Tunnels Of Time

7:05 PM Saturday Evening

         Andrea felt cold. She moaned and tried to move her head. It was stuck; she couldn't budge it. It was as if her noggin was being held in a giant vise grip. She raised her hand instead, to try to brush the icy cold feeling from her forehead. Something grasped her forearm and forced it down at her side again. Her fingers grasped short fibers, warm and cushioned: a soft, thick carpet.
Voices filled the air, murmuring and talking softly. Several persistently called her name, as if trying to awaken her from a deep, deep sleep. Andrea tried to answer, but her lips were glued together; her tongue, thick and woolly, had stapled itself to the roof of her mouth.

Her body felt amazingly calm and at rest, as if she floated in a pool of warm relaxing water. Andrea let the feeling wash over her in tiny riplets and tried to sink back into oblivion again, but a tiny thought kept niggling at her brain, refusing to let her body unwind totally. What was it? What was she trying to remember?

A deep male voice spoke loudly above her pounding head, causing her to moan softly. A fuzzy image forced its way inside her paralyzed brain, just beyond the realm of conscious thought. An unfocused picture of two men chasing her in a dark frightening place caused Andrea's prone body to stiffen with alarm. Two men! Running! Danger! She yelled and pushed herself violently upright into a sitting position. She had to get away! The men would hurt her!
Andrea thrashed her arms wildly about her, twisting and turning this way and that to try to free herself. "Let go! Let go! Leave me alone!" she yelled at the top of her voice.
"Andrea! Calm down!" Several people tried to soothe her.
"She's hysterical," another pronounced.
"Andrea!" A soft, quavering voice sounded in her ears. "Grandma." Andrea turned toward the gentle sound and opened her eyes. "She's awake!" Tony exclaimed. He tried to throw himself onto Andrea in a child-like hug of gladness.

Andrea suddenly realized that she was sitting on the thick grey carpet of the restaurant, surrounded by her entire family. She was back in the present! Everyone was talking at once. The sound waves caused her aching head to throb even more. Andrea rubbed her forehead, feeling the beginnings of a huge goose bump. "...knocked yourself out, sweetheart," her father was explaining, "when you ran so hard into the mirror in the tunnel."
"Yeah!" Tony piped up. "I'm surprised you didn't break it! You should have heard the sound - Bang!"
Andrea surveyed her surroundings. She was definitely back to the wonderful, fabulous present! The dark, damp tunnels and cold, wet floors of packed earth and gravel had disappeared. Gone was the round wooden table that had stood in the centre of the large room. Once again Andrea saw the long banquet table, set for dinner, laden with glasses, cutlery, baskets of buns, and flickering candles. She glanced at the ceiling to find fluorescent lights shining down, bright and luminous.

Her wonderful family stood around her. Some knelt on the carpet nearby, anxious looks creasing their features. There was her father, sweetly holding her hand, and her mother, helping Grandmother to keep her calm. There was Tony, trying to look brave and confident, but he kept sneaking little peeks of anxiety her way. And Grandfather, standing back, surveying the whole scene, a tense look on his face. Andrea realized suddenly how much she loved them all, and how very much she had missed them during her absence, even pesky Cousin Richard and Vanessa.

Andrea grabbed Grandmother first and hugged her close. "You're the best, Grandmother!" She kissed her wrinkled cheek. "I missed you!"
"You missed me," Grandma twittered. "But I've been right here all along!"
"And Mom," Andrea wrapped her arms around her mother's shoulders, resting her head against her mother's chest. "I love you, Mom. You're the best mother in the whole world, even though we don't always agree on everything!" Andrea's mother smiled and blinked back tears. "Why, thank you, Andrea." She brushed Andrea's hair back from her forehead and gently kissed her. "That's the nicest thing you've said to me in a long, long time."