Passage

‘I’m glad you’re coming too,’ says Prochorus as they crawl through the pipe. ‘I reckon the others’ll come eventually.’
‘Yeah. What’ll we find when we get to the door?’
‘Umm. It’s hard to put into words. I’ll try and tell you what I’ve been thinking though. We’ll be able to help pull the world out of the cycle of death and abuse and exploitation that we’ve created.’
‘What else?’
‘Well, seems like there more stuff that just what we see. Like there’s more stuff going on behind it all, making sure it all works. Everything’d fall to bits completely otherwise. There’s stuff trying to fix things up again, and we can help. I think that’s actually where all this came from. It’s the source of everything.’
‘Ah. How do you know all this?’
‘’Cause of the clues. Whatever’s on the other side of everything’s put clues all over the place. It gives people hints. Nuggets of wisdom.’
‘Like in your book?’
‘Yep. They’re the one’s I’ve found.’
‘Ah. Can we go faster?’
Prochorus wants to go faster. He feels his anchor dragging on his heart and his vertebrae, trying to pull him back home.
‘I’m trying to go faster.’
‘Okay.’
They continue crawling. The pipe begins to get narrower. Annelida stops.
‘Um,’ she says, ‘I think I’ll come back another day and try it on my own. I’ll be quicker that way, I reckon.’
‘Oh,’ says Prochorus. ‘Um, okay.’
Annelida manages to turn around inside the pipe. She begins to head back.
Prochorus continues slowly. He is gradually getting slower and slower. He can’t go any further. His elbows and knees give in, and he collapses in the tunnel. Muddy water fills his nostrils. He snorts it out again.
‘Hello,’ says the old lady.
He turns his head to look up at her.
‘How did you get in here?’
‘I didn’t.’
‘How are you standing up in here?’
‘I’m not, actually. It just looks like I am.’
‘Ah. Okay. I’m stuck.’
The old lady takes Prochorus’ hands and pulls him along the tunnel, and out the other end, into another alley.


writing, novel