“The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury and “The Commuter” by Philip K. Dick are both interesting stories about alternate realities. In “The Veldt”, the alternate reality is the nursery that George and Lydia had installed for their children. It lets the children really use their imagination and would project it onto the room telepathically. Their current infatuation was Africa but it had some kind of sinister feeling to it. It made George and Lydia feel uneasy and worried that their children could think of something bad.
In “The Commuter” the alternate reality was the city called Macon Heights. A man named Bob Paine is in search of the city after a man, Crichet, tries to buy a train ticket to the city. It doesn’t exist in any book or map. Paine feels like he has heard of it before and is determined to find it. When he does find it, Paine feels as if his own world may be disappearing. He wonders if this alternative world is going to overlap his current existence because he is in the unknown.
Both of these stories are similar in which they both are uncertain about reality. George and Lydia are scared of going into the nursery when it is Africa and seems too real when they see lions running after them. Paine is scared that Macon Heights suddenly exists and he is there in person but when he was in his own home and city, there were no maps with it. All characters question their perception.
The difference between the stories is that in “The Veldt”, the alternate reality was more technology based. George and Lydia had the power to turn it off. In “The Commuter”, the alternate reality was from Paine’s own perception. He questioned his own reality from what he saw and wonders what is real or not.
I would include more information about Macon Heights in the second paragraph but I admire the comparison you made between the nursery and Macon Heights..