All That I Know

The Thai soccer team became trapped on June 23, when they started exploring the caves after going on a picnic following a soccer practice.  Monsoon flooding blocked their escape and prevented rescuers from finding them for almost 10 days.  They survived by drinking water dripping off the stalactites above them, however I am not sure if they ever did receive any emergency care packages that were dropped into the shafts of the cave.  Each package contained food, beverages, a phone, a flashlight, candles, a lighter and a map of the cave.  The last remaining member of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach have been pulled out of the flooded cave, bringing an end to a near three-week ordeal that prompted a huge international rescue effort.

I can still remember my trip into the void and all I know is a door into the dark where I became disoriented after entering it, I had to take risks, make choices and find myself, but this gave me the idea of how to design a labyrinth.  I am Daedalus the great Greek craftsman and inventor and you may know me for the labyrinth that I created to hold the Minotaur and the wings made of feathers that I made so my son Icarus and I could escape from Crete.  All I know is something like a bird within me sang and it sang for a little while and then flew on, but Icarus dared to fly too near the sun and the wax that held the feathers on his wings melted.   I am sure that you are curious, so I will tell you all that I know.

In the summer following my birth, a monkey crawled into my crib and told me that I would have to evolve or else I would die, as he had learned how things are done from five other monkeys that tried to climb a ladder to reach a bunch of bananas.  When I turned 10 years old, I went to visit the Oracle of Delphi, a sanctuary dedicated to the god Apollo.  The Earth mother Gaia kept a holy serpent at Delphi known as Python who Apollo slayed and kept to allow the oracle to speak to mortals.  I saw vapors rising from the crack in the floor that was emitting a gas with intoxicating properties, which also sent forth the essences of the sweetest perfumes, while the oracle sat on a tripod, so she would not fall into the chasm.  I consulted the oracle on how to help me evolve into another plane of existence and she taught me astral projection which was a psychedelic, surreal, and abstract way to have an out-of-body experience.  This helped me to discover the existence of my soul or consciousness, however it also did make me into a supercilious person.

My astral body was able to deviate from my physical body and I was no longer a resident of Earth.  I started travelling throughout the universe.  My journey started in April and it was filled with dark sarcasm, because I had had built this personal wall around myself that blocked me from seeing the rest of the world clearly, but all in all not to lessen this experience in any way, I found out that it was just another brick in the wall.  While my astral projection made its way back to my body, I encountered the shadows of this cave, which hid all of the brilliant moonlight, and I became motionless not knowing if I wanted to get back to my real body, or just stay here in this fake world.  The walls of this cave were dappled with bluish shadows that glittered like diamonds, but I did evolve, just as the monkey told me to do and eventually I was able to make it back.

Written for Daily Addictions prompt – Resident, for FOWC with Fandango – Lessen, for July Writing Prompts – In the summer following my birth, for Sheryl’s A New Daily Post Word Prompt – Supercilious, for Ragtag Community – Dappled, for RayNotBradbury Cool Writing Prompt – All I know is a door into the dark by Seamus Heaney, for Scotts Daily Prompt – Package, for Teresa’s Haunted Wordsmith Three Things Challenge, where the three prompt words are “monkey, April and brick” and for Word of the Day Challenge Prompt – Deviate.