I had done an excellent job
of prepping. The camera was on standby,
the compressor
humming, the propofol was dripping.
I counted backwards from 100
And soon I slipped into my alter ego
Gina, the caver.
Sixty-one, athletic,
well-proportioned, and mostly tan.
Gina followed the prompt set by the anesthesiologist, whose name she still can’t remember.
He said,” Dream about Tony the Spelunker.”
Tony was forty-five, had a six-pack, and loved shiny dark passageways.
Gina relaxed, and soon Tony appeared
She showed Tony her headlamp
Tony was sporting his new dive watch
with fully charged gas tritium tubes.
Tony and Gina
went spelunking through a remote section of the tunnel,
where several sulfurous geysers
had freshly erupted,
in search of polyps
and other strange outgrowths.
Tony was amazed at the colors of the stalagmites and stalactites inside the wet cave. He used his watch to make his way through the tiny pathway and searched for the perfect place to unpack and share his potato skins. Tony and Gina laughed and talked, and soon it was time for Gina to wake up.
She was still smiling when the Doctor asked if she was okay to stand up. She nodded, waved, and blew a kiss at Tony before she left. His watch blinked once in response. They had promised to meet again in about ten years.
©Cornelia DeDona 4/2/26
