I twisted the small handle on the glove box in front of me and pulled out a sheet of paper that had what seemed to be directions written on them. The first few lines made sense and held names of familiar streets, but after that, I didn’t recognize anything thing.

“What’s this?” I asked him, wondering why he wanted them.

“They’re directions to the last outing of our date.” He said, vaguely enough to irritate me.

“The last outing?” I repeated his words. “Where are we going?” I asked, my irritation subsiding and being replaced with playful curiosity.

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise. I was cryptic for a reason, you know…” He said, looking at me quickly as giving me a wink. “On the way home, if you still want to, we can stop at the office and you can get the address.”

“Ok then sexy. If you say so.” I said, laughing and excited. I navigated for him, telling him his rights, his lefts, and which freeways to get on. “Eventually, we got to the right neighborhood and we started looking for the streets and addresses we needed.”

It was a wonderful place, filled with more trees than our home. The houses all had large spaces between them, full of tress, bushes, and sometimes gardens. We found our street and turned left. We followed the street all the way to the end and found what seemed to be a forest behind a fence. Kayde parked the car and we got out and looked for the gate opening, a driveway, anything showing us how to get into it.

“Phee, over here! I found it!” Shouted Kayde, about a quarter of a block away.

I jogged up to where he was standing and saw that there was indeed a gate next to him, and what more, it seemed unlocked. “Well, I hope that you have a flashlight or something.” I said to him, noticing how dark it was under the trees.

“Yea, it shouldn’t be too bad of a walk though.” He said, pulling a small flashlight out of his pocket. He wrapped my hand in his and turned the flashlight on, handing it to me. He unlatched the gate and we walked in.

“Kayde, what is this?” I asked him, thinking the forest looked kind of creepy.

“A surprise, remember?” He told me. “There’s just someone I want you to meet, that’s all, don’t worry”, he told me, squeezing my hand lightly.

The longer we walked, the more confused Kayde seemed. Occasionally, he’d take a couple of pieces of paper out of his pocket and seemingly compare them. We walked for about 20 minutes, finding nothing but more trees.

“Kayde, I’m cold and tired. Please, let’s go home.” I asked, almost pleading. I wasn’t really all that tired, but it was a bit chilly out here, and the lack of light was really starting to freak me out a bit.

“I’m sorry babe. You’re right.” He said as we turned around. “I just don’t understand”, he muttered to himself. “The addresses were all the same…”

“Kayde?” I asked, gently getting his attention. “What are you talking about? Forests don’t have addresses.”

“This one did. Right in front, on the curb. It was the same address I had copied down on the directions.” He told me.

“Well, maybe you copied down the wrong address. Who did you want me to meet?” I asked, confused, curious, and slightly worried all at once. It was more the confused and curious that had me asking questions. I tried to ignore the slight worry, assuming it came from the dark forest and the sounds it was making.

“I couldn’t have copied down the wrong address.” He told me. “I was taking you to meet your grandparents.” He said, stopping me in my tracks.

“You were what? My grandparents? They live in this town? Near here?” I asked him so quickly that he didn’t have time to answer any of my questions.

“Last night I went back to the garden to put the fire out and put the cushions away and everything and I saw that you had left your grandparent’s address on the ground next to one of the cushions.” He explained. “I figured since we were going out early anyway, so that I could show you the lights and sunset and all, than afterwards, I would drive you up to see them.

“I just wasn’t expecting things to go the way they did, which got us up here a few hours later than I was pla... What are you looking at?” He asked, stopping mid-sentence.

I could do nothing but raise my arm and point. Kayde turned and followed my hand and saw the lights too. One by one, in the distance, but not to far, lights were beginning to glow. When I saw the first few, I had assumed that they were just fireflies. But as more lit, we saw that they seemed to be forming an arch.

“Kayde”, I asked him. “What is that?”

“They’re probably just fireflies.” He told me, not sounding all that sure of it himself.

“Kayde, have you ever seen fireflies in Oregon? And have they ever formed an arch???” I asked him, incredulously.

“Um. No.”

“Yea, me neither.” I said. Not being able to help myself, I grabbed Kayde’s hand and began to drag him towards the small, bright lights.

“Sweetheart, I don’t think this is a good idea.” He told me carefully.

“Don’t you want to know what it is?” I asked him.

“Well, yes, but it could be dangerous.” He told me.

“All the more reason to come with me. I’m going whether you come with me or not. But if I go by myself, and it is in fact dangerous, and I end up hurt, it would be on your conscious.” I said, dragging him behind me.

Kayde let out a sigh and conceded to my point. He took the flashlight out of my hand. “Stay behind me, if anything happens, run to the car and drive home! I mean it.”

No way! I thought to myself. “Ok.” I told him.

We walked up towards the lights, Kayde in front of me walking carefully and looking back and forth to make sure we weren’t walking into some kind of trap. Finally, we got within a few feet of the lights and saw the most amazing thing ever. In front of me was a simple archway made of vines, but every few inches along the vines were small yellowish flowers. They had a beautifully sweet smell, but the amazing thing was that the middle of each and every flower was glowing.

“Kayde, can you believe it?” I asked in shock, taking my time to examine each and every flower along the vine.

“It’s amazing.” He said, standing behind me staring at the arch.

I walked through the arch, looking for any sign of a wire frame or cords and saw nothing. The minute I walked back under it was when the trouble started.

“What the hell was that?” Kayde shouted at me.

“What are you talking about?” I asked, not understanding why he was yelling.

“I looked up and you were gone! How did you do that? What did you do?” He asked, still yelling.

“I was right here the whole time”, I told him, confused. “I never went anywhere. All I did was walk under it, see?” I told him, demonstrating. As I turned and looked at him, I could tell something was wrong. I rushed towards him, trying to make sense of what was freaking him out.

“You did it again! You walked under that thing and you were gone! I couldn’t see you! You just disappeared!” He said, no longer shouting, just bewildered.

“What are you talking about? I’m perfectly fine Kayde, I didn’t go anywhere.” I tried again to explain to him.

“No, you don’t understand. When you walked into that thing, you were just gone. You literally disappeared.” He told me. “Just watch.”

Kayde stood in front of me and walked forward under the arch. He was right. He completely disappeared.

“KAYDE!” I called out. “KAYDE, COME BACK!”

As if it were completely normal, Kayde walked back towards me from the arch.

“Phee! Why didn’t you tell me what it was like in there?” He asked excitedly.

“What do you mean? It’s just like out here”, I told him.

“No it isn’t! Come on!” He said, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the arch.

“Kayde, no, wait, this is a bad idea! Let go of me—” As he pulled me through the arch I saw what he meant.

It was a short tunnel, made of the same vines with the same glowing flowers. At the end of the tunnel, there was a small doorway. Kayde and I followed the tunnel to the door and saw that the front of it had 4 numbers etched on the front.

“Five nine eight two.” Kayde read the numbers slowly and then pulled the papers out of his pocket, handing one to me. At the bottom of the directions I had been reading to him all night were the same numbers. Five nine eight two, Eireaf Drive.

“Kayde.” I said quietly. “Do you think this is it?”

“There is really only one way to find out.” He responded. “Now’s the hour of truth Phoenix, do you want to find out?”

I nodded my head, and in a voice much to low to even be considered a whisper I said one word, hoping I wouldn’t regret it. “Yes”