Metamorphosis

by Sesh Heri

  Again the trail took a curve, and we lost sight of the lake off to our right. And again, as we rounded the curve, we came upon a little oriental man sitting cross-legged at the edge of the path. He was dressed— or undressed— just like the other little man we had encountered. In fact, he looked exactly like the other little man; he could have been his twin brother. As we got closer, I could have sworn that it was precisely the same little man we had seen before, only I knew this was not possible, for we had left the other one far behind on the trail and he had run off into the jungle in the opposite direction from our way on the trail.

  Again this little oriental man held up a wooden bowl as we approached and cried out something like: “Gong-a-may gong! May-gong-a-may! Gong-a-may-gong! May-gong-a-may!”

  TAR-A-GAL said nothing this time but only kicked dirt in the little man’s smiling face. The little man scampered to his feet, and once again ran into the jungle and was lost to our sight.

  This time TAR-A-GAL did not even pause, but kept onward down the trail at a steady march. In a moment, I felt the time was right for me to try to speak to Charmian. I could hear the rush of water again, and knew that we were approaching a waterfall like one of those I had spied from a distance earlier on the trail. I turned about. Charmian was still swatting the insects.

  “You asked when ‘soon’ was,” I said. “It’s coming up. When I say ‘now’— you do exactly as I do.”

  I turned back around. I had spoken in a low tone which I believed had been masked by the sound of rushing water, and I had not moved my lips when I spoke, but used ventriloquial speech. I did not believe the Martians had heard me or even knew that I had spoken. Had Charmian heard me? I turned back around to look at her.

  Charmian nodded.

  She had heard.

  Now the trail made another bend. Through the thick growth I began to catch glimpses of the lake to our right. I could see that we were getting very close to the edge of the lake and I could hear the sound of the rushing water increase to a roar. We must have been approaching very near to the precipice of the waterfall.

  And then as we rounded the bend of the trail—

  There was a little man sitting at the edge of the jungle, cross-legged…waiting for us. Who was this— the triplet of the other two little men?

  Once again for the third time we approached a little man sitting by the trail. The sound of water was now becoming particularly loud and in an involuntary glance to my right I saw that we were walking right upon the precipice of a cliff overlooking the falls. Below I saw the spray of white water and a rainbow within a mist. The surface of the lake was at least thirty feet below us. I had found the place for which I had been looking— the one place where Charmian and I could make our escape. And the little man? He was going to be our diversion.

  TAR-A-GAL kept marching steadily down the trail and this time he did not even wait for this little man to raise his bowl in the air. He drew a weapon from a holster on his hip, aimed it at the little man, and fired. A ray of light burst from the weapon to the ground and the little man screamed, jumped to his feet, and ran off into the jungle.

  The Martians broke into jeering laughter. And it was at that moment I said to Charmian:

  “Now!”

  And I ran and jumped over the cliff and down upon the raging waterfall. The force of the flowing water formed a surface that felt like cement. I hit it hard after a drop of about fifteen feet, and then rode the flow all the way to the surface of the lake, my feet cutting the water, and then my whole body sinking under. Had Charmian made the plunge?

  In a second I had my answer. I saw her through the swirling bubbles and turbulence, still manacled, still wearing her riding boots, doing an incredible job of swimming with her hands bound in manacles.

  I swam toward her. She saw me, and I gestured for her to follow. I swam to a place that I thought was directly behind the waterfall. I kept swimming, soon expecting to encounter a wall of rock. Instead, the water got only darker. Everything was becoming murky. I decided to surface and get air. It was risky, but it had to be done. I broke the surface and an instant later Charmian’s head came out of the water next to me.

  There was no sky above us. We looked up overhead at a wall of volcanic rock. We were in a subterranean watercourse, probably an ancient lava tube now flooded with water.

  “Which way?” Charmian asked.

  “If we go back to the lake we may be killed or recaptured,” I said. “If we follow this watercourse into the mountain, we may drown.”

  “I’m for trying this mountain,” Charmian said.

  “Me too,” I said. “Come on.”

  At one end of the flooded tunnel we could glimpse a half-circle of sunlight. We turned away from the false promise of that half-circle and swam forward into the flooded lava tube where only darkness and mystery loomed.

  As we swam the light of the sun became ever dimmer, until finally we were swimming forward by guess-work only. After several strokes, we could come across the wall of the tube, sometimes nearly colliding with it. We would veer away from the wall and back into what we guessed was the middle of the channel.

  After swimming perhaps a hundred yards, we came upon a wall of volcanic rock blocking our passage. I had almost collided with it, but somehow could sense it ahead and felt along its surface with my hand. We were now in total darkness and could only feel our way. We groped about in the pitch-blackness for a minute or so, until I could finally “see” with my hands that what we had come across was an actual blockage in the tube itself, not one of the tube’s walls.

  “What’s that?” Charmian gasped out.

  “Solid rock,” I said. “I think this is a lava tube and this section collapsed in an earthquake.”

