Neither the tunnel nor the light were metaphorical.
Six of us had strayed into what looked like a shortish chamber that burrowed through a koppie and we were walking beside train tracks towards the light at the far end of it. It was so dark, and the light was so bright, I thought it was an electric light in a round fitting we were walking towards.
We walked and walked and walked. I was almost eight. My brother was about eighteen months old. My grandfather, a tall and handsome man, was probably about the age I am now, and carried my brother on his shoulders all the way. My mother was 32. My two older cousins were not teens yet.
If a train comes along, someone said, put your back flat against the wall, or the train will suck you under its wheels. Did someone make that up or was that a real danger?
A train did come along and the six of us flattened ourselves against the rock wall.
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