A wayward ray of weak summer sunshine broke through the pink striped curtains in Phoebe Wren’s bedroom and sparkled over the sleeping girl’s forehead. Phoebe slowly opened her eyes, blinked several times, then rubbed her eyes and sat up. What? Where was she? She looked around the room, still sleepy and very confused. Memories of Cosain and the angelic warriors wrangling with the evil hordes of hell began to creep into her head, and she furrowed her brow as she recalled Araco Airlines flight 454 tumbling and diving out of the sky. So, how had this happened? Was she dreaming? Was she dead? Or had the angels and demons and aeroplane crashes all been one big bad dream? Phoebe gradually became aware of the sound of several voices happily chattering not too far from her room, and it slowly began to dawn on her that she was… No! How could it be? She was home.
Phoebe sprang clumsily out of bed in a flurry of disbelief and adrenaline, and slid her feet into the fluffy slippers, which were neatly placed at the end of her bed. She bundled on a robe then pulled the bedroom door open and hesitated, barely daring to breathe as she strained her ears in an effort to distinguish the muffled voices which were teasing her from downstairs. She was unsure even what day it was, and was afraid to believe what she desperately hoped for. She was sure she could hear her parents’ voices and – no, wait… Yes, that was definitely Demetrius! Phoebe bolted downstairs, hopping down the steps two at a time, and burst through the kitchen door like an excitable kid at Christmas. There, right before her eyes, were Jack and Eva, Demetrius, Uncle John and Aunty Kate, and her little cousins Abi, Jamie and Caitlin, who Phoebe had only ever spoken to via Skype.
“Phoebe!”
The children squealed with delighted and bounced towards Phoebe, grabbing hold of her and almost knocking her off her feet. She laughed out loud at their vivaciousness and scooped them up en masse, her arms stretched out wide to include them all.
“Kids, one at a time!” Aunty Kate chided her excitable brood as she attempted to prise them off Phoebe so she could give her niece a massive cuddle too. “Phoebe,” she smiled. “It’s so great to see you! Oh my, how you’ve grown! Sorry – I keep forgetting you’re not a kid anymore!”
Phoebe’s Uncle John got up and kissed her cheek. “Welcome home kiddo,” he smiled as he ruffled her hair.
Phoebe was too stunned and overwhelmed to speak, and was glad of the hustle and bustle of the reunion which afforded her the time to gather her thoughts. She looked across at Demetrius, who winked at her and gave her the, ‘I’ll explain later’ look, then briefly placed his forefinger across his lips and shook his head in a ‘don’t put your foot in it’ warning. There were a million questions shooting around in Phoebe’s mind, bouncing off her brain, but for now she was content to know that she did not have the answers but apparently Demetrius could bring her up to speed later. Demetrius looked happy and entirely at home, and Phoebe was glad that it had not taken him long to settle in. She could not even begin to imagine what could possibly have happened in the interim since she and Demetrius had exited the flailing aeroplane. For now, all she knew for sure was that she was back home in Ireland, surrounded by the people she loved most – and whatever else may have happened, for now that was more than enough.
Despite the numerous unknowns and the loose ends, Phoebe finally seemed content to accept that this was all real; she was back in her own home in Ireland with her family, and she smiled and relaxed into the moment. She had to remind herself to ‘act normal’ and almost robotically said ‘good morning’ to her parents, giving them both a quick hug – she did not take this simple exchange for granted and offered up a silent prayer of thanks. She walked across the open plan living room to the kitchen, where Aunty Kate was boiling the kettle to make tea and pushing bread down into the toaster.
“You hungry, Love?” she asked, still smiling at the niece she hadn’t seen in ten years.
“Yes Aunty Kate, it’s been a long journey,” smiled Phoebe – if only Aunty Kate knew the half of it!
“It sure has,” replied Kate. “And I can’t wait to hear all about it – every minute from the last ten years!” She laughed and added, “We may need more tea!”
“Yeah,” Phoebe agreed politely. “Oh, and happy birthday Aunty Kate!” she added, somehow recalling the occasion in the midst of the madness.
