“Are you sure we can get through this, Yedida? I might be too big,” enquired Ed anxiously.
“Yes, I’ve taken bigger people through than you, don’t worry. If you feel you’re stuck I’ll help to push you,” she replied reassuringly.
“Thanks. I think that moment might be coming.”
“There’s not far to go, push, just push,” shouted Yedida.
“I am, but I feel like I’m going nowhere,” groaned Ed despairingly, feeling he was getting stuck in the restraint of the tunnel.
“Okay. I’ll push. You just have to believe. We’re nearly there. When I count to three, you push and I’ll give a shove on your feet from behind.”
“On three or four?”
“On three, exactly on three.”
“Right then, let’s do this,” anguished Ed, as he desperately tried to muster more strength.
ONE, TWO, PUSH…..
ONE, TWO, PUSH…..
ONE, TWO, PUSH…..
ONE, TWO, PUSH.
With this push, Ed’s hands and head popped out into an open chamber. He felt dazed, like a new born puppy.
ONE, TWO, PUSH…..
ONE, TWO, PUSH.
All of a sudden he was rocketed from the tunnel like a giant pea from an oversized elasticated pea shooter. The chamber floor was about two feet below the opening, and he landed hard, flat on his face in the sand. Tiny grains clogged his mouth, nostrils and ears. He picked himself up, spluttered, coughed and then saw Yedida’s arms poking from the hole. He gave them a tug and she too shot from the tunnel towards him, pushing them both to the floor, culminating, with her landing on top. Quickly they got up, dusted themselves down and looked around the small space.
“Beautiful isn’t it?” remarked Yedida, shaking sand from her silky hair.
“Yeah,” replied Ed, as he looked round at the intriguing shiny black granite walls with seams of equally opposite white stone. The sand was a piquant two-tone red and white, almost in a leopard skin pattern. The chamber was circular and small with seven cave openings opposite from their point of arrival. Ed looked back to where they had come from and was shocked to see a full sized tunnel entrance diminishing off into the distance.
“Did you see that? Look, it’s expanded! Did you notice it?”
“Once you’re through and there’s no one else in the tunnel, it switches to the opposite way around. It is bigger at this end and smaller at the other end for now, until I’ve gone back through it and then it reverts again.”
“Is that why I can’t go back?” enquired Ed.
“No. It’s when you’ve done the next leg of your journey, that’s when you can’t come back, at least not without another transience. We need to go into the fourth cave from the left, Ed,” stated Yedida, gesticulating with her arms.
“Why can’t I come back after the next leg?”
“Apparently it’s a one-way ticket. Anything we’ve discovered about the other side has been from people like you who have been there, then gone through another transience and landed back on our side.”
“Okay,” he replied as they counted off the caves and proceeded to the fourth one of the seven, all with uncut white granite archways around their side.
“Do the other caves lead anywhere?” queried Ed as they neared the entrance.
“Not to my knowledge. It just seems to be this one,” replied Yedida knowingly.
Once inside, they were greeted by a small and strange man dressed in light brown robes and an odd pair of homemade blue canvas sandals. He stared down at the ground almost motionless his bald head brilliantly shiny like a polished gobstopper.
“This is the fortune teller. You need to meet him,” stated Yedida slightly nervously. Ed looked around, wondering what this strange fortune teller was all about, sitting inside a small cave with no entrances or exits other than the one they’d entered through. The odd man started to shuffle towards them, his arms jutting out from the torn sleeves of his robes. Ed noticed he had no hands, just round stubs where the wrist would have been. They were battered and worn and looked like they’d been amputated in a very messy and haphazard manner.
“I need to leave now, Ed. Give me a hug. It’s been fantastic meeting you. Thanks for being a sympathetic listener,” said Yedida, as she grabbed Ed by the shoulder, span him around, hugged him and left the small enclosure in a hurry.
“He is deaf, dumb and blind. You need to grab both his arms with your hands and you will find out what to do next. Good luck my friend, enjoy Denmark,” she shouted as she sped along the tunnel and back towards her home.
She disappeared from sight before Ed could respond with much more than ‘goodbye, thanks for everything’. He was shocked at the sudden turn of events, and felt sad to have lost her companionship. What’s more, who was this man, why would he need him to observe his future and what did she mean by ‘Denmark’? Besides, how the hell would he do it if he was deaf and dumb? Reluctantly he reached out towards the man, grabbing the two sticky, sweaty stubs, noticing the empty eye sockets covered in scarred skin. Instantly he was pulled with violence into a fast moving vacuum, like a human canon ball.