(New) They dove for treasure, but found something lost in time. Danger and adventure in The Lost Crystal of Atlantis "A Samuel Light Story" By John Pirillo

The Lost Crystal of Atlantis
"A Samuel Light Story"
By John Pirillo

"It's all in the way you look at it, Jimbo." Samuel told his friend, as they examined the rock crystals hanging from the ceiling of the cave they were exploring off the coast of California. They had taken a boat out and scuba dived in the rough waters off Catalina, searching for the entrance.

It had been a fluke for them to discover it, but Samuel had done so by accidentally touching this old man in a rest home. He and Jimbo went every Sunday to perform for them. Samuel played guitar and sang. Jimbo played a harmonica and sometimes a lap piano and sang with him. It was all the rage. They were constantly being invited back and to other homes associated with the ones they visited.

It wasn't like they needed to do it, they loved doing it. They both had a lot of respect for the mileage older people put in, from their own adventures, which sometimes involved a bruising, or broken bone here and there. Hey! It's what friends were for, getting adventured and broken. Right?

Not really, Samuel thought, as he mused over their present predicament. Their scuba tanks had run out of air just as they discovered the cave. In the most unlikely of places, beneath a sunken Spanish Galleon. If they survived this adventure, they might very well become solid gold business men with a line of credit to make Bill Gates envious. Not happening. Samuel thought again. It wasn't his destiny, karma to get rich. Not that he wouldn't appreciate the gesture from God, but he knew well enough from what he had already seen in his visions and experienced in his past life regressions to know he had a lot of work to make up for that he had skimped on in prior lifetimes. Times when he had been wealthy, but had hoarded it when people around him were suffering and he could have helped them. Times when he had controlled vast sums of money and had conspired to keep the masses from sharing in the offsets of that wealth so that many were driven into extreme poverty.

No. There was a price to be paid for being wealthy the wrong way. You paid for it down the road. He always laughed when Jimbo read the newspaper and bitched about those rich sonuva bitches that got away with hoarding their money and socking it to the homeless and middleclass, but Samuel knew better, he was living the kind of life they also would someday, once they'd gotten their feet rightly on the path to enlightenment. They too would one day become helpers, instead of hinderers to their fellow man.

Jimbo didn't duck enough. His head struck the ceiling of the low cavern. A spark of light struck into the darkness for a moment. Jimbo rubbed at the hurt spot on his head, and then saw something in the darkness that caught his eye. It wasn't real clear, but the light filtering through the water pool they had exited from was enough to spot it. He flicked on his headlight.

"Don't waste the energy."

"As if it would much matter at this point." Jimbo grumbled. "No food. No...Air."

"Always the pessimist."

"Better than pretending to be an angel all the time."

"Who's pretending?" Samuel laughed.

But on Jimbo's scowl, he backed off.

Jimbo ignored his friend and bent over to pick up something.

"Look at this Sammie." Jimbo said, clutching a different sort of crystal in his palms. Samuel shone his headlight on it, the one he and Jimbo both used to scour the depths when they went into the darker regions.

The stone's interior shone like gold.

"If it smells like, looks like, and feels like..." Samuel said with a smile.

"Then it must be..."

"Gold." Samuel finished.

They broke into laughter, and then somber again, they sat down on the crystals...gold crystals that lay abundantly about them. They had found not only a sunken Spanish galleon, which Samuel was sure was loaded with treasure, but also a new kind of gold. Pure and crystalline. It would fetch billions on the stock market and in the market place. They would never live to collect any of it.

He glanced over at their empty tanks, and then at Jimbo, who was also thinking the same thought. "When I get back, I'm going to waffle that scuba dive dealer until he looks like Godzilla with potholes."

"Not really." Samuel disagreed.

"Nah. Guess not." Jimbo said sourly. "Stuck here without oxygen, or a single thing to eat. Wouldn't you know I'd die of starvation?"

Samuel laughed. "I could think of worse ways to die."

"Not me." Jimbo groused, angrily muttering to himself, kicking some loose crystals across the cave floor.

Samuel got up and headed towards the back. "Well, since we're stuck here, we might as well keep moving forward, since we can't go back."

"Your logic just continually astounds me, man." Jimbo said, climbing to his feet. He groaned, rubbing the back of his head that had struck one of the dangling crystals before he had flicked on his head lamp.

"Damn crystals have the bite of a shark."

Samuel laughed again, but made no comment, knowing full well that Jimbo had enough of them to fill a ballpark without his helping him.

As they went deeper Samuel stopped. Ahead of him Al and M were dancing, their eyes bright with laughter.

"Why you stop?"

"Al."

Jimbo peered around Samuel's head. "See nothing."

