The young man became engrossed in conversation to the point he took no notice the red ball of fire on the firmament floated and dipped into the sea. He ignored the absence of known landmarks while the pleasant walk progressed. Although the moon mounted the throne of the heavens to displace the mighty eye of heaven he thought little of it.
But at a point he considered at the fringe of his mind the feeling of being airborne although his feet were on solid earth.
Pan’s consciousness did give room for him to observe night birds on duty. When he and Tulip swept past some farms on their path the silent regurgitation of fodder by goats for more work sounded loud. When cocks crowed he recalled such activity takes place at specific hours of the night, often after midnight. He may have doubted the sounds from goats and cocks but he entertained no doubt as to the pleasant conversation with Tulip although their lips were closed.
Nor did he miss the stares and surprises on the faces of insects and other nocturnal animals as he and Tulip floated past in ballet style with ethereal music behind them. The way they held hands and floated reminded him of a wedding but without the fineries and etiquette of the ceremony.
What must have taken an age ended in an abrupt manner when Pan saw himself at the entrance to a cave. He looked around for any known landmark which would assure him of his position but saw none. When he stopped Tulip pulled his hand and walked him to the entrance.
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“Are we expected to go in there?” Pan inquired in his mind. Tulip nodded and flashed the characteristic heart-stopping smile.
“Let us go,” she urged with a gentle pull.
“By accident or design both of us wear white picnic clothes. Caves are supposed to be dark, dirty, and cold,” Pan implored.
“My home, your home in a moment, exists as a bright, spotless, and beautiful place.”
Pan found himself propelled by unseen hands into the hole and in seconds stood on the soil of a new world where skeletons dominated and walked like marionettes. When he looked at Tulip he saw a sexless cluster of bones.
“Welcome to my home, your home. You will wear your toga and flesh till you meet my parents,” the bony cluster said. “My best advice my friend, say nothing. Your voice will cause a problem for you which you will have no opportunity to regret. Speak to me in your mind.”
The bony cluster, once upon a time Tulip, covered Pan with a dark cloth transparent from inside to enable him see everything around. The two floated through several paths in the mysterious and objectionable location. Along the route it took everything manly in him to stop his throat from screams as the weirdest skeletons walked towards him. The ones on his path walked through him but he felt nothing.
After what must have lasted an age they reached what Tulip called home. Two skeletons came forward, the taller and bigger offered a hand which Pan felt petrified enough to reject. The shorter and slimmer skeleton took a bow and opened its jaw which Pan guessed signaled a smile.
“Young man you are welcome to our humble home,” the figure Pan guessed should be Tulip’s father thought, for no sound came through its jaws. “I sent my daughter to fetch you – for a purpose.”
“How would you?” Pan enquired in his mind. “She met me on my way home on conclusion of my day’s hunt.”
“We planned, arranged, and executed everything to suit our purpose. I am Professor Rabid, researcher emeritus, full-time, and eternal resident in this kingdom. I have kept myself and my family busy as the academicians we have been all our lives,” the skeletal Professor said and paused.
“I came up with an idea which we have worked on for a long time,” he continued. “We need to test it for validity, verifiability, and replicability. For a period – I guess you are aware we have no concept of time here – we worked on a project to import a living person into this kingdom, escort the person through the inner city to our home without the person being noticed, and export the person through the physical entrance to the human world. Our experiment and research will be concluded if we can return you to your world with no one in this kingdom being aware, young or old, leader or the led, moron or genius.”
“Permit me to ask two questions, first, how did three of you come here for it appears you came here as one human family?”
“A high speed train sped all of us here. If you are able to get back, remind train drivers of the cliché better be late than be the late. The train driver lives somewhere in this kingdom but without his family. We considered ourselves lucky because we came together.”
“What happened?” Pan enquired further.
“Humans have an insatiable lust for questions but I will indulge you although the longer you stay here the more perilous for you.”
“Please continue. Being a professor has no place in my catalogue of desires despite the place of curiosity in the DNA of professors.”
“I have no reason to doubt the penchant of professors for curiosity.”
“But permit one other question – what informed your decision to select me for this incredible experiment out of millions of living people out there?”
“You were the perfect fit after we monitored you for an extended period. First, you cannot resist a pretty face and this has been the case from your middle childhood. When you see a girl you lose intellectual coordination. This has been made worse by your quest which you have kept secret from your family and community. If you allowed yourself seconds to engage your faculties of discernment you would have noticed unusual things about my daughter as well as strange things along the route from your community to this place. And it appeared by design you should be a hunter to be haunted down because of the religious strength of your community.
Second, given your training as a vigilante leader, you can stand lots of horrors. Your operation in forests and in particular during dark hours has exposed you to unusual sights. Few living persons would have been able to stand the horrors you saw from the moment you entered our kingdom. If you screamed our experiment would have failed and by this time you would be one of us on a permanent basis.”
“You brought me here against my wish and without the knowledge of my family. I can imagine what my family will feel when I fail to return as expected.”
“Pain, fear, anxiety, and uncertainty but after a time the law will declare you missing. It happens all the time in the relationship between your world and ours on land and in water. In fact, you are our tenth guinea pig and I wish you would let us conclude the experiment and spare other families the agony of lost relations.”
This thought angle made Pan decide to increase the level of his self-control and face whatever horrors he will see on his way out. As it appeared no other thing required to be said or done, Professor Rabid thanked Pan and pointed a bony hand to his way out.
Tulip-Minus as Pan decided to call the girl which at first sight he regarded as the prettiest in the world led the way. He joined her to walk the dusty, stench-drenched, skeleton-packed paths to the mouth of the cave. He saw more horrors such as entities with part flesh and part bones, bloody beings between the two worlds, and mass movements of beings which Pan believed resulted from an accident such as a boat mishap or plane crash or a bomb dropped on a community. After an eternity of mind-numbing horrors Tulip-Minus pointed to the exit and Pan walked towards and through it.
Out in the sun-soaked field, Pan sucked in as much clean air as his stuffed nostrils and lungs were able to. He walked away from the entrance to the cave with uncertain steps and hoped Tulip-Minus or some other horrid being operated far from him.
Few yards from the cave Pan cleared his throat and uttered a sound to convince himself of his humanness. He saw berries, plucked, and sucked in a further attempt to convince himself of his humanness. He skipped and boxed the air and when the bones held he knew the strings of bones as beings were different from him. When he came by a brook, squatted, washed his hands and face, and scooped water to drink he saw the drink as final confirmation of his humanness. No legend indicated ghosts drink, appreciate, and make use of water as the most fundamental requirement in human life.
Pan walked with confidence through the brushes in expectation he would be in his community in a short while. He recalled the two pheasants he left and hoped being there all night would leave the flesh intact despite the delay. But it turned out to be a long walk which took three days and three nights. During the period he slept in fits on top of trees during the nights, ate fruits and meat, and contrived water for himself thanks to his training as a vigilante.
By the time he reached Lightborough he looked dishevelled and weighed in five pounds lower. His story kept mouths open while listeners either admired him or felt he told the story to increase his self-worth. But the narrative excluded the points made by Professor Rabid on the reason for his selection for the experiment. And he needed no one to tell him to be wiser, develop higher discernment, transform himself, and be more circumspect in his life and times.
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