  “We have to go back,” Charmian said.

  “Maybe not,” I said. “Maybe it didn’t completely collapse. We might be able to get through if we swim deep enough. If it’s collapsed but still partially open, then we’ll encounter a wall of rock below surface, and then an opening with a ceiling slanting back up to water level. I’ll go down and check.”

  “Magic,” Charmian coughed.

  “What?” I asked.

  I could hear my voice reverberate against the surface of the water and the volcanic rock.

  “Good luck,” Charmian finally said.

  “Thanks,” I said, and then took a deep breath, and went under.

  There was that wall of rock, just like I suspected. It went straight down, vertically. I felt along the rock surface with my hands, actually used it to crawl my way down into the water’s lower depths. Did the wall of rock go all the way to the bottom?

  No!

  My fingers felt an angle in the rock— I had found the top of the tube again!

  I came down further and extended my arm out at a ninety degree angle under the wall of rock and then flattened my arms against what was the top of the tube— its ‘ceiling.’ That rock ‘ceiling’ extended on upward at an angle— the broken section of tube extended back up to water level just as I expected. I shot to the surface.

  “Oh, God!” Charmian cried the moment I came up.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, gasping air.

  “I thought you’d drowned!” she shouted.

  “I told you I was going down to check,” I said.

  “You were under so long,” Charmian said, a bit calmer.

  “I had to go slow,” I said. “There could have been snags down there. But its clear, and just the way I thought. We’re in a collapsed lava tube. All we have to do is swim straight down along this wall of rock, and then come up under a shelf that slants back up to water level. How long can you hold your breath?”

  “A minute,” Charmian said. “Maybe a minute and a half.”

  “Take a deep breath and try for two,” I said. “Grab the back of my coat and hang on. I’ll climb us down the face of the rock.”

  “All right,” Charmian said. She swam over to me. I couldn’t see her, but I could feel her grabbing my
coat.

  “We’ll submerge on the count of three,” I said. “Take a deep breath, then down. Got it?”

  “Got it,” Charmian said.

  “Get ready,” I said. “Here we go.”

  I felt for the rock face.

  “One,” I said, “two— three.”

  I pushed under and Charmian went under behind me. Down we went, plunging into the black abyss. I got us to the end of the rock wall, felt for the opening that slanted upward— found it with the palm of my hand, and then pushed under the rock wall and swam forward.

  We now swam upward, our heads near a ceiling of rock. Too late I thought of the need to warn Charmian of the danger of bumping her head against the rock above us; now I could only keep my head well away from that ceiling by pressing against it with the palms of my hands. The rocks surface was both rough and smooth— the rough smoothness of volcanic rock. I grasped that rough smoothness gingerly, trying not to cut my hands.

  We kept swimming upwards. It was taking longer than I had hoped. I could last longer, but I worried about Charmian— would her breath fail at any moment? I had only one form of reassurance, the strong grip of her hand on the back of my coat.

  Then— just when I was not expecting it— my head broke the surface, and I was amazed to encounter a cavern above me that was filled with a purple light. My eyes had become so accustomed to the pitch-dark that this vague luminescence seemed almost brilliant to me. An instant after surfacing, I heard Charmian come up out of the water behind me and take a loud gasp of air. Both of us gasped and coughed as we swam forward into the cavern. We were no longer in a lava tube, we were in an actual cavern filled with glowing purple light, and we were swimming forward across the mirrored surface of an underground lake. We reached the edge of the lake and I climbed up to the rock shore, dripping with water. Charmian came up behind me and we both collapsed against the rocks.

  We lay there breathing heavily. I closed my eyes, and every muscle in my body relaxed. I could tell by Charmian’s breaths that she was doing the same thing.

  For quite a while we lay like that, but exactly how long we lay there, I had no idea. Time did not really seem to pass. But after what must have been a great interval of time, Charmian spoke. She only said:

  “Magic.”

  I opened my eyes. I saw only the rocky ceiling of the cavern lit by that purple glow.

  “Magic Man,” Charmian said.

  I turned my head. Charmian was sitting up beside me, leaning on one elbow, her back turned to me, looking at something.

  “Look,” Charmian said.

  I sat up, and looked in the direction Charmian was looking. She was gazing upon a little recess in the cave, brilliantly lit by that purple glow; it was framed on either side by columns of stalactites and stalagmites. The interior was filled with the most beautiful crystalline rock, lit in pinks and blues. It looked like the stage of a miniature theatre.

  And upon that stage decorated with a wall of pink and blue crystals sat a little man— a hairless little man who wore nothing but a strip of white cloth wrapped about his loins. He sat cross-legged.

  He was just like those three little men we had encountered on the trail through the jungle— their exact duplicate. Or was he a duplicate? I looked closely at the little man and it began to dawn on me. There were not several little men, each waiting along the trail, but only one little man who somehow could follow us all along the trail, who could travel faster through the jungle than we could travel marching straight on the trail, who could follow us beyond the jungle, follow us under the earth and through the water— and who knows where else? I suddenly realized that there was only one little man, one alone, and no one else, and the moment I had this realization, it almost seemed that the little man understood, for he grinned the most peculiar grin—

  —and raised his bowl toward us!

