Soul's Journey

by Joanne Johnson

be able to communicate the information I needed, or so I hoped. My body shook with fear, as the water was at my armpits and quickly heading to the top of the cave.

  I started to scream, “Help, oh my God, help, someone save me.”

  The screaming became louder as the space between the water and the transparent ceiling closed. I swam over to the door that had shut and tried to push it open, or move it in any way, but it was solid. I noticed a pipe that was stuck inside the wall. I looked in the pipe and felt a warm breeze flowing through the rock wall from the other side. I placed my mouth over it hoping I wouldn’t get a hoard of spiders for dinner. Then I took a deep breath and exhaled into the pipe hopefully dislodging anything nasty. I knew when the time came I would have air as long as I needed, but the issue of getting out was not any closer to being resolved.

  The water had almost reached the ceiling. I had only just enough room for my head. I placed my Turad back into my bra for it seemed to be of no help now. I was holding on to the pipe with one hand. It would do no good to lose it now. I was watching the fish swim above my head through the transparent glass. Any other time, I might have enjoyed the view, but with the water rapidly rising to the bottom of my ears, I felt no joy.

  I moved my head directly to a pocket of air and took a few breathes. With my face pushed against the transparent material, I began wondering if this is how I would die, when Max finally showed up in my head. The vision was very clear.

  “Jordan”, he said, “you need to remember why you’re here. Everything in your life has made you feel like you were swimming upstream. You have always struggled to make things work. You need to let go, and float, trust that things will be good without trying to always fix, or make it better.”

  I yelled back frustrated, “What! Trust and let go. What does that mean? Don’t talk in circles for once in your life man!”

  “Remember when you dated that man, Dylan. He was pulling away emotionally, long before you broke up. You decided that if you became more of what he wanted, he would come back to you. He continued to treat you terribly for weeks, before breaking it off. You should have let go of the relationship when he did emotionally. You chose to continue to swim upstream with the hope that you would get to your desired destination, which was in his heart,” Max explained. Then he smiled, “Right now, I see you swimming upstream. What you need to be doing is rolling over, and letting the stream take you on your path to freedom.”

  There were only pockets of air left, as I reached the pipe, and placed my mouth over it. The water had filled the room completely, and all I had was a riddle! The minutes seemed like hours. I focused on my breathing. Occasionally I would breathe in a little dust, and then cough it back through the hole. Thank God, the pipe was only half an inch around or I would have had lockjaw by now. My body was starting to get cold, and I was shaking uncontrollably. I had to get out of here soon, or I would die from hypothermia.

  The stress of the situation was overwhelming, but waiting to die was not on my agenda. I had to try to find freedom, but how. The vision of me swimming upstream played through my head again. I saw the water and waves hitting me in the face. Max was right! I did tend to swim upstream, struggling through my life. I could never just allow situations to happen, or go with the flow. I always walked around with a sense of control, or at least a false impression of it. I watched myself stop swimming, roll onto my back, and arrive at the point that I wanted to be at, along the shore. It didn’t really make sense. How could allowing myself to be swept along make it better? Then I heard in a voice that was unmistakably Max. “Maybe where you wanted to go was not where you needed to go.”

  Taking a large breath from the pipe, I rolled on my back and let go, accepting my fate. The Turad between my breasts, started to glow. I could feel it vibrating as it shot a light to the floor.

  I heard a loud grinding and scraping sound and suddenly the water started to drain as if someone let the plug out of the tub. I was spiraling down a large hole in the floor. I passed beneath the floor where the movement of water was erratic, wild, and fast. I was on a sort of water slide, which could at any time, be sending me to my death. I came to a large drop, and several quick turns. I was afraid I would fall off the slide and injure myself. I tried to slow myself down with my feet, but it was too steep and the water was too fast.

  I traveled in this manner for what felt like miles. Just when I thought the slide was slowing down it would increase in speed. About the time, I thought I should be about at the center of the earth, and before I was able to get my bearings, I was shot off the end of the slide straight towards a large body of water, according to the glow from my Turad. As I hit the water, I had the misfortune of experiencing a painful belly flop. My skin burned and itched, even under the cool water. Upon reaching the surface, I located the nearest shore and swam straight for it. I crawled onto the shore and lay down on my back on the fine sand. I realized my Turad was still brightly lit as I grabbed it in my hand. The cavern I was in looked like a large cennote.

  The water was fresh, not salty, and there did not seem to be an opening to the surface. My body was shivering; I needed to start a fire to warm up. I looked around to find something to burn. There was nothing but rock, sand and water. I grabbed my Turad and wondered if I could create more than just food? I tapped the Turad three times on my palm and thought of wood. What I got was one of those long-lasting fireplace logs. That would do just fine, I thought.

