Between a Rock and a River

Rishi slid down on the cold moist stone to the water's edge and touched its surface. Then he pressed his finger to the stone just a few millimeters under its surface. "Too bad its not this deep the whole way along," he said to the old man.

"Agreed," replied the old man.

"We should go now," said Rishi succumbing to a momentary brashness. "Lets get it over with."

"Wait a moment," said the old man, "I know some things about what we're trying to do."

In the pervading darkness all Rishi could make out of the old man was his outline against the green glowing algae. As the old man sat on the slippery floor he effused an air of power and certainty. This made Rishi feel more confident about the outcome of his adventure.

The old man began searching the possibilities, to refresh his mind of ideas on where to go and what to do. He noted that because of his presence in the chamber, the likelihood of deadly accident had greatly decreased for Rishi, but increased considerably for himself.

"Coconuts," he thought as he flipped them around, opening them and examining their fruit.

"Where's my pack?" Asked Rishi.

"Its up in that cave: hopefully we'll be able to dig it out. It doesn't matter though until we get out of here. Please give me a moment to continue my research."

Rishi didn't understand what the old man did while in his head but he did understand that the old man seemed to have some insight so he respected the old man's wishes.

After a few more minutes the old man said, "Listen, I'm only going to say this once: if something happens to me, you are to get out of here. I've lived a long time and now that you wear that necklace around your neck my job is done."

The old man listened to himself, laughing at his lies. "Its true in one sense," he thought, "but false in so many ways."

The old man continued to listen to himself. "Ahead of us about 100 meters, just at the edge of the wall we can just barely make out, there is a trench. The trench is only a third of a meter thick but it stretches almost the length of the cave.

"That drop off is our goal. We must move into that sink hole right up against the wall. There are other sinks before that one which if we enter, we must swim past, to enter any of those sinks is certain death as they only travel down into numerous deep and sealed caverns below us.

"My teacher said that when he was in here, there was no pond, except that which was at the edge of this cave in the trench that I mentioned earlier. That meant that at one time the caverns under us were open and had drained the water from this chamber. My teacher fell into a pit climbing across the chamber but managed to climb out and make his way out. My teacher knew to swim the water because of what he saw there."

"I have to enter water through a narrow opening?" asked Rishi.

"Yes, as do I, it is the only way out."

At that moment each man heard a rumbling from the blocked entrance behind them, the old man scrambled toward the right side of the cave near Rishi and they both watched as rock tumbled down the opening. Then a fairly large stream of water began flowing out of the wall. It started as a small trickle and quickly gained power.

More rumbling eschewed from the cave entrance and the water picked up pace again.

"We have to go now Rishi," said the old man.

The men made their way along the cave, carefully looking for the warning sign of a massive drop off in the stone. They paid attention to the green glow of the algae, looking for it to disappear under them. It wasn't long before they found what they were looking for.

They stood at the top of a large cliff of crumpled rock for which there was no way around.

"It looks like we're going to have to swim in deep water from here," said the old man. "Just don't panic and remember you body floats, kick like your sister taught you and where possible keep your head above water. Above all, BE CALM."

Rishi nodded and felt his heart in his throat. There was a tension in his back, shoulders and a tightness in his stomach that reminded him of something just out of his awareness.

The old man lowered himself into the water and stood up. "Its not very deep, just a meter or so, lower yourself down."

The river flowing into the cave brought a few more boulders with it. These were much larger and seemed almost too big to fit through the opening that the old man had passed through. The old man noted their outline and thought, "what have I done?"

Rishi and the old man waded a few more meters and climbed onto a taller rock. Then continued feeling their way along warning each other of perils.

The rock underfoot became quite varied in size and features. "This is probably rock from the ceiling," said the geologist part of Rishi.

"Oh my!" exclaimed the old man, "look!"

Before the old man was a large cliff of broken stone, perhaps ten meters high covered with algae.

The old man continued, "I had no idea this was here. I thought perhaps we'd gotten to the sink more quickly than estimated. How are we going to get around this?"

"We're not said Rishi, we have to climb over."

They each made there way out of the water using the broken stones as hand and foot holds. It took several minutes to climb to the top. From this vantage they could see all the glowing algae of the chamber.

"That is where we're going," said the old man, pointing toward the far end of the cave.

From here they could see the disturbance of the water caused by the river of debris flowing into the chamber.

The pile on which they walked came to an end as quickly as it began so Rishi and the old man climbed down. They proceeded slowly and methodically, making sure each foot and hand had some place to go to insure they didn't fall. They had no way to know how far down they would fall if they failed to cling to the rock. The algae's light made distances very difficult to calculate.

Rishi felt around looking for a hand hold and felt something smooth and round with two holes and squared ridges along one side. After a moment he realized what it was and let out a little shriek.

"Oh," said the old man, "that's your body, don't be so shocked. You wore it a very long time ago."