For now, time seemed compressed. She was alone in the tunnel, being pulled down like water down a drain. She tried to look between her feet to see where she was going, and saw something like a deep well beneath her.
At the bottom of the well was a circle of light, like the view backwards through a telescope. And in the circle, very tiny, was a girl's body lying on the snow.
My body, Gillian thought-and then, before she had time to feel any emotion, the bottom of the well was rushing up toward her. The tiny body was bigger and bigger. She felt a tugging pressure. She was being sucked into it-too fast.
Way too fast. She had no control. She fit perfectly in the body, like a hand slipping into a mitten, but the jolt knocked her out.
Oooh... something hurts.
Gillian opened her eyes-or tried to. It was as hard as doing a chin-up. On the second or third attempt she managed to get them open a crack. Whiteness everywhere. Dazzling. Blinding. Where... ? Is it snow? What am I doing lying down in the snow? Images came to her. The creek. Icy water. Climbing out. Falling. Being so cold...
After that... she couldn't remember. But now she knew what hurt. Everything. I can't move.
Her muscles were clenched tight as steel. But she knew she couldn't stay here. If she did, she'd...
Memory burst through her. I died already.
Strangely, the realization gave her strength. She actually managed to sit up. As she did, she heard a cracking sound. Her clothes were glazed with solid ice.
Somehow she got to her feet. She shouldn't have been able to do it. Her body had been cold enough to shut down earlier, and since then she'd been lying in the snow. By all the laws of nature, she should be frozen now.
But she was standing. She could even shuffle a step forward.
Only to realize she had no idea which way to go.
She still didn't know where the road was.
Worse, it would be getting dark soon. When that happened, she wouldn't even be able to see her own tracks. She could walk in circles in the woods until her body gave out again.
"See that white oak tree? Go around it to the right."
The voice was behind her left ear. Gillian turned that way as sharply as her rigid muscles would allow, even though she knew she wouldn't see anything.
She recognized the voice. But it was so much warmer and gentler now.
"You came back with me."
"Sure." Once again the voice was filled with that impossible warmth, that perfect love. "You don't think
I'd just leave you to wander around until you froze again, do you? Now head for that tree, kid."
After that came a long time of stumbling and staggering, over branches, around trees, on and on. It seemed to last forever, but always there was the voice in Gillian's ear, guiding her, encouraging her. It kept her moving when she thought she couldn't possibly go another step.
And then, at last, the voice said, "Just up this ridge and you'll find the road."
In a dreamlike state, Gillian climbed the ridge.
And there it was. The road. In the last light before darkness, Gillian could see it meandering down a hill.
But it was still almost a mile to her house, and she couldn't go any farther.
"You don't have to," the voice said gently. "Look up the road."
Gillian saw headlights.
"Now just get in the middle of the road and wave."
Gillian stumbled out and waved like a mechanical doll. The headlights were coming, blinding her. Then she realized that they were slowing.
"We did it," she gasped, dimly aware that she was speaking out loud. "They're stopping!"
"Of course they're stopping. You did a great job. You'll be all right now."
There was no mistaking the note of finality.
The car was stopped now. The driver's side door was opening. Gillian could see a dark figure beyond the glare of the headlights. But in that instant what she felt was distress.
"Wait, don't leave me. I don't even know who you are-"
For a brief moment, she was once again enfolded by love and understanding.
"Just call me Angel."
Then the voice was gone, and all Gillian could feel was anguish.
"What are you doing out-Hey, are you okay?" The new voice broke through Gillian's emptiness. She had been standing rigidly in the headlights; now she blinked and tried to focus on the figure coming toward her.
"God, of course you're not okay. Look at you. You're Gillian, aren't you? You live on my street."
It was David Blackburn.
The knowledge surged through her like a shock, and it drove all the strange hallucinations she'd been having out of her mind.
It really was David, as close as he'd ever been to her.
Dark hair. A lean face that still had traces of a summer tan. Cheekbones to die for and eyes to drown in.
A certain elegance of carriage. And that half-friendly, half-quizzical smile...
Except that he wasn't smiling now. He looked shocked and worried.
Gillian couldn't get a single word out. She just stared at him from under the icy curtain of her hair.
"What hap-No, never mind. We've got to get you warm."
At school he was thought of as a tough guy, an independent rebel. But, now, without any hesitation, the tough guy scooped her up in his arms.
Confusion flashed through Gillian, then embarrassment-but underneath it all was something much stronger. An odd bedrock sense of safety. David was warm and solid and she knew instinctively that she could trust him. She could stop fighting now and relax.
"Put this on ... watch your head... here, use this for your hair." David was somehow getting everything done at once without hurrying. Capable and kind. Gillian found herself inside the car, wrapped in his sheepskin jacket, with an old towel around her shoulders. Heat blasted from the vents as David gunned the engine.
It was wonderful to be able to rest without being afraid it would kill her. Bliss not to be surrounded by cold, even if the hot air didn't seem to warm her. The worn beige interior of the Mustang seemed like paradise.
And David-well, no, he didn't look like an angel. More like a knight, especially the kind who went out in disguise and rescued people.
Gillian was beginning to feel very fuzzy.
"I thought I'd take a dip," she said, between chattering teeth. She was shivering again.
"What?"
"You asked what happened. I was a little hot, so I jumped in the creek."