The Number 8 (7 page)

Dante felt like disobeying him for a spilt second. After all, he felt they deserved to know that they had been lied to. But he thought better of it. He didn’t know these people yet. He didn’t owe them anything. And after all, he was doing them all a favor in the long run by not telling them.

“I won’t,” Dante finally said. He started to walk away, but realized that the old guy had some information that he wanted. He turned back towards him.

“Does this job ever get old for you?”

The old man looked at him and took a moment to ponder his answer. Dante thought he saw the cogs turning. He had probably contemplated that question many times, but it was possible that he hadn’t actually ever verbalized it.

“This,” he said pointing at his son who was currently teaching the third wave of passengers, “gets old real fast. But that,” he said pivoting towards the entrance of the caves just meters away, “will never get old. Down there is a world that very few get to see. You should feel privileged kid. I do, every day.”

“Is this all you have ever wanted to do?” Dante asked.

The old guy snorted loudly as if the question was ridiculous. “Of course not! Who grows up wanting to be…” he paused, gesticulating around him dramatically, “this!”

“Then what happened? How did you end up here?”

“There’s a long story behind that, kid. But the short version is that I was just like you. I came here to visit the caves and never left.”

“That’s incredible. So one visit and you were transfixed by it to the point that you wanted to be around it everything single day?” Dante asked.

The look that the old guy gave him was strange. Like Dante had grown another head. “Of course not, kid! I stayed for a girl.”

“Oh…” Not what Dante was expecting at all.

“Yeah, met her here in the caves. She fell out of her ring and I helped her out. It sounds quite romantic actually. It really wasn’t at the time. She was coughing and spluttering and I was spilling out of a wetsuit that was a size too small. But you know what, I married that woman.”

“So it was quite romantic then?”

“I guess so…” he smiled.

“But that doesn’t explain why you stayed here.”

“Well, this was her place, you know. She loved it here. I never really understood until…afterwards.”

Dante interrupted, “After what?”

A look of immense sadness came over the man. He let his head slip forward and stared at the ground for a while. Dante didn’t want to interrupt again so he just let the silence play out. “Errr… She passed about three years ago. And before you feel sorry for me and offer me your condolences, don’t. She was an incredible woman and the love of my life but when I tell people this they look at me like you are right now.”

Dante kept silent and looked away so he would feel more comfortable.

“We scattered her ashes down there, that’s what she would have wanted. And you know, it was only after she passed that I truly began to see the magic of the caves. I took over the tours after that.”

“Doesn’t it remind you of her every day?”

“Of course. That’s the point. Don’t you get it? I want to be reminded of her every day. She was the greatest part of me, kid. She loved this place, it was where she was most alive and I never got that. But I do now. There is something about this place. It’s magical. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.” He paused for a second to reflect. “I know that I won’t do anything else.”

“What’s so amazing about it?”

“I’m not even going to try and answer that for you, kid. Each person that goes in experiences something very different. Go in and see it for yourself. Now, leave me alone, I need to make sure my son isn’t screwing up.”

Dante got his message loud and clear. He edged back towards Asmir who was now busy chatting to a group of clearly disinterested girls. Clearly he wasn’t getting that vibe though. Instead Dante turned to the training area and watched on as the last group completed their training.

Ten minutes later it was all over and they were being summoned.

Here we go
, Dante thought.

Chapter 14

Dante was uncomfortably swinging in his harness above the entrance to the caves. The younger guy was urging him not to look down. But as often happens, he did exactly what he was told not to. Below him was a seemingly endless mass of black. His logical brain was telling him that there was solid ground down there somewhere, but at that moment he was not thinking logically. He was not thinking at all. His body was doing all the talking. His fight or flight response was kicking in. His heart rate was out of control and he was sweating profusely. The younger guy could see this and was trying to calm him down. It was not working.

“Look, you want someone else to go…”

“No!” Dante interrupted. He knew what the guy was going to say. “I can handle it. Just give me a second.”

Reluctantly, he obliged. Dante felt like an idiot hanging there trying to get his body to obey him while most of the bus stood around watching. He took five deep breaths and slowly repeated the motions that he had done so many times before. It was not the thought of abseiling that scared him but the unending darkness he had just seen below. But against his body’s wishes he descended slowly until the darkness below was all around him. He expected his eyes to adjust but it seemed to take an age for them to do so. Slowly, he began to make out the faint outline of a small patch of flat ground. Then a figure emerged from the blackness. It was the older guy. He was looking uninterested and tapping his foot impatiently. If he had had a watch on, he would have been glancing at it. But Dante was just feet from him now and his presence seemed entirely unnecessary. That was until he realized that the landing platform wasn’t directly beneath him. He got to eye level with the old guy and started feeling for the ground. His legs were flailing around and he soon found out why. The old guy grabbed the rope and pulled him over. Finally, he felt solid ground. His body understood he was safe now and his breathing deepened.

“Release that and watch your fingers,” the old guy said calmly.

Dante stood up straight letting his legs take his weight. His eyes were obeying him now. But what he saw wasn’t magical or breathtaking or any other positive adjective. It was endless grey masses of rock. He moved closer to the edge of the platform and saw the pool of colorless water below. Wholly unappealing and, he imagined, exceptionally cold. He stayed for a few seconds trying his hardest to see beneath the unmoving waters. He had never seen anything like it. The water looked solid, like one giant pane of glass. He knew monsters lurked beneath, but at this moment in time it seem impossible. He knew that eels moved slowly and with purpose and in this environment they would surely make the surface ripple. But that was not his main concern right now. Right then he was most concerned about what was laying directly behind him. It was the only thing in the cave that looked completely out of place. There were several rows of yellow rubber rings stacked against the wall, just like at a waterpark. It was bizarre, yet slightly comforting. It was something he recognized in a dark world where everything was unfamiliar.

