41 - 22 - Air Current Drop

Like Alice in Wonderland, I was shooting through blackness. Or down a water park slide. Only beneath me wasn't a stream of H20, but a current of air so strong it kept me buoyant.

Air flew past so fast I could hardly breathe. I scratched the sides for a handhold, but they were smooth.

A twisting turn! Then flatness. Then a thirty-foot drop!

"Oh-wah-oh-wa-weh-se-gunta-go . . ."

<Oh-wah-oh-wa . . .>

What the . . . ?!

Kids. A mix of oral and thought-speak voices. Singing!

It was the first joyful sound I'd heard since waking in my cell.

I saw the end of the tunnel speeding toward me. No way to slow down!

"Yahhh!"

I was flying through night air, through a sky dotted by stars and warmed by the full moon.

Whumph!

An unexpectedly soft landing on a wide, grassy field. Next to me was a tree. But not just your average neighborhood maple or oak. This sucker was huge. A billowing, thriving tree whose branches bowed to touch the ground, then headed back up toward the sky. Like the baobabs of Africa I've seen on the Discovery Channel.