“Thanks Phoebe – it’s an extra special one this year!” Kate smiled as she handed Phoebe a plate and the bewildered teenager made her way back to the breakfast table.
Phoebe poked at her breakfast in something of a daze. She was barely aware of what she was even eating, but knew simply that she would have to go through the motions in order to make everything appear normal. The adults had a lot of catching up to do, and chatted non-stop over their apparently endless cups of tea. After a short while, Phoebe finished her toast and excused herself and Demetrius from the table, explaining that she wanted to show Dem around the house and grounds, and reacquaint herself with the area in which she had spent the first five years of her life.
“Wow,” laughed Demetrius when the teenagers were out of earshot. “Your family can talk!”
“I know,” agreed Phoebe, smiling and shaking her head. “Let’s walk? I’ll just get changed then we can get out for a while. Wait for me here, I won’t be a minute.”
Phoebe scurried upstairs, and pulled on jeans and a jumper before rushing back downstairs to meet Demetrius without even attempting to introduce a brush to her bed-head hair, which she had roughly pulled back in a messy bun.
Phoebe and Demetrius pulled on their jackets, opened the two storey house’s quirky purple front door and stepped out into the lilting light of the bright July morning. They walked for a while in comfortable silence, with Demetrius drinking in the beauty of the rolling Irish countryside and Phoebe barely noticing it, lost entirely in her own thoughts. After a short distance, the teenagers stopped next to a gently gurgling stream and Phoebe sat down with a huge sigh on a fallen tree. Demetrius sat next to her.
“I can hardly comprehend it all either, Bird,” he said gently, reading her thoughts. “But one thing I do know – it was the right decision for me to come here with you and your folks.”
“Dem, how did this happen? I mean, all of it? Any of it? One minute we were on a plane and stepping into the vortex, and I was sure that my parents and the other passengers were doomed; the next minute, I wake up in my own bed in Ireland, with my family and you downstairs, all healthy and well! My head hurts from all the figuring out I’ve been doing!”
Demetrius chuckled at how perplexed his friend looked. “I can’t give you all the answers right now Phoebs, but what I do know is that your parents have no recollection of our flight getting into any trouble, and so I can only assume that neither do any of the other passengers who were on the plane. There was no mention of frantic cabin crew or frightened passengers – not even a little turbulence! When I came downstairs this morning I felt as confused as you looked when you arrived in the kitchen, but I kept quiet and listened and was able to piece things together from the conversation around the breakfast table. Turns out, as far as your folks are concerned, you and I slept through the second half of the flight, which was plain sailing all the way – they even said the landing in Dublin airport was ‘textbook’!”
Phoebe chuckled; a ‘textbook’ landing – that was exactly like something her father would say!
Demetrius paused before going on. “There’s something else Bird. I saw Cosain this morning, very early, before anyone else was awake.”
“What?” Phoebe sat bolt upright, eyes wide. “Where, Dem? Was he alone? Were the others with him?”
“He was at your parents’ house,” Demetrius replied in a matter-of-fact manner. “He was alone, but said he would be back Bird, and that we have a lot to do, this is just the beginning. But for the time being, he was just checking in on us. He explained that once the portal opened up on the plane and we stepped into it, the entire time space, um, continuum thing was altered and everybody on the plane was brought through.”
“So you mean…” Phoebe was still struggling to get her head around the implications of what she was hearing.
“Yep,” smiled Demetrius. “All those folks we were travelling with are, right now, wherever it is that they were travelling to yesterday. Phoebe, we all got vortexed out of the plane and on to where we should all have ended up – the plane never crashed. But as far as any other passengers are concerned, the flight took off and landed according to plan.”
“Whoa…” Phoebe tried but just couldn’t muster up a more considered response, and instead sat next to Demetrius rubbing her temples and breathing deeply through her nose. “Dem, what on earth must we be in for? What sort of a job has Cosain in mind for us?”
“I’m not sure, Bird,” smiled Demetrius. “But I reckon it won’t be too long before we find out.” And he nodded in the direction of a small copse of trees, which was shining with a now familiar golden ethereal glow.
‘Déjà vu,’ thought Phoebe. ‘Again…’