“Grab one and sit on it over there for now,” the old guy insisted.

He did as he was told. He picked a spot close to the edge so he could keep an eye on the water. As he sat and watched his fellow passengers descend from the light one by one he listened to the sounds around him. Every movement, every squeak of the carabinier, every word echoed loudly. If he listened carefully he could even hear the faint rush of running water in the distance. It was so incredibly quiet that any sound, any sound at all rang throughout the cave like an airplane taking off. But that slowly changed as each passenger’s feet hit the platform. Dante had been sure that Asmir had wanted to go second but there were seven people on the platform now and he was yet to appear. After the fifteenth had joined them Dante was starting to get concerned that Asmir had chickened out. There were only sixteen of them who had opted to do black water rafting, mostly guys as the girls had chosen to walk through the glowworm caves in a different area. But the more adventurous of them had come, including their current hostel neighbors who he was sure would become friends.

Sure enough, Asmir was the last to arrive. He wasn’t arriving gracefully either. He seemed to have forgotten the technique entirely. He was falling a foot then coming to a complete stop. It was comical. He did this all the way down. Unlike the others he clearly wasn’t enjoying it. The look on his face when he reached the platform was that of pure joy. He unclipped himself and looked about ready to kiss the ground beneath his feet but held back.

He didn’t have long to compose himself because within seconds of him landing the old guy was running through the ground rules. In most of the caves the water was up to his chest so he could walk along dragging the rubber ring train behind him. They were told to jump in and grab on to one handle of the rubber ring in front of them. This was to form a giant floating snake. It all made sense in theory but in practice they had to contend with the dim wits of people like Viktor.

Viktor was the first to take the plunge. He jumped in and landed on the ring. The sound rippled throughout caves. He fell under and for a moment there was silence. The glassy water finally rippled. One. Two. Three seconds he was under. Then suddenly he flew out of the water gasping for air.

“It’s so cold. It’s so cold!” he screamed.

The other passengers fell about laughing. He was splashing around trying to warm up and get out of the jump zone. Then, one by one they jumped in. Same outcome every time. Screams and loud gulping sounds as the air tried to stay in their lungs. Then it was Asmir’s turn. He copied the same action that Viktor had done. The ring cushioned his fall and he went under. Unlike Viktor though he didn’t hold back as he surfaced. He belted out a series of repulsive sounding phrases with expletives thrown in sporadically. It was a filthy phrase but no one even blinked because obviously the cold made it justified.

Finally, it was Dante’s turn. He moved closer towards the edge and suddenly felt a hand shove him hard in the small of his back. He flew forwards. But mid-air he miraculously managed to swing the ring underneath him and land it perfectly. He wasn’t prepared for the wave of icy water that passed over him next though. It knocked the air clean out of his lungs. But even worse than that, his ring popped and he fell an extra three feet beneath the surface. He felt the bottom with his feet and pushed up exploding out the water.

“Ahhhh!!” Dante screamed. His face was numb and instantly he knew why Asmir had uttered that phrase. It was crippling. Now without a ring he was floundering around trying to keep his head above water. A couple of times he tried to throw the yellow plastic back up but failed. Third time he got it. They threw him a new ring and he jumped in it. After a few minutes of floating about, his body got comfortable with the icy water and he barely noticed it any more.

Finally they linked up and the old guy began to drag them through the darkness. Dante was right at the back with Asmir just in front of him. He was worried that he wouldn’t be able to hear what the old guy was saying but that was put to bed pretty quickly when he began barking orders. His voice reverberated around the caves easily.

“Right, before we get to the glowworms I will tell you that below you there are very large eels that are almost completely blind and they like to chomp anything that comes across their path. So, try to keep all your parts off the bottom.”

“What about you?” someone shouted. “You’re standing on the bottom!”

“Protective footwear,” he said without flinching.

Dante could smell the BS from where he was. It was another story that he was aiming to control with. It would probably work too.

For the first couple of minutes they talked amongst themselves but as it got darker it also got quieter until they were floating in silence. But there was a very good reason for this. Above them the roof of the cave shone a mystical shade of blue. It was like a sky full of stars. Dante knew that it was just worms up there making this fluorescent masterpiece but it didn’t take anything away from the magnificence of it all. In fact, it added to it.

As they drifted through the darkness all of them were transfixed by the roof. Every single passenger was looking upwards. Dante noticed that the old guy had slowed down now. He shot a glance towards the front of the raft and sure enough, he was transfixed by the beauty of it. Dante imagined that this experience never got any less magical.

As he lay there reclining in his ring and watching nature’s show, he felt a strange peace come over him. He had seen the brochure, he had researched the caves, he had even seen pictures of the glowworms, but nothing could have prepared him for this. It was mesmerizing. He didn’t want to talk or even move from this spot. But, after an incredibly short five minutes, the old guy moved on.

Every now and then they came across small clumps of glowworms as they eased their way through the tunnels. Dante would know when he was about to see another because there would be a collective gasp from the passengers at the front. Even Viktor, it seemed, had somehow worked his way to the front of the group. He was positioned directly behind the old guy and, amazingly, was being quiet.

Finally they came to a full stop in a large pool that could just about fit them all in. They all sat around listening to the old guy talk about the history of the caves for a little while. No one it seemed was as into it as Dante who had edged his way to the front. The minutes rolled by and the group’s patience was wearing thin so the old guy decided to move them on.

“For this next section, each person will have to go through this small gap in the rock and slide out the other side. You can go through on your front or back but when you’re clear, shout back to let us know. Then, the next person will be allowed to go, understood?”

There was a collective “Yes!”

“OK, I’ve been instructed to let you through in reverse alphabetical order, so who’s first?”