Ten Thousand Bananas of Death

Rishi awoke. He had slept a very long time. He rolled onto his side and felt the wetness on his back.

"Oh damn," he thought, "I'm still stuck in this cave. Why did I come here? What was I thinking? Sheesh, I guess I wasn't thinking at all."

"I wonder how long I slept," he asked out loud.

"Almost two days," echoed the words of the old man down the tunnel.

"Two days!" Rishi shouted. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"Wake you? While your body adjusted to the altitude? I certainly wouldn't have done that."

"I'm really thirsty," said Rishi.

The pool in the room with you is completely safe to drink. Even though its a bit stagnant, the algae in it is safe.

Cupping his hands, Rishi scooped some water toward his mouth and drank. The water tasted wonderful and quenched his thirst beyond all expectations. It left a funny after taste though which Rishi marked without a second thought.

He rolled to his back and closed his eyes feeling elated with the drink of water. He opened his eyes and realized that he could see a bit of the cave ceiling. The algae glowed and the sensation of being able to see in almost total darkness enthralled him.

"I can see!"

The old man stood at the the top of the slide, the area where the water overflowed during the heaviest melt.

"Yes," said the old man, "The algae glows. That algae is in all of this cavern. It is digesting the limestone and it gives off some light. Many are not sensitive to that light you should consider yourself lucky."

"I probably won't need my flash light any more," called up Rishi. Changing the subject he asked, "you are at the top of my jail cell? How did you know I'd awakened?"

"You stopped snoring."

"So you came to say hello?"

"No. I came to make sure you were still alive. If you die in there then I have to haul out your body to protect my drinking water."

"But you hate the cave."

"Hate is a strong word," said the old man. "I fear the cave, its true, but I also know how to rise above that fear to accomplish what I need to accomplish."

"I need to learn that," replied Rishi. "You would have risked your own life just to pull my body out of here?"

"There are many reasons I would slide down to you, that is just the one that made me visit this portion of the cave this moment."

Rishi became quiet for a moment. Hunger pain twisted deep in his stomach but he felt it unimportant. As long as he had water he would be fine.

"Can you bring me my back pack?" Asked Rishi.

"It is here, shall I attempt to slide it down to you or should I just send your special shoes?"

The Rishi pondered out loud, "I wish I knew which was more likely to succeed."

The old man paused for a moment and then said, "There is a slightly higher chance for the larger pack to get stuck, but I doubt either choice will work for you. I believe you've chosen to face your fear."

Under normal circumstances, Rishi's impatience would override his awareness and he'd demand the old man to send the pack down immediately and to come with it.

But Rishi sensed a few things. First, the old man would not come down the slide unless he had to. Second, he hadn't thought of just having the old man send the shoes, and third he hadn't realized the pack could get irrevocably stuck inside the smallest portion of the slide.

"That pack has a lot of useful things in it. It might serve you better if I let you keep it," said Rishi.

"I would not know Rishi," said the old man. "But I doubt I need anything in it."

"At least," replied Rishi, "take the fruit out of the pack and keep it for yourself, then I think you should put the shoes in the thick plastic bag and slide them down to me alone. This way at least the pack will survive and if I lose the shoes that won't be a big deal. Plus I believe they will fit better through the narrow opening. In fact I'm not sure the pack would fit at all."

"Plastic bag?" pondered the old man. Then, as a reflex, he began sifting through the fruit of karma with his mind's eye. It was dark enough here that he didn't even need to close his physical eyes.

"There and There!" thought the old man to himself, "Bananas with the shoes in a plastic bag! Oh my glorious..."

The old man's thoughts trailed off.

Rishi interrupted the old man's realization. "You should eat the fruit right away, I'm not sure they will last much longer. They were green when I started but they may be brown by now."

The old man barely heard him. He was focused on the Ten Thousand Bananas of Death involving those damn golf shoes. "Why did Rishi bring his golf shoes with him?" Thought the old man.

"Are you going to grab the fruit? I'd really like you to have it," said Rishi.

Allowing himself to be disturbed from his activity the old man unzipped the back pack.

"Good!" Said Rishi as he heard the zipper sound from up the corridor.

The old man reached in and felt around. Then he felt something smooth, cool and long.

"Oh my God!" the old man declared, "you have brought me bananas!"

"Yes. You aren't allergic are you?"

The old man instinctively sat down in the trickle of spring water flowing under him and began to chuckle. The laughter began to build like a small snow ball rolling down the precipice of the mountain outside. After a minute he was laughing so hard he had stopped breathing. His stomach wrenched in pain. He almost passed out.

Rishi lay there confused feeling a small stream of water striking his back. He glanced up, looking over the pond at the glowing ragged wall of green a foot ball field away. There was a large black area in it. It looked like a shadowed sand pit in a large green runway.

"No algae there for some reason," thought Rishi.

When he could speak again the old man whispered, "for the love of God man, don't mention this again, I don't think I could stop myself from laughing to death. When people say God has a sense of humor I don't think they realize exactly what they are saying. Now I promise you: I know God has a powerful sense of humor."