Colony
Frank was exhausted crawling. .. he must have been
crawling for more than 15 minutes when he sensed Re
standing in front of him…
‘Frank, this is the first time an native inhabitant has been
allowed into our territory and you are under oath to never
to reveal anything that you have seen or experienced’ Re
said into his ears
Frank thought even if he said no one would believe
…
and said loudly ‘oh sure...Promise…’
Re moved away and Frank lifted his eyes and the sight
would remain with him as long as he lived. He moved as
if in trance and remained seated.
He felt claustrophobic and thought the whole weight of
the mountain above would come down on them at any
time.
The scene was like a sci-fi movie scene .An enormous
cavern as big as indoor football field...he could easily
touch the overhead ceiling, perhaps 8 or 9 feet high ... at
the centre ,what looked like a shining shark like thing was
seen … Two rows of rock columns were seen directly
opposite him. a kind of light globes floated above the
columns and gave away an eerie bluish glow. Near the
2
2
periphery the lights were of white glow and he could see
some cultivated patch of banana trees, corns …. and some
other plants which he was not sure .
Now he observed the movements along the pathway
near the rock column and heard a cacophony of noise and
he looked down. Re was surrounded by Re like
apparitions and he thought around 20 + beings were there.
Re’s voice rose above the others and he turned to look at
him. All those beings ran away when the saw him
standing in the dark near the tunnel and he quietly waved
at them and sat down to reduce his size. He thought they
must think he was a giant came to devour them. Re called
them back and one by one they came near Re, looking at
Frank with those beautiful blue eyes. Re said ‘ Frank is
here to help us if not, we will die’
Again the same cacophony of voices...while they were
arguing Frank looked around him again...he heard
flowing water nearby thought there must be waterfalls
nearby.. He saw the floor was wet and water was seeping.
He wanted to go near the shark like thing as he had never
seen a metal shining so bright with a pink tint...
Re called him to come over and Frank stood up like a
huge colossal statue and moved towards them. When he
reached them Re showed him the water on the ground and
said they all would drown in few hours...
Frank understood and asked ‘show me from where water
is pouring in’
2
3
Re and few of the apparitions ran towards the other end
of the cavern ,past the gleaming shark and Frank walked
behind them , carefully looking down so that he would
not step on some of the exquisite being .
He could see a small waterfall, falling from the ceiling
which was just above his head. Re showed him a rock
which was probably was there in the hole and stopped
water flowing in and this cyclone must have displaced it.
The rock must have weighed around 30 or 40 KG at the
most, he thought it would be easy for him to lift and place
it in the opening but for these little beings it would not
have been possible.
Frank gestured to them to move away and easily picked
up the elongated rock and pushed it through the hole
above... He was drenched completely ...the rock was quite
slippery so he placed one end on his shoulder and pushed
it vertically and then turned it around to fall back over the
hole. The rock fell on the hole perfectly and immediately
the sound and flow of the water stopped but not
completely, it was just dripping... Behind him a cheer
went up.
Frank asked ‘do you want to stop the water completely
?
’
Re said ‘No Frank ... we are all indebted to you... we
need that seepage of water for our plants and for us .. It is
raining heavily...you can wait for some time and I will
take you back.’.
2
4
Frank was happy with the arrangement as he wanted to
know about this people so agreed immediately and said ‘
Re this rock should be cemented if not again it would
dislodge from its place...’
Now few of them came running with some cones and
they gave it to him... he looked at it but couldn’t identify
what it was . Re said ‘the cement’
He was surprised but took the small cone and opened the
tip and used the glue like thing to seal the rock on three
sides of the opening leaving one side . He was sceptical at
first but the cement was like glue and hardened in no time
sealing it completely. He tried prising the dried cement
but it wouldn’t budge… he used three of the cones and
gave back the rest.
They came closer and looked all the way up at him with
the melting gaze.
He involuntarily smiled at everyone and thought smile
is a universal language .
Re told them to arrange a feast for Frank and all those
little ones ran away shouting with joy and disappeared
into the columns ...
Frank now observed the columns little keenly and he
could see four tiny houses, one above the other in each
column… the diameter of the column must be less than 2
metres at the base and tapering like a needle...
2
5
illuminated with the same floating light he had seen when
he entered. He remembered reading about this magnetic
levitating floating wireless LED light but these did not
look like anything that he had ever seen.
The spiral staircases went from one house to the other,
the doorway was slightly more than one foot high and
half a foot or so breadth . The design looked like a single
cone turret with tiny windows. There were six columns
like that on either side of road like walkway at the
middle...
He wondered how many such inhabitants were there and
what made them so small. He decided to ask when Re told
him to sit on a small rock near the entry.. .looking at the
rock he knew that they would close the entry of the tunnel
using this rock. He could see another flat rock formation
nearby which looked highly polished that it shone.
Frank sat down and Re called them to come near …
around 30 or more came near.. the females were very
easily distinguishable as they wore long tunic that touched
the ground and put up their golden hair at the top of their
head like a crown leaving few curls framing their
beautiful face. They were carrying what looked like corn
on the cobs, red colour bananas and some pink liquid in
tiny jars . He felt like laughing and decided not to eat
much thinking, how much they must have toiled to collect
all these...
2
6
Frank took one corn on the cob and asked Re the
question that was burning on his mind since he had
looked at Re, ‘ who are you people ? Why are you all so
small? Where did you come from?’
There was a pregnant silence …
*
*****
2
7