No one expects the hole to just open up below them. No one expects it when they are standing there happily eating a churro. A massive swollen open of earth and roots tore through the pavement beneath me and down I went past all my expectations or that pretty girl I had just made eye contact with. The worst part I did not die. The bottom of this throat or shaft was unforgiving stone and the fall did break my body. I was fortunate enough to have my eyes oriented towards the sky as I watched it be obscured by the holes closing, probably for the last time. At least that is what I believe now. I lay broken and bleeding in that primordial realm as my eyes did their magic and adjusted to the dark. Slowly the shapes of the walls and stone formations crept into view as my retinas and brain adjusted to the low light. Some of them looked like my dog waiting for me to come home, others looked like my Dad who had gone ahead of me. Then the stars came into focus. I say stars only because that is what they seemed. How could they be stars so deep in this terrible womb? Their cold light did not sing of hope and visions of the unexplored. No, they instead thrummed with the same dread of a prison welcoming a new inmate. Their cold light pricked my skin and penetrated my broken bones. I am alive here in the deep place. I can walk again I could travel that road below hoping for the surface or something better. Instead, I sit and ponder my plight. I am changed, This stone chamber radiates life into me but it is a cold life. I fear leaving because I feel I will carry this cold life with me. I will not walk that path that has clearly opened before me. Instead, I will think on the girl with who I made eye contact and dream of churros.