World Portal

I was a young, Asian girl. My brother and I were in a river trying to avoid a sniper. We'd hide under the water breathing through bamboo shoots, come ashore and lie very still. Suddenly I went through some portal (an object I was holding I think) to a simultaneous reality. Now I switched characters and was a great lady standing on the shore of the river as the Asian girl came towards me from the water. My dress was long and black with an ornate collar that stood very tall and upright around my head. I was both the little girl in awe of this woman, and the woman chuckling at the reaction of the little girl.

I took the girl to the city as a newcomer to my land. I did not believe her that she came from "another world." She had a book with her and I mentioned that fiction books were illegal here and that we did not encourage make believe imaginings. No story books and no make believing one was from another world.

Now I was the little girl again and my brother was in this world with me. The city was a tall, tall building with stairs and overlooks on the outside of it. From the height, through the trees, we could see the world we came from. The sandbar on the river was marked by a string of colorful Buddhist like flags. Elaine was on the sandbar, ducking from the sniper. As my brother and I explored this new city, an alarm kept going of periodically (from the portal I held?) to alert us there was a view open to our world again and we'd run as fast as we could and look to see if Elaine was alive and screamed and called out to her. We were very upset and worried she would be killed by the sniper.

The alarm sounded yet again, and this time I didn't have strength to run one more time. My legs collapsed. Exhausted, I wondered if I really needed to keep running to try to help or see what was happening to Elaine. Perhaps I could just leave her to take care of her own fate. Guilt swarmed me at the thought. I laid down on the ground with my face in the grass and cried.