist friend calls the third level a 'waking-dream wish fulfilment', an escape from reality, and points to Charley's stamp collecting as proof. Charley never finds the third level again, until, among his grandfather's first-day covers, he discovers a letter from his friend Sam, who has disappeared and reached Galesburg in 1894, urging Charley and Louisa to keep looking for the third level. Ironically, Sam was Charley's psychiatrist.
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The story blends fantasy and reality to explore the human desire to escape the stress and insecurity of the modern world into a happier, simpler past.
The claim of a third level
Charley claims that the Grand Central Station has a third level, though everyone insists there are only two. One night, hurrying home, he gets lost in a new corridor that leads down to a smaller, older station lit by open-flame gaslights, with people dressed in the fashion of the 1890s, brass spittoons and a small Currier & Ives locomotive.
The year 1894
Charley realises he has stepped into the year 1894 when he sees a newspaper, The World, dated June 11, 1894, a paper that has not been published for years. He wants to buy two tickets to Galesburg, Illinois, of 1894, a peaceful town where he and Louisa could live before the two World Wars.
The rejected currency
The ticket clerk refuses Charley's modern money, warning him against cheating, since the old bills of 1894 look different. Charley flees, and the next day withdraws his savings and buys old-style currency at a premium (which worries his psychiatrist friend), hoping to return, but he can never find the corridor to the third level again.
Sam's letter
Charley's psychiatrist friend explains the third level as a 'waking-dream wish fulfilment', a means of escaping a world full of insecurity, fear and worry, citing Charley's stamp collecting as a 'temporary refuge from reality'. Then Charley's friend Sam disappears. Among his grandfather's old first-day covers, Charley finds a letter dated July 18, 1894, from Sam, saying he has found the third level and reached Galesburg, urging Charley and Louisa to keep looking. Ironically, Sam was Charley's psychiatrist, who had himself escaped into the past.