Time and Time Again

The old man heard the distant echo of a snort from the sleeping Rishi hundreds of feet below. Sound traveled well in this cave. He closed his eyes, focusing on his favorite activity. It was the activity his mind loved the most and the only activity which he allowed.

In his mind, he opened the peels of a thousand bananas and looked at the meat of the fruit of karma. He had performed this task so many times that it had become second nature. "Here I sit," he thought, "and here are my options."

Yesterday the old man had only three hundred and fifty thousand options. "Only 350 thousand, that's a miracle," he thought. That was the smallest number of options the old man would ever see: because in those possibilities, he saw 349 thousand yielded a stranger at his cave opening. He had believed this stranger to be his student. He had believed that the stranger would come to learn from him as he had once come to this cave to learn from his teacher. However, he realized now that he had projected that idea onto the 349 thousand options. He should have paid more attention to the meat of the bananas. "If I had," he thought, "I may have helped avert the current crisis in the cave."

He laughed to himself. "Crisis: what a stupid word," he thought. "As if there is anything to be done. As if there is anything wrong with the situation." He closed his eyes tighter for a moment to put away the fifty million or so possibility bananas he was examining for similarities and said his favorite mantra which had been taught to him by his first teacher, UncEgg. "Everything is perfect. Everything is perfect. Everything is perfect."

He chuckled to himself and thought how wonderful it is that no matter how many powerful spells learned, nor ability gained, the most powerful mental charm he has is the one given him by his Uncle during his precocious childhood.

"Okay Maa, please show them all to me again and let me pretend I can help Rishi."

A billion billion billion bananas appeared before his mind's eye and he began sorting out the unlikely possibilities. When he was done in a matter of moments he looked at the sorted and organized 16 million possibilities and saw that there were only three general outcomes: First and most likely, Rishi waited too long and drowned in the cave or was crushed against the crystal. Second, Rishi entered the water, became enveloped by his fear and drowned attempting to swim the length of the sink. Finally the third option, Rishi made it to the other side.

The number of bananas for the third option was orders of magnitude less than the number of fatal bananas.

His mind paused for a moment. "Why bananas? She always shows the possibilities as bananas. Why bananas?"

Turning his minds eye back to the possibilities he saw that nothing he did would help Rishi in any way. There were possibilities he had set aside where he tried to help but in every case he either ended up dead, trapped with Rishi or both. In many occurrences Rishi lost his pack by trying to have it lowered to him, in many cases it would become stuck. How could he explain that to Rishi? Perhaps there were two hundred thousand paths that got the pack or the special shoes to Rishi, but the old man knew that Rishi should not climb out the way he came in because if he did, the worst possible outcome would occur: he would live and never know his truest fate, never discover himself in the crystal pit. To survive and not face his fear was Rishi's surface desire, but the old man could not help that outcome. He had already chosen to not help with those paths and has therefore pushed those bananas aside.

Could he explain these things to Rishi? Surely Rishi would not understand. Despite his name and attitude, he was not realized.

Another snore echoed from the cavern and flustered the old man. "That man is a loud sleeper," he thought. "If he survives and stays he will have to sleep elsewhere. That banana is required."

He chuckled at himself.