”...but you’re dead!” I hadn’t seen my uncle since his untimely disappearance five years ago.

“Not dead, I just went to a better place,” he chuckled at his own pun. My parents had always described my uncle’s death as going to ‘a better place’. Did they know that he had actually gone, or did they really think him dead?

Though his sense of humor was still intact, time had aged him physically. His hair was graying and his face more lined than I remembered. The cool pallor of his skin suggested he probably spent most, if not all, of the last five years underground. As he approached, I noticed that he favored his left side.

“For five years? Where have you been? Why are you limping? Where does this tunnel go? What-” he cut me off with a finger.

“Slow down, Becca, all in good time. We have much to talk about, but first there’s something you need to see.” With no further explanation he turned and began to limp down the corridor from which he had come.