Reflection

Chapter 3: The Tunnel of Mystery, As I Call it, Leads to Nowhere

Later, I stared in astonishment at the black limousine parked in front of our house. "My brother will drive us," Ocean said. "Reef, meet Kamala, Andy, and Anna."

"How do you do, ladies and gentleman?" Reef asked politely. "Hop in. I'll take you where you need to go. If you're hungry, there's food in the back." Andy asked, "Mama? Dada?" 

"Are you going to help us find Mommy and Daddy?" Anna said. "Yes, we will." Reef replied. (P.S. Where did he get his licence? I wanted to ask, but the burrito was too much.)

We climbed in and stared at the huge back passenger seats in the car. My mouth watered at the sight and smell of a bacon, potato, egg, and sour cream burrito. "Anna told me you love breakfast burritos. So I made you one." Ocean said to me.

As we were driving,  I wolfed down the awesome burrito, drank three glasses of milk, and had another burrito. "So," I said with a mouth full of food, "where are we going?"

"We're going to my home." Ocean said in response to my question. "OK. Where is your home?"

"You'll see." Again with the 'you'll see'. Why does she do that? What's so secret?

It felt like hours before we stopped at a tunnel. "This is our stop." Reef said, looking into the tunnel.

Anna, Andy and I followed Reef and Ocean into the tunnel. At a dead end, we stopped. "How is this your home?" I asked. Ocean paused before answering. "It's not. But we're almost there. By the way, how well do your brother and sister listen to you?"

"Very well. Why?" I answered suspiciously. "You'll s..."

"STOP WITH THE YOU'LL SEE'S!" I yelled. "What is so secret that every time I ask a question, you say, 'you'll see', 'you'll see', 'you'll see'?! It's getting very annoying!"

"Oh. Okay." Ocean said quietly. She reached for her pocket and pulled out three vials of liquid: one big, one mid-sized, and one small. The big one had hot pink liquid, the mid-sized one carried aquamarine liquid, and the small one had green liquid. Coincidence much?

"You, Andy, and Anna have to drink this if you want to survive where I live." Ocean said, handing me the vials. I took them, giving the medium one to Anna and the small one to Andy.  "Andy, Anna, I want you to drink these, okay?" I said.

"Okay!" they replied enthusiastically. "On three," I said, "one, two, three!" We popped off the corks and drank the liquid. Mine tasted like buttery and salty popcorn, fresh from the microwave. Anna shouted, "Chocolate!" Andy said, "Brawberry!" (That means strawberry.)

I didn't feel anything different, just a strange tingling in my legs and back. I, for some reason, reached up and  felt my hair. It felt smoother, more bouncy. Ocean breaks the silence. "I'm going to play some music. When I'm done, you'll hear an echo. After the echo, hold your breath, okay?"

"You hear that, guys? After the echo, hold your breath, okay?" I repeated. "Yes, ma'am!" came the reply. Only Andy's sounded like, "Yeth, mama!" Ocean started to play from a flute. Where the flute came from, I can only guess. The music was short and sweet, like the beginning of a movie. Before I knew it, the echo was bouncing off the walls like a bouncy ball. Dun... dun, dun... dun, dun dun, dun. I drew in a deep breath and held Andy and Anna's hands. It was obvious their cheeks were puffed out like mine. In front of us, a light appeared, swirling and swirling, enclosing us in a singing, multi-colored light. 

We all started to lift off the ground as a few diamond shaped carpets floated towards us. The force holding us up set us down on the carpets, Andy, Anna, and I on one, Ocean and Reef on the other. We sped straight for the center of the light. And we were off. As we went, I thought, We'll find Mom and Dad. I know it.