A Survivor's Guide to Eternity(74)

“Listen,” whispered Ed, piercing the silence.

“What? Listen to what?”

“Exactly. It’s perfectly silent. You don’t notice it so much when you’re squelching along in the sand but there’s a pin drop hush, not even the faintest rumbling,” replied Ed, as they both fell paused to listen to the emptiness.

“It’s beautiful, eh, something to behold,” said Yedida, her voice softly rippling into the quiet.

“I don’t remember that too many times when I was alive. A few times we went camping when I was a kid but there was always some sort of animal bleating or a couple of foxes having noisy liaisons. This is quite special though.”

Once again the couple fell silent and Ed began to reflect a little on the environment. The temperature had been consistent, approximately around twenty degrees, not too hot and not too cold. However, as they proceeded on their current journey it started to chill by a degree or so. Ed was very sensitive to temperatures and thought back fondly on the friendly battles he had with his wife to gain control of hotel room air conditioning thermostats when they visited warm countries.

He put his hands through the vines and onto the shiny granite stone walls, first his left, then his right. It felt cool to the touch but not as cold as he imagined stone should be. He rubbed his hands up and down over the uneven but smooth, almost polished surface. It felt glorious, making his hands tingle as they moved back and forth, to and fro.

“It’s awe inspiring isn’t it,” he exclaimed, pulling his hands away and between the vines to turn and look at Yedida.

“Yes, really nice to touch, eh. Have you noticed it’s getting a little chillier as well?”

“I did notice that. Is it much colder where the Viking lives?”

“Not much, maybe a degree or so. You won’t notice it once you’ve been there a while.”

Ed started to feel a little trepidation about his visit. Everything seemed to be masked in uncertainty and it was starting to make him feel disoriented once more.

“It’s weird being in here, caught in this whole cycle of things, Yedida.”

“In what way? I thought you’d been dealing with it really well up to now.”

“Yes, but that’s because I keep getting caught up in the mystery of the whole thing and blot out what’s really happening. It’s a real quandary and everyone I’ve met so far seems to have a different view about it. It makes me very ambivalent and very depressed about everything, all this guesswork, inconclusiveness and uncertainty. It’s psychologically exhausting,” replied Ed despairingly, his posture slightly slumped.

“Whatever you do, Ed, you have to believe that one day you will become enlightened. You have an awareness and consciousness that helps you make definite decisions. Even if you don’t really know what the decisions are about, they are decisions all the same and they put you in a position of power. However minimal that power might be is irrelevant. You still have something and you have to cling onto that for all it’s worth.”

“You’re right. I am getting down on myself. I really need to snap out of it.”

“Look how far you’ve come already. The tortoise and then the other tunnels; the cat, the hound and the determination to climb the ladder and come all the way here. The glass is half full, not half empty. Come on, let’s go. We should be on our way.”

Yedida started to head off into the tunnel.

“Thanks, Yedida. You are a real support.”

“I’ve had to do it before. Don’t worry. The worst that can happen is that you get used to all this. Anyway, from here the journey gets a little trickier. The tunnel gets smaller and smaller and by the end we have to crawl through it. It becomes rather tight and we’ll have to push ourselves through the last section. I hope you’re not claustrophobic,” announced Yedida.

“Not particularly but I don’t altogether like the idea. How tight does it get?”

“Pretty tight. First timers feel they’ll never be able to push themselves through. It feels kind of elasticated and pushes in against you but that’s only for the last few yards.”

“Okay. Another step along the way. Is there anything after that?” enquired Ed.

“That’s where I’ll leave you, the other side of the tunnel.”

“Oh,” replied Ed with more than a degree of sadness in his voice. He looked down the length of the tunnel and saw how it narrowed into the distance. The vines and lights also diminished in size proportionally making it look like a strange experiment with the ‘free transform’ tool in Photoshop. Soon they were off into the tunnel, bending their heads and stooping over as it got smaller and smaller. Soon they were on all fours crawling, arms stretched out in front of them in the soft sand, Ed first followed by Yedida. The sturdy vines got tighter and tighter across Ed’s back as he crawled deeper into the tunnel. He started to feel more like a champagne cork than a reincarnated hunting hound or suicidal Tortoise.