I was trapped in inescapable heat as I walked down Fifth Avenue, the busiest shopping street in New York City. With all the people around me giving off body heat as well as the sun continuously swallowing me up and spitting me out again, I found it difficult not to faint. I walked with one hand gripped by my mother, the other by my father, and I looked at all the people surrounding me. Mum and dad were trying to point out famous things to me, but I wasn’t paying attention. I looked left, right, straight ahead, and all I could see were people; English; Japanese; Indian; French; Spanish; American… and then me, walking along with my small family. I thought that I was almost part of a community. Then I was such a tiny spec on the beautiful planet called Earth. In a few minutes, however, I would become so much more. Of course, I don’t know that at the time…
A young lady was in front of us. She was pushing a beautiful little baby in a buggy. As we walked I saw the baby looking at me, smiling a cute grin. I smiled and waved, and in return she clapped her hands together, and above the noise I could hear her giggle. So could everyone else. They turned and cooed over her. I stared at them. Who did they think they were? She was laughing at me, not them… Then the mother turned the corner and I lost sight of her and the baby… but we soon rounded the same corner and they were right in front of us again.
The smell of pretzels and hot dogs at lunch time consumed us and made my stomach growl, begging to be fed. As we continued on our pilgrimage to Lord knows where, the baby seemed to be always ahead of us.
Then we came to a side street, the pavements littered with grates that ventilated the subway below. I was scared and would not walk over them.
“Lily? What’s wrong?” my mother asked as we approached a grate and I edged around it carefully.
“I know you’ll find it silly… but I am being sensible. I don’t want to walk over the grates in case I fall through.” I said. Of course, both she and my dad found it ever so funny…
“Oh Lily, if every child were like you no-one would be able to move for laughter!” mum giggled. Although I was only seven, I gave her a quelling look. She mimed zipping her lips but carried on laughing anyway. Dad however took me kindly by the hand and stood on the grate.
“See, Lily? Nothing’s going to happen; no-one’s going to fall through…” he said. He even jumped up and down on the metal bars whilst I stared, horrified.
I shook my head and continued to walk down the road. Mum-now calmed down- and dad rushed to catch up with me.
Then it happened.
I froze. Just stopped, with one foot still in the air, in the middle of the pavement. Apparently mum and dad shook me- with no effect- but I couldn’t feel anything, hear anything…
Everything went dark. A picture came into my head. Everything was too bright and blurred around the edges to be real; it was as if I were dreaming. In the middle of the picture were the woman and the baby… coming up to the grate. Then the picture started moving… It was so weird, like watching television in my head. I watched as the mother and baby walked forwards. Then I saw, in my mind, the grate begin to shake. But the mother carried on walking. The grate rippled and began to buckle. No, I thought, don’t go over it! Then, in my mind’s eye, the woman with the baby stepped upon the grate and before the vision could end I saw them slip down and down, into the darkness of the subway below…
The vision went away and I was left standing with my foot still in the air. I looked ahead and there was the baby and the mother and, as if in slow motion, they walked towards the grate. A bunch of tourists edged around me as my father beckoned for me to continue walking.
“What d’you think you’re playing at, Lily?” he hissed out of the corner of his mouth. I didn’t answer, deciding it best to leave it as a rhetorical question.
The mother and the pram took another thudding step towards the grate. They were getting pretty close now. Then, in real life this time, the grate began to shake. The mother’s footsteps echoed in my mind…
The grate buckled.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I threw myself forward and shoved the lady sideways and into the group of tourists. The pram stayed safely on the pavement but the grate fell through to the pit below.
“Oh my gosh! Are you ok?” my mum asked, rushing over to the woman.
“Yes, I’m fine… thanks to your daughter!” she said.
“Young girl, you just saved the lives of that mother and daughter!” one person said.
“She’s a little hero!” said another. The whole street started to clap as I stared wildly at everyone.
Over my time in New York, more and more strange things happened. We went to the Empire State building and when we were in the queue I suddenly froze. In my mind, I saw myself getting into one of the lifts.
“Lily? Oh Lily, not again!” mum said, putting a hand on my shoulder and trying to shake me- unsuccessfully.
I saw, in my mind, the lift chords snapping and releasing the life, slamming everyone inside into the ground. I came back to my senses.
“What happened, Lily?” dad asked.
“Stop people going in there, the chords are going to break!” I screamed. Dad ran over to one of the security people, trying to reason with him.
“Don’t be silly, you stupid little girl!” a man said, pushing his way through the crowd and into the lift. I saw he had his arm round a heavily pregnant woman and a little girl who was about my age. The girl was clinging to his hand, her blue eyes wide. I dashed forward and grabbed the little girl by the arm, tugging her towards me.
“Fine, don’t believe me, get yourself killed; don’t drag your family down with you!” I shouted. He swatted my hand away.
“Get your hands off my daughter!” he hissed.
“No, hang on Greg, I think it’s… it is! It’s that girl who was on TV the other day; she saved a woman’s life! Maybe we should listen to her…” the wife said.
“Yeah dad, she’s… Lily Evan’s!” the little girl exclaimed. She turned to me. “I’m Nancy.”
“Please, Greg, listen to her-” the woman said.
“No, I am not being told what to do by a six year old-” he started.
“Actually, dad, she’s seven, the same age as me. They said so on TV…” Nancy corrected.
“I don’t care how old she is, I paid good money for this; we’re getting in that lift!” Greg said, and with that he snatched up Nancy’s hand, tugged at the woman’s arm and dragged them into the lift.
The doors closed behind them and the last thing I saw was Nancy’s huge blue eyes, filled with fear. The lift started to go up, it was almost at the top, maybe I had been wrong?
There was a loud thud and the numbers on the screen started to go backwards at high speed, the lift was plummeting to the ground and all I could hear were the horrific screams of Nancy and her mother as well as the low yelps from her father. The noise of their cries and pleas combined with the sound of the lift scraping against its container’s walls made my skin crawl…
“No!” shouted a boy. He leapt from the crowd and stared at the electric doors. The screen stopped going berserk and then slowly, gently, it descended down until it rested on the ground.
The doors gradually opened and the family climbed out- terrified but unharmed.
