Returning Home

1164 Words
With her ticket and passport in hand, she stood at the exit gates. Trembling as they consider the journey ahead. It had been long overdue. To be precise, thirty years. A sudden wave of nausea and dizziness hit Sheena's body and senses, and she felt herself falter. The kind man who was standing behind Sheena, who just happened to be a doctor, saw that she was about to faint and stopped her before she fell into the gloom that surrounded her. Coming to within a few moments. With shame, Sheena felt her face turn bright red. She was surrounded by strangers who were all looking at her with concern. She wished that the floor would collapse and swallow her at this point! As he turned her head toward his own, "Doctor Tom," as his patient affectionately referred to him in the vast Australian outback, gently cupped his hand under her chin. She felt at ease right away and grateful that this kind stranger had recognized that she required her attention to shift elsewhere. He resembled her very own ally in need. The doctor gave the go-ahead for his Sheena to board the waiting aircraft headed for the beautiful Aotearoa, Land of the Long White Cloud (New Zealand), after it was determined that Sheena was fine and that all that was going on was a lack of sleep, an empty stomach, and possibly a little dehydration. Naturally, he had advised Sheena to take a sedative to help calm her nerves, which she did! Sleep came quickly, but at a cost. Sheena soon found herself trapped in a scene that went on forever, standing in front of her grandparents' house. To begin, the sun was out and shining so brightly that she was forced to cover her eyes with her hand. The skies then dramatically transformed into dark, ominous clouds that completely obscured the sun. Sheena tried as hard as she could to move toward the iron gate, which slammed violently open and shut without any wind forcing it to! Her legs felt like they were filled with cement! She thought she knew it was just a dream, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get out of it! She was yelled at to "wake up!" by a voice that seemed to come out of nowhere. She struggled to remember who the voice belonged to despite the fact that it appeared familiar. She once more came face to face with the kind soul who had helped her just hours earlier when she finally opened her eyes. Knowing that her Guardian Angel had once again come to her rescue made her feel less embarrassed and more relieved this time around. She had not heard his voice as she struggled to emerge from her dreamscape. Someone much younger and more feminine had given the voice. When she realized that the voice she had heard calling to her was her own, a light bulb went off inside her head. That’s her fifteen-year-old self! Sheena braved the cold front that greeted her as she made her way to the tarmac of the private charter plane that was waiting for her and a few other passengers on the next leg of the journey to the same destination to exchange numbers with her new friend and forever Guardian Angel. Her hometown is a little town called Napier. She still felt as though nothing could get rid of the chill that was coursing down her spine once she was inside the plane. Sheena took a few slow, deep breaths before grabbing the broken greenstone she was carrying in her pocket. Her grandmother Genie had given it to her when she left New Zealand for Australia all those years ago.as a sign of her love and a reminder that she would have a place to call home if she ever decided to return. Despite the shaky landing, the brief flight had been successful overall. Sheena had even managed to converse with the elderly woman by whom she had been seated. Without a doubt, another Guardian Angel sent to assist. Greta and Sheena were traveling in the same direction, which was luck. Therefore, they agreed to share a taxi. It appeared as though Greta was aware that Sheena required assistance for the following stage of her journey. As they approached the weatherboard house, which looked exactly the same as it did thirty years earlier, Greta tightly held her hand. Even the pale green color of the house's exterior gave the impression that time had stopped. Sheena was happy to see it, but she also felt absolutely terrified when she came face to face with the house where she had grown up and fled many years ago! Hugging Greta a little too long and too tightly, probably. Sheena thanked her for her assistance up until this point. Even though Greta didn't know the whole story, she knew that the young woman she had been drawn to from the moment they first made eye contact had gone through something terrible. In some ways, Sheena reminded her of her own daughter. But more so of herself when she was younger and had been through a difficult situation. You couldn't hide that "look," no matter how hard you tried. As though waiting for her return, the iron gate remained open. As she made her way up the short concrete path to the front door of her beloved grandparents' house, she inhaled the familiar scent of daffodils. A few streets away, her childhood home had once stood. Replaced by a row of uniformed units without personality or warmth. That appeared to be the current trend. Destroying homes with decent backyards. Cramming tiny two-story apartments together to accommodate the ever-increasing human population. They say that demand drives supply. Sheena raised her hand to the elaborate cast iron doorknocker, which had seemed so much larger when she was a child. This caused her to start crying. But before she could rap it, a familiar, if shaky, voice called out "Who's there!" as the door opened just a little. "Ma, it's just Sheena!," came next. Please open the door! For someone who was one hundred and two years old, Grammy looked great! Apart from a few silver streaks that ran along the front and sides of Aunty Tizzy’s lustrous black hair, she had not aged one bit. As quickly as it had begun, the fear that nearly sent Sheena into frenzy subsided. As the three women held hands tightly, it appeared that everything had been forgiven. Naturally, tears fell. However, they were overflowing with joy at having been apart for so long. Prior to her arrival, Sheena had been practicing her words, which now seemed insignificant. In a flash, the agony she had held onto for all those years vanished! She was so light and freed up! She had yearned to be freed from the traumatic events of her past. Amazingly, she had discovered it by going back to her past!
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