Chapter 4

Rice quickly adapted, as that is what he did, to being the tote mule for the group. It was hard enough caving with out having to pack along seventy pounds of gear and supplies, so even though Rice would be helping consume the supplies, he was also able to carry more than enough to make up for it, and also lessen the load for the rest. A quick lesson on abseiling or rappelling was all that was needed (You sure you never done this?) because Rice was a quick study, and a few mostly unneeded instructions later and off they went, quickly passing through the known passageways in spite of their awesome beauty because they were here to explore, not to sight see. Once reaching the frontier, the limit of recorded and explored cavern features, they began meticulous note keeping, measuring, leveling and indicating depth- In short they created a three dimensional map, talking using a lot of explorer terms and short hand that Rice had to learn from context. Soon Rice was handling a clip board and writing with the grease pencil on the ‘cave hardened paper’ meant not to dissolve if wetted the numbers and distances that were called back to him. As they went, they tested the structural integrity of the cavern meticulously. Woe be unto any cave explorer who doesn’t clearly note any dangers, be it one way slides, cave-in chance or bad air.

Rice became used to the timeless nature of extended caving in due time. He didn’t own a watch, not wanting to divert his meager funds on such a trinket, especially since it would engender questions, flaunting possessions like that. He just accepted it when one of the ‘real’ cavers said it was time to eat a meal, so Rice would set up the mini cooking flame and heat a hot drink/soup, or that it was bed time so Rice would set up the tents if there was room, as they were more for privacy than protection from the elements, or unroll the bed-bags if not.

It was mostly make work, although it reduced the work required by every one else; after all, every one carried their own bed-bag anyway. But having Rice cook the meals allowed them to improve their notes while fresh in their minds, and explore the environs while they paused. It also reduced the gender role friction of the wives resenting the underlying expectation that they handle the domestic duties.

The rations were plain, and like most explorer food carried by hand, were sufficient not abundant. Rice was used to hunger as often as not, (there was no peace to be found with Brad in the home) so he appreciated the regularity of the meals while not noticing their barely sufficient volume.

They all directed Rice, using him as extra hands, and he made himself as useful as he could, actually easing and facilitating the social interactions so that what had formerly been abrasions of individual quirks became more smoothly accommodated with out friction. Peacemaker is often the role of children from troubled homes. Rice generally got along well with everyone, and those few bullies or antagonistic ‘rabids’ who were unable to remain at least neutral toward Rice were noted and avoided.

Perhaps it is just normal for explorers to accept native scouts and Sherpa and Safari porters as useful equipment to bring along.

The darkness would have been oppressive, and trying to see started phantom hallucinations of shift and shadow but Rice just stopped straining his eyes as he gained awareness that it didn’t avail. Instead, he let himself get ‘tunnel vision’ (Rice grinned happily amused with his own clever thoughts) and to only try to see what he could see, at the bottom of this deep dark hole as illuminated by his headlamp or glimpses in the lights of the others, although it was wearying to try to make sense of distances with only relative size to judge by.

So, Rice put his attention that wasn’t on his cone of awareness into his other senses, getting information on the closeness of the walls by the sound reflections, awareness of open spaces by some feeling of hairs on the back of his neck it seemed, he really didn’t know how or by what means his senses combined to give him a pretty accurate feel of the space he was in.

By now trusted, Bob on occasion sent Rice into crawls and wedges smaller than the adults could fit through, to document if there was a continuation on the far side or a dead end. In one case, it was found that the cavern did continue, and the crawl could be dug out as it was dirt floor of sufficient depth, they marked it down for a later exploration. Another wedge Rice quickly gave up on, as the rock walls were fragmented and he could just see the full meaning of the word ‘wedge’ fill his entire focus as he experienced his first claustrophobia of the spelunk.

They marked the way as too dangerous, and made a pot of tea, giving Rice time to settle his nerves. Done, Rice packed the tiny heat source and collapsed his borrowed metal drinking cup (it really was a well equipped expedition) picked up his share of the lug and trudged deeper into the darkness, as black as the depths of a cave, Rice grinned to himself.