Part of her had no doubt she was in the foreign land of her dream; the other part reacted with disbelief and began desperately looking around for familiar things: the rain, the tarsealed road, dad and mum and the car in the muddy ditch. But there was nothing familiar. Everything was subtly different; even the hot sunlight felt odd – it had a different colour somehow – a deeper gold, she thought. From the feel of the air and the height of the sun overhead she got the impression that it was morning. But she knew that in an alien place like this all appearances could be misleading. The unicorn was nowhere to be seen. She was utterly alone.
The silence rang in her ears, not even a breath of wind to disturb it, and now, despite the strangeness of what had happened to her, the warmth and light began to envelop her in a summery mood of languid contentment. The light seemed lighter somehow; ‘sparkly’ was the word that sprang to mind. She felt the way she always did when she woke up on the first day of the school holidays, or like the time she had gone caving with dad and emerged from cold dark into warm sunlight though it had been raining when they went in. She noticed she was still quite wet from the rain.
‘Happy birthday, Shelley,’ she said to herself, and smiled, bravely. It was scary, of course, but also an awesome adventure, a dream come true. She felt very alive, and free. Wide plains faded into blue in the distance, and there were pretty hills behind her. It reminded her of pictures she had seen of the Mediterranean – perhaps the Greek islands, rugged and bright – and she spun around with her arms outstretched. She was sure she must indeed have arrived by magic into the land of last night’s dream. Nothing seemed impossible now. Her wish to be free of her family had come true, with a vengeance. She didn’t even know any more who her real father was. She knew she should feel distressed, but somehow now all she felt was relief. ‘At last all the lies are over. One day I can find out the truth, who my real father is, and what mum’s big secret is,’ she thought. ‘Now, I wonder, where is that unicorn? And are there any humans in this whole country?’ She glanced again at what she had taken for a patch of forest, out on the plain, and saw that it looked more like brambles or a dried-up blackberry patch, but very tall, almost as tall as trees. And was there any water anywhere on that whole expanse? Sudden doubt came upon her: maybe she was caught in some kind of space-time warp, and soon maybe it would all change again and she would fall back into space, or a black hole. Then the memory of the thorns and the stick creatures returned, with a shock of fear. Why had she forgotten them? They could be lurking anywhere, waiting to catch her. Dreams, after all, can change into nightmares.
Fighting back panic, she felt for her new cellphone, hoping she had pocketed it before getting out of the car. Thank God, it was there. Shakily she dialled her home number. There was no sound of ringing on the other end, just an eerie silence. On the display, she now saw the message:
‘No Service.’
Now she really felt sure she was in another world. The back of her neck prickled. She looked down the slope towards the only sign of any human presence: the road. She went cautiously to the edge of the rock-shelf, looking for a way down.
Chapter Twelve
Two Strangers