"Doesn't mean he's not there. M's there too."

Jimbo sighed. "Now that's one doll I'd love to get a dish of."

M burst into laughter, let go of Al, then ran over and gave Jimbo a kiss on his cheek. Jimbo jumped back, as if struck by lightning. "What the hell was that?"

"She just kissed you, love buddy."

"But I felt it. I never feel anything those invisible friends of yours do."

"Probably don't remember."

Jimbo scowled at Samuel, asking him to back off. "Probably some kind of underwater, underground gnat with my luck."

"Think what you want." Samuel commented, and watched M shake her head, then laugh and go back to Al, who took her right hand and led the way deeper into the cavern.

"I think we're going to make it." Samuel said, as they followed.

"Yeah. You and what magic is gonna make that happen?"

They both froze when they took a turn in the cavern. Before them was a gigantic crystal of pure gold, that seemed to vibrate with life. "My God!" Samuel barked without realizing it.

"What's wrong, pal?"

"It's from Atlantis."

"How can you tell?"

Samuel closed his eyes, and saw the same thing. The giant crystal set in the floor of a massive temple, with people clad in pure white smiling at it, talking happily, then one after the other stepping towards it, then vanishing with pings of pure white light.

Samuel spun around, his eyes bright, his face feverish. "The Atlanteans used it to teleport from one part of the world to another."

Jimbo suddenly leaned back against a wall, and made choking sounds.

Samuel felt more and more light headed.

"The oxygen." He gasped.

Jimbo nodded. "Gone."

He fell, eyes shutting after he landed on his side.

Samuel felt himself teetering and then saw Al glare at him and shake a finger. "Don't you go there, Samuel Light!" He told him in no uncertain terms.

Samuel gave Al a helpless look, but Al wouldn't relent.

"How do we get out? Tell me! We're..."

Samuel had to sit down. He felt even fainter.

Al glared even more. Even M joined in, shaking her head.

Then Samuel's eyes lit on the crystal ahead of him, only a mere few inches away. He placed a hand on it, and it lit up brighter than an amusement park carousel. He turned around with difficulty and grasped Jimbo's arm. "Jimbo, you gotta wake up."

Jimbo didn't stir.

"Jimbo, I've got two double whoppers to go and a giant size fry."

Jimbo's eyes fluttered open. "Am I in heaven already?"

Samuel was too weak to joke back. "Help me!" He pleaded, and then began pulling Jimbo towards the crystal. "Imagine we're home." Samuel told him.

"I can't. No ruby slippers." Jimbo gasped, and then began coughing for air.

With a great will of effort Samuel pulled Samuel as hard as he could and they both flung against the giant crystal. It lit up brighter still and they vanished from the cavern.

Samuel woke up on the floor of his apartment in Vegas to the sound of bacon frying. It smelled great, even if he didn't eat it anymore. He sat up. Jimbo was in the kitchen cooking bacon and eggs, toast and homemade fries. He turned and looked over at Samuel.

"I would have gotten you up, but you looked so purty down there with your beauty sleep, I didn't want to ruin your party."

Samuel sat up and groaned. His right side ached like hell.

"And yeah, Sammie, we must have fallen several feet."

Samuel grunted and got to his feet. "How can we fall up, then down?"

Jimbo ignored him and placed a platter of bacon, eggs, toast and fries on one side of the kitchen table, then one without bacon on the other. He grabbed a half gallon of orange juice and two glasses, and then filled them. He sat down and kicked the other chair out, so Samuel could sit.

"Not hungry."

Samuel sat down, and then his taste buds lit on fire. He began digging into the food. Full, he shoved back from his empty plate, cradled the remaining juice between his hands, t hen said again. "We flew up, and then fell. Doesn't make sense."

Jimbo grunted, a guilty look on his face.

"You didn't fall down, partner."

Samuel suddenly got it. "You brat! You fell on me!"

Jimbo laughed.

Samuel could've strangled him at that moment, but instead he raised his glass of orange juice for a toast. "To no more sunken caves and Spanish galleons."

Jimbo clinked his glass against Samuel's. "Ditto on everything but the boat."

Samuel gave Jimbo a stare that might've shriveled another soul. Jimbo shrugged. "Hey, we gotta pay our bills, don't we?"

"When do we leave?" Samuel asked, afraid of what he would hear next.

"Tomorrow morning."

Samuel groaned loudly, then flung himself from his chair and headed for his bedroom. "Where you going, partner?"

"Where any sane man who was just teleported a thousand miles and clobbered by his best pal would go?"

"Where's that?"

Samuel didn't answer. He went into his bedroom, kicked off his shoes, and dirty clothes and all, dropped onto his foam bed. He went out like a light. Day done. Night welcome!