Where’s Sunny?

Sunny was suddenly lost. One moment she was walking down the forest path, daydreaming, and the next she was in some dark cool place, confused. She reached out, her fingertips touching damp rock. Had she somehow fallen into a pit? Was she alive? She certainly felt alive. She could feel, smell, even hear something, she just couldn’t tell what. It was a sort of low hum, maybe machine, maybe insect? Sunny sniffed, it was only a damp smell. She was sitting, she didn’t remember falling. What happened? She called out, “Help, help, HELP! Can anyone hear me?” Trying to stand up, she felt a little dizzy, but no pain anywhere.

The floor sloped down into the darkness. Taking a couple of steps backward she immediately hit a dirt wall. Looking up, there was a faint dot of light way up there. And next to her feet was a tiny patch of light from it. Clearly she was not climbing up there. How could she have fallen so far without knowing it? Standing here wondering was no help. Cautiously, she began to walk the down path . . . only a vague sensation of the path. Not really vision, but Sunny could tell it was there at least. After 10 to15 steps she again realized she was hearing a hum. Perhaps it was leading her to something. Step by step her confidence grew, the hum grew louder, and maybe the light was not real, but she did think she was seeing something. And smelling something. It wasn’t a machine smell, something organic.

Walking, walking, left hand trailing along damp stone, nothing scary under foot. She was descending slowly and rounding a gentle corner to her right. As she completed the corner, she knew for sure she was seeing light, and then she could tell that the walls and floor were not a natural cave. She was in a carved-out tunnel in solid rock, and she was beginning to feel carvings in the wall to her left as well. The floor began to drop off more steeply. She decided she must be many meters underground, yet the air was fresh, sweet, moist, fragrant.

There was definitely stronger light, the wall decorations were becoming visible. She recognized what looked like hieroglyphics, like an Egyptian tomb or something. No expert, but well read, she was pretty sure it was Egyptian. Well, excuse me, but this is forest service land USA, about as far as possible from Egypt. How could such a thing exist? This must be a dream.

I bet I missed waking up, she thought, and just dreamed I started my Saturday hike. I bet I’m really in bed right now. This gave her even more confidence that this was lucid dreaming. She’d always wanted to experience that. Walking along the carved hallway and drifting off into that comforting thought, she began to anticipate where her dream was going to lead . . . when she abruptly came to a door, bringing her to a stop and almost smacked her nose in her inertia. It felt solid and heavy.

As she leaned her weight against it, it began to move, swinging eerily smooth and easy. An even sweeter-smelling cool draft blew out on her face. She moved forward to peek into the new space. There was light and motion. People . . . or were they people? They were busy at work doing something, not sure what. Should she go forward? No one was looking her way. They seemed to be doing something strange with water. One of them turned and she gave a gasp. The person looked normal from the back, but as whatever it was turned to the side she could see it had the pointy muzzled head of a dog. He was holding a rod, and blue electricity arced out of it braided with a stream of water moving in a vibrating rope-like form. She’d never seen water behave like that.

She reached for her phone. I have to make a video of this, dream or no. But, of course her back pocket was empty, torn at the bottom when she fell. The border between that reality and this dream was getting pretty difficult to hold up. I think this is real. Now what? Have I fallen through time or something? Just then, someone noticed her and started towards her. At least it was a normal person. A tall woman with tan skin, braided hair and a welcoming smile on her handsome face.

“So, we have a visitor,” she said, chuckling. “You must be pretty surprised to see our little factory here. Well, we do see your kind from time to time. No worries, you are not unwelcome.”

“I’m Iris, and you are?”

“Uh, Sunny” she tried to say. But all she managed was a squeak.

Iris laughed. Sunny coughed, finally choking out, “Sunny, my name is Sunny. Where am I?”

Iris reached out her left hand taking Sunny’s right, leading her farther into the open space. “Perhaps you’d better sit over here and have a sip of water.”

Barely able to lift her feet, Sunny complied. The water was offered in a metal goblet and tasted wonderful, like no water she’d ever had before. Her head spun and she thought maybe she was going to faint. “What is this place? Why are you here? Who are you?”

“Well, we are the immortals of the underworld, I guess you’d say. Haven’t you heard of us?” She laughed at her own joke, a lovely musical bell of a laugh. Sunny forgot to breathe.

“No. This is a dream, you are not real,” her voice weak and shaky. “Are you?”

“Oh yes, more real than you ephemerals, I’d say. We go on about our work while you mess up yours. Time takes all of you though. You are making  a real mess of things in your area. But it will all pass and we’ll still be here after your folly is lost to the sand of time.”

“Uh, that seems kind of harsh.”

“Nature is harsh. One always hopes the next round of humanity will work out better. So far, not so good. You know, this is the fifth epic for your race and you don’t appear to be doing any better than your distant ancestors. Maybe in another half a million years or so . . . I’m guessing this round of you is about to fade, but there is always more where you came from.

“So, little Sunny, are you wanting to stay here and learn some more? Or do you prefer to return to your hike and forget all about us?”

“Um, I think I’d like to wake up now, I feel sick”

“OK, here you go.”

Sunny felt a little bit disoriented on the trail. It was like she’d somehow forgotten which hiking trail this was. She walked on and on, sort of lost, but still on a well-made trail. Eventually she arrived at a parking lot, but there was no sign of her car. She saw a forest service cabin and entered. A woman at a desk looked up, surprised. Sunny asked where she was and sat down abruptly.

“Oh, are you lost?” the gray haired lady inquired. “What’s your name, honey? Where did you hike from?”

When Sunny answered, the old lady got excited, picked up her phone and made a quick call. “She just appeared here, No, she looks just fine. Are you hurt? Do you need anything?”

Sunny was very confused. “You recognize my name?”

“Oh yes, we’ve had a major search out for you. Some hikers heard you calling for help but couldn’t see you. What happened to you?”

“Uh, I don’t exactly know.”

“Well, you have been missing for eleven days. The search was called off four days ago. Your car was parked on the other side of the park. You must be exhausted. You look all right. Are you hungry?”