Portal

David was not happy, he hardly ever was. He had agreed only very reluctantly to this  trek up into the Mountains, but now it was raining quite hard. I had hoped to introduce him to the warm sunny uplands where the only sound was the buzzing of busy insects and the breeze ruffling the long grass beside the path. The other thing that had upset him was that I had insisted he wore shorts and now he was feeling cold. It is much easier to get knees dry than trousers, I said, but his reply  was lost in the strenghening wind.

As the rain became torrential we took shelter in a sort of shallow cave where the rock above overhung the ground. David got out his tobacco and managed to light up. I hoped this would make him more cheerful, but as we looked out on the ever darkening  clouds, that did not seem very likely. On a finer day we could have seen down across the plane to the sea, but today there was only the overarching grey sky. And then, as if holes had suddely been punctured in it, streams of sunlight hit the ground in perhaps five or six places in the valley with narrow bright beams reaching from the clouds. One of them picked out a large boulder  further up our path. Look at that I said, looking from the boulder, up the beam, to the source in the clouds, a seat fit for an angel. Yeah yeah was the indulgent reply. He was used to my flights of fancy. But as I continued looking I was conscious that David too could see what I saw and knew what it was.

It, and the beam in which it sat, seemed to transport towards us and we were in sunlight, the warmth seemd to penetrate us and through the dazzle, the angel, for that is what it, no she was, seemed to beckon us into a cavern which was opening up before us in the rocky cliff, against which we had been sheltering. Sounds there were now none and as the cavern opened, we could see a bright exit at the other end towards which we were moving. We have died, I thought to myself remembering descriptions of near death experinces. I "heard" David's reply although he did not speak it. No we're not. Then out into bright sunshine, so bright that we could not make out the landscape; only a small boy, who turned and gave us an unwelcome look. Our angel did not speak, but I "heard" what she said and the boy scuttled off. Then, as our eyes became accustomed to the bright light, we could see where we were. There was a river before us which flowed down into a deep and long valley. In the valley was a village, or at least a collection of huts and around them swarms of strangely noiseless children; and, moving equally noiselessly among them were further angels, carrying what I  took to be wands of some kind.