  I placed the log on the ground, hit it with my Turad, and had a roaring fire. I sat as close as possible without being burned. I needed food desperately, and something hot to drink, but quickly realized there was nothing in which to put liquid. I got up and looked around the shore, but all I could find were rocks. I brought one back to the fire remembering I was able to do amazing things already, therefore, I was going to create whatever I needed. I held the rock, and thought of a cup. I then touched the Turad to the rock and opened my eyes. I had created a caveman cup. The rock was fashioned into a perfect rock cup. I imagined enjoying a ham and cheese sandwich, and hit my Turad to my hand again. Dinner was now served. After making some hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream in my caveman cup, I ate my meal voraciously.

  When my belly was full, I lay down; feeling parts of my body were still cold. I needed to warm up more before I continued. I looked around at my surroundings to decide what my next step would be. I looked ahead and noticed there were two dark tunnels. Which one was I going to take?

  When my body was warm and fully dry, I put out my fire with a couple piles of the fine sand, and walked towards the tunnels.

  Intuition

  It became immediately apparent that the tunnel closest to me seemed to sparkle and glow as I walked closer with my Turad in hand. I entered the tunnel and noted pieces of glass embedded in the dirt of the walls. I looked closer at the pieces of glass and noticed, as I pulled them out and turned them under the light, that they sparkled like diamonds, or clear quartz crystals. Excitedly, I pulled several out of the wall and placed them in the balloon pockets of my cargo pants. With my pockets packed full, I continued down the same path until I came to a t-intersection a few hundred feet along the way. I now had to choose which one to travel on next.

  “I’ll now teach you to use a pendulum,” Max said appearing in front of me. “Take off the necklace that Shirley gave you.”

  “What is a pendulum?” I asked taking off the necklace.

  “A pendulum gives you visual answers, like asking your subconscious what is the right choice at this time? Hold the necklace over the palm of your hand, quiet your mind. Then say the words; show me yes. The necklace should spin either back and forth or in a circle. When it finally moves say stop. Then say the words; show me no. It should do the opposite of yes.”

  I tried a few times before I could get the necklace to move. When it finally moved, it was a circle for yes and back and forth for no. “Now what do I do?” I asked.

  “You need to ask your necklace which path to take? Tak
e a step in the path’s direction and ask. Is it in my best interest to take this path? You will get a yes for the path that will be best.” He disappeared.

  I used the pendulum, it told me to take the path to the left. I placed the necklace back on my neck and followed the one it had chosen for me. The whole process seemed a bit hokey, but I saw no better options at this point.

  After a few hundred feet with my Turad in full glow, I noticed the dirt walls were like the ones in the dream I had. Without warning, I heard a loud crack and suddenly dirt from the ceiling started to fall. I panicked; my senses were overloaded with the stale smell mixed with the taste of dirt.

  It was falling on my head in little bits at first, then it became like a downpour. The weight of the dirt made me fall forward and accidentally drop my Turad. Pitch-black took over, erasing any remaining sense of safety. My hands moved around frantically to find my Turad. In that moment of searching, my hands encountered a rock. The moment my hand touched it, the rock vibrated somehow making me feel comforted. I placed the rock in my one hand and continued to look for my Turad with the other.

  My search continued in the darkness until I found something that sort of heated up as I touched it. I closed my hand around it carefully and realized that it was a long warm stick. Grabbing hold, I pulled it out, and light was back. The dirt stopped raining down, bringing a powerful sigh of relief. My worst fear of being buried alive had been avoided.

  I looked at the stone in my hand as I sat in the pile of dirt; it was my last stone. The stone was a brilliant yellow in color and as I rolled it around in the palm of my hand, I noticed the sense of calmness that was taking over. My mind still had pockets of fear, but my body felt somewhat relaxed. Within a few minutes, both my body and mind achieved a sense of calm. I stood up, dusted off the dirt, and stepped away from the pile that had almost covered me not long before.

  It felt as though days had past, and the rushes of adrenaline without adequate rest had left me feeling anxious. Mentally and physically, I was exhausted and contemplating what my next move should be, was daunting. I continued trudging along the tunnel system turn after turn to an unknown destination, my stamina wavering with each step. Would this ever end? I wondered if this obstacle course had truly been designed to challenge me spiritually, as Ryan had said. His voice echoed through my head, “It becomes what you require to move forward.”

  I leaned against the wall, and slowly slid to the floor determined to briefly rest and compose my thoughts as to a plan. When I glanced into the dark tunnel ahead, I thought I could see that the darkness had changed. Was that light up ahead? I sprang to my feet with a new determination and pushed onward. Moving closer it was apparent that an opening was ahead. Perhaps I would be at the surface sooner than I thought.

  I stepped into the opening, and was shocked by the huge, bottomless chasm that lay stretched out in front of me. Staring across the pit, I noticed that in front of me about every two feet, floated four blocks placed side by side. I looked closer at the blocks, and noticed they each had symbols on them. It did not make any sense, it looked as if nothing held the blocks in place, and there was no apparent connection to the adjacent walls in any way. It looked like a bridge with small gaps in it. The blocks were close enough together that I was confident that I would be able to jump the gaps. I looked up and down the pit for another way across, but this was the only way. I could see an opening across the chasm, so with some hope it would lead me