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  To Break a Butterfly Upon a Wheel,

  To Slay a Giant With a Stone

  “I am perfectly willing to believe, but in

  the twenty-five years of my investigation

  and the hundreds of séances which I have

  attended, I have never seen or heard anything

  that could convince me that there is a

  possibility of communication with loved ones

  who have gone beyond.”

  Houdini

  Charmian and I sat looking at the little man.

  “Another one,” Charmian finally said.

  “Not another one,“ I said. “Don’t you see? He’s the same one, the same little man.”

  “Hello, there,” Charmian called gently.

  The little man laughed and put his hands to his face, appearing to be embarrassed like a little child.

  “Do you think he’s a simpleton?” Charmian asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe. Maybe he can help us. Sometimes even a simpleton can lend a hand.”

  I looked down at the handcuffs that still bound my wrists together.

  “First we’ve got to get out of these,” I said. “Same make as the ones that had us locked to the bulkhead in the ship.”

  I took off my left shoe and poured the water out of it, opened the heel recess, and took out my lock-picks. In a few seconds I had my own handcuffs off and was working on Charmian’s. I sprang the lock on her handcuffs with my lock-pick and slipped the cuffs off her wrists.

  I took my other shoe off and poured water out of it, put the lock-picks back into the heel recess of my left shoe, snapped the heel back into place, and then put both of my shoes back on and tied the laces.

  “Now how do we get out of this cave?” Charmian asked.

  “Come on,” I said. “Let’s ask someone who surely knows.”

  I stood up, took off my coat, shook it, twisted the water out of it, and then slung it over my shoulder. I looked over at the little man. He was still sitting cross-legged in that glowing recess of crystals. I walked toward him, got in front of him, and looked down.

  I pointed up at the ceiling of the cavern.

  “How go?” I asked. “How?”

  “How,” the little man repeated, grinning.

  “That’s right,” I said.

  The little man kept grinning.

  I called back to Charmian, “Bring the cuffs.”

  Charmian stood up and came over with the handcuffs and gave them to me. I took the two sets of cuffs, locked them together, and dropped them into the little man’s wooden bowl.

  “Great riches,” I said to the little man. “Great…wampum!”

  “Wampum!” the little man repeated, still grinning.

  “I don’t think he understands anything,” Charmian said.

  “He has to understand something,” I said. “He followed us all the way down here. And he did it without getting wet. Maybe he understands more than we think he does…I’m beginning to think.”

  I crouched down in front of the little man and looked him in the eyes and he looked back at me. A strange feeling came over me, a feeling I cannot really describe. Somewhere in that feeling was something like the ring of familiarity— not casual familiarity— but the familiarity of a homeland lost in the long ago. In this little man’s slanted eyes was an expression I had seen somewhere before, an expression that I knew very well. It was an expression of a kind of transcendent power— the power of complete detachment from human habit— the power of will fully mastered. That expression flashed across the eyes of the little man for only an instant, but long enough for me to recognize and remember it. Then the expression was gone, replaced only by that grin which belonged upon the face of a simpleton or imbecile.

  I pointed to the ceiling of the cavern and said, “Up!”

  “Up,” the little man repeated, but this time he did not grin, but pointed with his finger to the ceiling of the cave just as I was doing.

  “Yes,” I said, and I stood up.

  The little man stood up.

  I pointed to Charmian and myself and the
n back to the ceiling of the cave.

  “Up!” I said. “Take us up”

  “Take us up!” the little man repeated and pointed to the ceiling of the cave.

  “He’d make a good parrot,” Charmian said.

  “I think he’s beginning to understand,” I said.

  “Up!” the little man said. “Take us up!”

  I waved my hand for him to go and pointed up again.

  The little man waved his hand as if gesturing for me to go and pointed up again.

  “He’s just imitating everything you do,” Charmian said. “He’s just a little monkey.”

  “Monkey,” the little man said.

  “This is hopeless,” Charmian said. “This whole situation is hopeless. Where are we? When are we? What are we going to do? How are we going to live?”

  “I’ll think of something,” I said.

  “Really,” Charmian said.

  “Really,” I said.

  Charmian just shook her head.

  “Look at him,” Charmian said, holding her palm out to the little man. “Do you think he’s capable of even helping himself?”

  “He got down here all alone,” I said, “and without getting wet. That’s more than we did.”

  Suddenly the little man bent over and picked up his bowl which held the Martian handcuffs that I had locked together. He looked down at the handcuffs.

  “Monkeywampum,” the little man said, and then he looked up at me, held up his bowl, and cried ecstatically:

  “Monkeywampum!”

  I nodded and said, “Up! Up now!” and I pointed to the ceiling of the cavern again.