Previously: Tommy is reflecting on his harrowing experience as he & his friend Flying Squirrel attempted to repel down a vertical tunnel:
"On the count of three, we both dropped down about ten feet expecting to be kicking the walls of the downward tunnel. We looked around with the glow of the lantern glistening on black walls about five feet away. We found ourselves, suspended in a cavernous space. After digesting our disappointment, we began the acrobatics of climbing back to the opening.

"Something we hadn't noticed before; breezes swirled around us. There was a gust of either an updraft or a downdraft. Our lantern blew out. We were left in a black whirlpool. We had descended into Poe's Maelstrom."

********


Linda and Liz felt as if they were dangling in the darkness with Tommy and Flying Squirrel. The story of Tommy's cave adventure was about the very hole they'd steered far away from for fear of falling into it. Neither of them knew what was meant by Poe's Maelstrom, but they had a feeling they would soon find out.

"What did you ever do?' Liz blurted.

Tommy continued his harrowing account. "We yelled up toward the opening we knew was somewhere above us, our preservation-of-life corridor.

"What we experienced in the cold darkness, I never want to relive. As we hung suspended by a thin rope our survival senses sharpened. At first, it sounded like a dull murmur, but upon focusing, I realized it was a roar."

He spoke of how they figured there must have been a rushing body of water below. That, combined with the shrieking, the wind-tossed them back and forth on their ropes.

"Flying Squirrel and I were terrified." Tommy told of how it felt as if they were in an angry cross gale.

"As we gyrated dizzily on our lifelines, we never ceased chanting to the Creator for help. Our voices seemed to coil around our bodies but never swept upward.

"Flying Squirrel and I shouted over the din to comfort each other. We weren't sure if what we were hearing was the shrieking of the wind or a six-year-old." Tommy remarked that there was a noticeable distinction as they tipped their heads in the direction of the sound.

A lighted lantern illuminated Spring Blossom's face as she peered down toward them. Shoots the Arrow had run another line with that lantern attached and retrieved the extinguished one to relight. Spring Blossom reassured the two terrified sixteen-year-olds they would all be together soon.

"I reached for my medicine pouch to thank the Creator. We weren't going to die this time."

Spring Blossom lowered her lantern, so they could make their way back up the ropes one grasp at a time. Shoots the Arrow must have anticipated what happened next.

"Pinching the rope between our feet we had made about a three-foot progress. However, our newfound enthusiasm and hope were doused. The lantern flickered and went out."

Only seconds passed before a replacement lantern lighted their way. Lantern after lantern, foot-wrap after foot-wrap they reached the blessed opening. Relieved, Shoots the Arrow greeted them with strong reaching arms to help with their last hoist onto the floor.

"My heart was in my mouth as I placed my boots on the solid cave floor. We all hugged. I picked up Spring Blossom and spun us around and around. Who knows what would have happened if she hadn't heard Flying Squirrel and me."

Once more on this incredible journey through Montana, Liz and Linda were uncharacteristically silent.

"Wow!" Linda said, "We were so lucky, no wonder Spring Blossom steered us far away from that hole."

"That's why I was upset to hear you say that not only Sage was abducted but also Spring Blossom. I don't want to think of what would have happened if you two ladies hadn't found them." Tommy's voice shook as he spoke.

Liz remarked on what she noticed. "Wow, the firefighters made great progress throughout the night. While we slept they contained a large area." Liz sighed. " But there is so much burnt blackness. It's like a body of steaming water the color of midnight that goes on and on."

"I want to become a mentor for some of the young guys in our tribe who might be interested in becoming chefs. Eddy, my mentor, was invaluable. As I think I said before, he took me out of a dark corner in my life."

Tommy admitted that he knew a lot of their youth were headed for trouble. "They get so bored on the reservation they just get together to drink and some make money dealing." He informed Liz and Linda the money pays for the dealer's own drug use. He explained how this created a vicious cycle. The spiral of their lives was out of balance. "The government that plunked us on Reservations back in the 1800's, has left us there to decompose."

Tommy gritted his teeth as he told of how he felt the young people's souls were rotting. "If I could get to some of them, maybe I could prevent the decay of humanity and be a part in decreasing suicidal ideation.' He smiled as he recounted his dream that these trapped individuals would have a motivation to better their lives and their brothers' lives.

As Liz asked the next question, she felt foolish the minute her words hit the air. "How did they get the drugs on the Reservation?" She'd worked with addicts. She knew as they say 'where there's a will there's a way'.

Tommy politely responded and told of seeing a bunch of them running down the same road where Linda and Liz had been escorted. Everyone knew none of the group was a member of a running or track team.

Tommy continued. "The only time we saw any signs of ambition in them was on delivery day. They met a truck out at the turn to this road. Then they all just scattered into their little hiding places." Tommy's voice cadence slowed, signaling sadness.

Both Liz and Linda were somber remembering friends or clients and patients who had been swallowed up by addiction.

Liz spoke first. "Tommy, you might be saving lives with your plan to mentor."

Tommy needed no thought in responding. "The difficulty is how to motivate these young fellows who look at hard work, then see the addicts. From a young uninformed mind, they perceive that way of life as the easier way."

Liz said, "I worked with addicts at a psych/substance abuse hospital, where my eyes and mind were opened to a different picture." She recounted how the opiate addicts claimed to be trapped in 'chasing the next high'. She told of how they had regretted losing so much; some had been turned away by family.

Tommy agreed with Liz that he'd seen many parents and families have to go on with their lives. They claimed they couldn't take the heartache anymore and had to kick their kids out of the house.

"You have to understand, when we have sometimes three families living together, everyone has to do their share. There is no place for a deadbeat addict in that scenario." Tommy pounded his thigh for emphasis.

Their discussion was interrupted by the slamming of car trunks and hatchbacks. That reminded the chef in the car they hadn't eaten in a while. The serving routine went smoothly.

Liz and Linda were reminded of their previous image of a red and white imaginary necklace they had seen as they were approaching the area. The taillights of vehicles in the distance began a staccato blinking from white to red.

Just in time for their snack, they were about to move forward. Hopefully, closer to a garage to have their dead-batteried car attended to.