It was a wet night and he was driving very carefully.
Very carefully, because he’d ignored his friends back at the pub when they’d suggested he call for a taxi. He knew he would be alright if he took care. After all, he wasn’t so much drunk, as tired. It had been a busy day and it was natural that he would be feeling exhausted. He’d been running around all day, hardly taking a break. He was convinced that all he had to do was drive slowly, especially through these unlit lanes, he thought. In fact, he was thinking about that when he nodded off.
The car, now doing its own thing, wandered slowly towards and over the grassy edge, then plummeted down the slope, where it sideswiped a tree and flipped over onto its roof. The man inside was hanging in the safety belt. He had struck his head on the way down. The pain was intense and he couldn’t move.
Moments later, he found himself outside… he was literally outside, looking down on the scene. He saw the upturned vehicle with its wheels spinning, gradually coming to a halt. He knew there was a body inside and tried to look in, but he found himself slowly drifting up, up into the blackness of the night sky. He was floating above the trees when the light appeared above him. It was a dim glow at first, then brightening to a glaring hole.
It was so perfectly round that it looked like some kind of entrance. Was this the tunnel that people talked about? He was gazing up at it when he was aware that he was no longer rising. It was then that he heard the voice; not so much a voice, but a sort of tut-tut sound. Moments later, he heard the voice.
“Usual thing, drink I suppose,” he heard, as it came with not much more than a casual whisper.
Looking up into the brilliant light, he said, “Well, yes, but there was the tiredness, as well.”
“Tiredness, as well?” came the murmur. “Of course. There you are then; what did you expect?”
He wasn’t sure how he should answer. After a few beats he said, “OK. This is it, is it? This is where I get sucked up into this tunnel, I suppose.”
He thought he heard a sigh, followed by a mumbled, “Not necessarily.”
“You mean… you mean there’s a chance that I won’t, you know, die?”
In a slightly louder, more forceful voice, came “Shush! I’m thinking…”