Breakthrough

  Chapter 8. Times Change

  Tessa arrived at the elevator and marched inside. She closed the door then firmly pressed the fourth button on the panel. The familiar lurching made her feel most peculiar as she felt her hot dog churning around inside her. She opened the door to find herself in the now familiar corridor. She tried not to look at the mirror blocking one side of the passage and set off confidently for the red door. The silence was oppressive. Tessa tried to ignore the sensation of invisible eyes watching her and invisible hands reaching out to claw at her back. She ran down to the door and grasped the golden handle in relief.

  Stepping through the doorway she found herself in a clearing in a forest. Around her tall trees rustled their leaves in a gentle breeze while the ground at her feet was covered in a sweet smelling herb Tessa recognized as thyme. Birds sang from the trees and a small brown rabbit turned to look at her curiously before hopping off into the forest. The air was clean and fresh, and bunches of snowdrops waved their heads beneath the trees.

  In the middle of the clearing was an old moss encrusted stone sundial.

  ‘What a dumb place for a sundial,’ thought Tessa scornfully. ‘You’d hardly get any sun in here. Although I suppose, to be fair, the trees might have been small when they put it here.’

  A stray beam of sunlight slanted through the trees and lit up the sundial. Three stone cherubs entwined decorated the wide stone base. One cherub on each side held out a hand containing a golden ball. Tessa stepped across the thyme carpet to the sundial. Instead of the usual Roman numerals arranged in a clock face there were carved pictures in the stone. Birds, trees and clouds made a pattern around the edge and in the centre was a message. Tessa paused to read the message carved on the top;

  Times Change and We Change With Them.

  Tessa bent down and grasped one of the golden balls. It came up in her hands easily and she was surprised at how light it was. ‘I’ll show Ben,’ she thought triumphantly, ‘I’ll take it back and turn everything the right way again.’ As she turned to walk back to the doorway she heard the tinkling of bells. ‘Those weird bells again,’ she said crossly. ‘Well I don’t care. I’m not chasing them this time.’ She looked around her but all she could see was a circle of trees. Their branches looked like clawing hands reaching out towards her. Their leaves made an increasingly loud and sinister rustling noise even though the wind had died away.

  ‘The door must be here somewhere. Which way did I come in?’ she wondered and confidently stepped out in what she thought was the right direction. The trees appeared to close around her, threatening her with their twisted limbs. As she took a step forward she tripped on a tree root which was pushing through the thyme. Tessa gave a yell of despair as the ball dropped from her hands to fall with a ‘whoomp’ at her feet.

  The ball broke apart and a pale green mist spread out on the ground. The mist enfolded Tessa’s feet, and then her legs, and rose slowly up around her body. In a panic Tessa tried to run away but her feet wouldn’t move. She stood fixed to the spot watching in horror the green mist rising around her. He legs hardened and thickened and a brown bark like substance grew and spread over them. She flung out her arms as the mist spread, and whimpered as her arms became branches and her hands turned to twigs. The mist rose over her head as she tossed it back and forth in desperation but in vain. There beside the sundial stood a young tree with branches drooping mournfully.

  For Tessa time seemed to stand still. A small part of her knew she was still Tessa but there was a vague dreamy feeling as if her life as a girl had been a daydream and the tree existence was real. She felt earthworms burrowing around what used to be her toes as she pushed her roots down into the cool rich earth beneath her. She felt a warm beam of sunlight glint on her hair and rustle it around. She moved her arms slowly to and fro as a soft wind teased her branches. She felt tiny birds land on her branches and knew that somewhere, on what used to be her shoulder, there was a nest of baby birds that she was holding close and safe. She felt sap flow slowly around her body leaving a warm golden glow as it passed. She felt the pulse of the earth beating beneath her as a feeling of peace came over her.

  Dreamily she watched the other trees around her. Dimly she saw their branches waving in a slow graceful dance that set leaves fluttering in a pattern across the sky. Tessa joined in with the rhythm of the other trees and fell into a waking sleep. This was all she wanted to do for the rest of her life. Time no longer held any meaning for her, and Ben and Molly and their troubles were forgotten.

  Meanwhile, Ben was becoming tired of the park. He had pushed Molly on the swings until he felt his arms would drop off. Together they went up and down the slide, climbing carefully to the top then sliding down with shrieks of joy. As the delights of these new experiences palled, Ben plonked Molly into the sandpit where he showed her how to build up and knock down sandcastles. It was the sort of fun he hadn’t had since at least a year ago when he was young. He then spent a happy ten minutes trying to persuade Jamie to climb into an old soft drink can. He used a stick to push Jamie along, but Jamie clung to the stick and refused to co-operate. Ben resorted to cunning and built a wall of sticks around Jamie then blew gently behind him to encourage him. Jamie clung to the ground and howled. After a while this game lost its appeal, so putting Jamie rather guiltily into the pencil case he held Molly on the seesaw and rocked it up and down for her.

  The puppy was blissfully happy retrieving sticks and digging holes in the sandpit. It unearthed a broken sandal and a plastic phone card and joyfully took the sandal away under a bush to chew. Ben picked up the card, which was still good, and decided he had better ring his mother so she wouldn’t worry about him. Loading Molly and the puppy into the pram he pushed it over to a nearby phone booth.

  His mother’s relieved voice answered. ‘Ben, why on earth are you staying at Tessa’s place? I didn’t think you even liked her much.’

  Inspiration struck Ben.

  ‘We’re doing a project for Social Studies,’ he said, ‘on old buildings and stuff. Tessa’s my partner so we thought we’d spend the weekend working on it together.’

  ‘Well as long as her parents don’t mind,’ said his mother. ‘I’d better talk to them and thank them.’

  ‘No you can’t, they’ve gone out. To a sale to buy furniture,’ he improvised desperately.

  ‘You mean they’ve left you and Tessa on your own?’ His mother was shocked. ‘What about the Antique shop? I thought that Saturday was one of their busiest days.’

  ‘They’ve closed it for the day,’ said Ben closing his eyes and wondering if God would strike him dead for the lies he seemed to be telling.

  ‘Well I don’t think that’s very responsible,’ said his mother in disapproval. ‘But I’m glad you rang, Ben. Your father and I have to go out unexpectedly and we won’t be back until tea time. Is it all right if you stay with Tessa until then?’

  ‘Yes, that’s fine,’ said Ben in relief. Surely by teatime they would have somehow found an answer to their problems.

  ‘What’s that noise? Can I hear a baby?’ inquired his mother as Molly shrieked at the puppy which had abandoned the pram for the far more exciting game of hunting and killing the leather sandal.

  ‘No. It’s nothing, I mean the television. I have to go now.’ Ben slammed the phone down. Leaping forward he rescued Molly who was about to topple from the pram. He thrust the pencil case in his pocket then scooped up the protesting puppy and set off grimly for the elevator.

  ‘I’m not waiting for Tessa a moment longer,’ he muttered to himself. ‘I’ll bet that something else has gone wrong now.’