Trisha lay in a coma on life support, her parents crying near her hospital bed. Time was running out and the decision to discontinue the life support was being discussed. But unknown to her family and doctors she wasn't dead, but trapped inside, ins...
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The full moon cast its sparkling silver coating over the stream as it gurgled and twisted its way down the canyon and into a large culvert running beneath the county road the local teenagers called Stock Drive. Stock Drive was where the kids loved to take their cars and see just how fast they could go on the long five mile straight stretch until it entered Juniper Canyon. As a bonus, it also impressed the girls, or so Steven thought. However, Trisha was having none of this macho, testosterone nonsense.
"I said pull over and let me out now!" Trisha screamed for the third time, holding the "Oh Shit Handle" and side of her seat in a death grip.
Steven glanced at her and gave her a sheepish grin. "Come on, Trish! Just another quarter mile and I'll beat Jared's time." But all Steven got back in reply was a scream as Trisha pointed ahead. Steven quickly turned his gaze back to the road and in a split second saw the deer coming up from the creek which marked the finish line. Instinctively Steven pulled on the wheel and the car swerved to the left at 80 mph.
Trisha heard the screech of the tires and then felt gravity pulling the car over and over. Glass shattered, parts of the car crushed in and twisted as it rolled, and then she felt herself flying out of the car window and through the air. Her eyes were closed tight as she awaited the impact. Seconds ticked by then turned into what seemed minutes and still she didn't hit the ground. Her heart roared and felt like it would burst from her chest. Finally she dared to open her eyes. Then they went wide.
Cringing in fear, every muscle in her body ridged and tight in anticipation, she suddenly jerked back in surprise. She wasn't flying in the air awaiting to hit the ground, but was standing motionless upon it. Confused, she quickly checked herself for broken limbs, bleeding wounds, and life-threatening injuries. To her astonishment, there were none. She had miraculously been unharmed, but how? Then to add more confusion it was no longer night but late in the morning. But it had been midnight when Steven had had his turn on Stock Drive. "What's going on?" she whispered.
Looking around, she noticed she wasn't standing in the dry high desert juniper forest of Juniper Canyon. The trees were lodgepole, not juniper, and had some taller pine and fur tree's scattered among them. Chipmunks scurried up and down many, and crows were cawing back and forth, echoing through the forest. The forest floor wasn't sage brush but buck brush and she could see a doe and two fawns nearby eating berries from some bushes. And where was the road? She turned all the way around and found no road. In fact there wasn't even a canyon or a creek, but just a flat forest going on in all directions.
A cool breeze blew through the trees, like an avalanche you could hear coming long before it hit you. Her long brown hair soon blew in the breeze and flowed over her left shoulder. There was a bit of a nip in the air that felt more like fall than the middle of summer. She shivered in her 80s style stone washed cut jean shorts and a small pink tank top that hugged her breasts and hung down to just above her navel.
Shivering and hugging her arms around herself, she walked straight ahead as every direction looked the same. Slowly walking through the under growth she kept a leery eye scanning all around her. She walked for over an hour the best she could guess and still the forest kept going, never breaking. "God, I wish I had my jacket." she whispered through chattering teeth. Then suddenly she felt warmth. Gasping, she looked in bewilderment at her arms. She couldn't believe her own eyes. She was starring down at her blue fuzzy teddy coat and was also now wearing her lilac dress that flowed to her ankles. The exact outfit she last remembered wearing with her jacket.
