Imagine this:

It is July 1954. The weather is hotter than usual…

Who are you?

A Passport official in Tokyo Airport, Japan.

Your job is simple; run people through.

Assuming their passports and visas are up to date, there’s nothing to worry about.

Now, you’re mostly dealing with Japanese travelers returning home from abroad, which makes your job easy enough.

Yes, there’s the occasional European or American, but their clearance is always done on the other end.

Your job is to rubber stamp their entry.

Which has never been a problem…

Until today.

*

A white man comes up to you, and presents his passport.

His demeanor is calm and welcoming; he’s obviously done this many times before.

There’s just one problem:

The country he claims to be from…

Doesn’t exist!

*

To complicate matters, he speaks fluent Japanese.

He presents you with a passport and currency that appears absolutely legitimate, from the country of Taured.

When pressed on this issue, he maintains that this is not his first trip to Japan from Taured; he supplies you with currency from Taured, as well as several other countries…

What do you do?

You pull him aside and ask for more information about Taured.

*

He claims that this is his third trip to Japan from Taured; he is on a business trip from his country… and strangely enough, there are two stamps on his passport that collaborate his story.

“I’ve been doing this for five years. What’s the deal?”

So, you call the company in Japan that he claims to work for.

They have no idea who he is.

He claims to have reservations at a local hotel.

They, too, have no idea who he is.

*

The Man from Taured is getting agitated.

You ask him to show his homeland on a map.

And this is where he loses it:

“The Kingdom of Taured has existed for over a thousand years!”

His finger circle around parts of Andorra, France and Spain.

“I need to talk to Government Officials!”

You agree that he can go into house arrest, at a local airport hotel, until Government Officials can be brought in.

And as a precaution, you set up two immigration officials to guard his room.

*

The man from Taured was given a room with no way out, except through the door, guarded as it was. It was five stories up, with no ledge.

Watched over closely, he was allowed a meal; that and his belongings, his briefcase, and his clothing.

And…

*

When you came to talk to the man from Taured in the morning…

There is no sign of him.

Contained through the night, with an impossible five story fall between him and the ground, there is nothing.

No sign at all that he was even in the room.

Did he make it home?

*

Now, there is no evidence to bolster this tale.

However, it does show that we’ve been culturally anticipating the concept of inadvertent time-space travel for a while.

If the multiverses are real, maybe we can slip through them.

This might be an act of grace for some; it might represent the ultimate horror for others.

If there really was a man from Taured…

I hope he got home safely.

And if he didn’t…

I hope he’s happy, wherever he found himself.

And isn’t that the whole point of finding your way home?

Safe journeys!

(that or see you in Japan!)

*

So, are there any sources for this tale.

None that are contemporary.

The first reference is from Colin Wilson’s (editor) The Directory of Possibilities, first published in 1981. It’s summarized as a single throwaway line by author Paul Begg.

The Man from Taured doesn’t make a full-fledged appearance until 1999 in Tom Sleman’s book Strange but True: Mysterious and Bizarre People.

So, take it for what it is, and what it isn’t…

Either way, if there was such a man, I hope he made it home, even if it’s just in fiction…