Crawling Between Heaven And Earth Read Online Free PDF Page B

doorway.

    Our guide touched a button. The panel slid away.

    "Ladies and gentlemen, let us enter the fabulous labyrinth of the Minotaur."

    We followed him into a tunnel. Its walls were molded of smooth black dimatough, and the blackness swallowed what light shone from the diminutive lamps on the wall sconces.

    The uncertain lighting changed my companions into shapes and shadows. The dank air reeked of manure. It felt like a cheap ride in a second class carnival.

    "It smells like a stable," Pol's girlfriend said. "I'm not going in."

    The guide turned around. A light affixed at the base of his throat lit his face partially and from below, obscenely emphasizing his mouth. "It's perfectly clean," he said his mouth opening and closing, white teeth shining and making him look like a snarling beast. "But the Minotaur . . .. You see, he's an animal. He smells."

    In the doorway, square-shouldered Pol bowed meekly to whisper something to his companion.

    She giggled. "Oh, don't be silly. No, I wouldn't want to deprive you . . .. I know you want to go in."

    Another bout of whispering, and a muffled giggle. "No, I won't stay here alone, either. I guess I'm being a silly old woman. We'll go in, Pol. Come along."

    They joined the party, her high heels clicking as we walked along the ever-narrowing corridor. We stopped in front of a fresco-adorned wall that depicted, in gruesome color and lurid detail, the Minotaur feasting on the corpses of ancient Greek maidens and youths.

    The guide turned to face us, winked. "Follow me," he said.

    Flattening himself against the fresco, he slithered sideways, seemingly disappearing into the stone wall. Pol followed, eagerly, smiling like a child at a party.

    I tried it next.

    There was an opening, of course, to the left side of the panel, an opening so narrow that it required our sliding sideways, squeezing between stony surfaces.

    On the other side, Pol smiled at me, and the guide looked away.

    "Look what it's done to my dress," Nary said as she emerged. "I don't think anything will get it clean."

    Her bright yellow silk dress showed dust and something like a verdigris stain.

    The guide looked abashed. "Replacements will be provided, of course," he said, and bowed and turned to lead us down the wider, curving corridor into which we'd emerged.

    We walked a long time, between black walls and my sense of direction, built into me for my job as a courier, told me that we actually described a full circle before we took an abrupt left turn.

    The purpose of the circle would be to make the way seem longer. However disadvantages of being a human homing pigeon my being forced to take a circuitous route countered my carefully designed instincts for always choosing the quickest way. My mind knew where the turns we took were silly and useless and, trudging along the dark, dank, smelly hallways, I literally ached to take a streamlined path.

    The ceiling of the next compartment hung so low that we had to duck our heads. Because of his height, Pol had to bend almost double. His dark hair brushed my shoulder.

    No one spoke. At the end of the tunnel, the head of the Minotaur, carved in stone, glared at us. We turned right, suddenly able to stand up. The high ceiling, on which the guide helpfully shone his light, displayed another fresco, this one of the Minotaur standing astride a pile of human corpses, while Theseus pierced the beast's chest with his borrowed sword.

    The smell of manure got worse. My hair attempted to stand on end.

    "It's too long," Pol's girlfriend said. "And it smells. Can't we take a short cut? Can't you call the beast to us?"

    "Ah, my dear, but the Minotaur hides in the labyrinth and ambushes us," the guide said.

    Nary murmured something from which the word, "nonsense," emerged.

    To my disgust, I agreed with her. She might be an idiot, but even idiots were right sometimes.

    The place did smell like a stable, a musty animal-waste smell. The dark, cold corridors didn't