Across All Time

Suddenly her desk seemed to dissolve into nothingness and she was the same dirt road she had seen a couple of days ago. It was like a dream. She was standing at the edge of the road and she could hear an antique car approaching. There was a man driving it, dressed in the attire of the early nineteen hundreds. A man that appeared to be about her own age. She wondered why she was having this same dream again. What was her mind trying to tell her? Suddenly she felt as though she was falling. She grabbed her desk to keep from going down. She felt her fingers sliding across the mat that covered her desk. She grabbed for the edge of the desk, just for something to hold on to, yet her fingers felt as though they were greased. No matter what she tried to grasp with either hand her fingers seemed to just slide over it, unable to hold on. She truly felt as though she was falling as though through a trap door into,...into what? “Noooo!” she heard herself call out. Then she felt the wind knocked out of her as she hit something hard. She blinked her eyes, then reached out to touch something to steady herself. She still had her eyes closed. She opened her eyes and saw she was sitting on the ground. The ground! How could she be sitting on the ground? She was in an office building on the tenth floor. This couldn’t be happening. She must be dreaming. Yes, that was it She had closed her eyes and fallen asleep. All she had to do was wake herself up and she would be back at her desk. This was preposterous. This couldn’t be happening. This was the twenty first century. All the time she could still hear the old antique car getting even closer. She looked around. It appeared she was out in the middle of no where. She couldn’t see any buildings of any kind. Just trees and a dried up riverbed beyond the road. The road itself wasn’t even paved. This just didn’t make any sense. She leaned forward and pressed both hands into her temples. Her head was aching and she felt lightheaded, as though she had been drinking. Only she hadn’t. She closed her eyes and held her head in her hands. She could hear the car getting close now but the sunlight was so bright it made her head hurt even worse each time she tried to open her eyes. What was happening? Suddenly the automobile was upon her. She tried to remember if she was on the road or beside it. Well, she decided, if the fool saw her on the road he should have enough sense to at least not run her down. She just couldn’t open her eyes yet. The pain was too great. She could hear the engine running close by. It sounded as though it was no longer moving. Then she felt someone touch her. “Miss, are you all right,” came the deep voice. “Miss! Miss!” All she could do was hold her head. It hurt to even think about speaking, so she didn’t. “Miss, how did you get clear out here all by yourself? What happened? Did you fall off of a buggy, or out of a car? Miss? Can you talk? Miss, how can I help you?” Even just listening to the sound of his voice made her head hurt. She reached up to let him know she needed his help. She felt a strong hand take hold of hers. Then she saw what little light that was getting into her vision fade into blackness. And the pain dropped away.