The Three Faces Of Buddha

Chapter 7

They found the statue just as they remembered; near enough to see how close it was but not close enough to reach out and touch it.

"I thought it faded away, like mist or something," their thoughts told them. "I could have sworn there was nothing there." Yet the statue was there. The strange lifelike man with his arms stretched out heading somewhere. He could resemble a zombie if his skin and posture could look a bit more unhealthy and awkward. However, his skin shone and the dark brown tan looked too robust to fit the profile of a zombie. The neck and spine looked strong and determined. The eyes possessed direction and purpose. The statue was most definitely not a zombie, unless of course it moved very slowly. Then that feature would be the most like a zombie's.

The man was bald at the front. Shaved to the top, the front half of his face from ear to top of head to the other ear, the head was smooth, devoid of hair.

However, the rest of his head, lay a thick rug of hair, straight except for where it touched the shoulders. There, the man's hair curled inward towards the neck, giving the illusion that he had more hair in the front, for anyone who viewed him from behind. This discovery gave Kalina relief that she'd not been imaging a man with flowing head of hair. She never saw his face except perhaps the tip of his nose and even that she wasn't even sure. The statue's dark tones blended well with the surroundings.

"I don't know. It's like the statue is part of some other dimension," Joshua said. "I try and try but I can't seem to reach it. Which is really weird because you all are trying to reach it from other parts of the cave. I have a better chance of touching you than touching it."

"I guess the laws of physics don't apply here." The words surprised Evan even as he uttered them. Bro was right. Something about them coming at the statue from the sides wasn't working. The statue blocked his view of Bro yet he had this feeling he could meet Bro if he decided to walk to his brother instead of the statue.

"You know, that's given me an idea," Kevin said. "Let me try something," he said.

Evan held his breath. He had a inkling that he knew what Kevin would do. If he was mistaken and if Kevin failed to reach the statue, then Evan would test his theory.

Slowly, long seconds passed, and they could all see Kevin getting closer and closer to the statue.

Finally Kevin stopped and laughed.

"Are you there?" Evan asked. Kevin still looked like he could travel a great deal more to reach the statue.

"Yep."

"So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and touch him."

Evan started walking toward Kevin and as he got closer to Kevin, the distance between him and the statue also shortened.

Kalina and Joshua were quickly approaching as well.

"Alright. Now that we're all here, I can see we're close. Really close. But he's still too far away for me to touch and now that we're all here, that trick you used to get close to him won't work any more. We're all here. We can't walk over to each other anymore. Wow, what a waste."

Kevin's eyes sparkled. He showed Evan the small rock he held between his thumb and index finger. In a swift back arc followed by a quick snap as his arm arced forward, the rock blinked out of sight until impact. It smacked the statue audibly, shattering into dust.

"Always wanted to do that. After all the following I've been doing, I just wanted to smash it with a rock."

His satisfaction dissipated as the figure rippled. The man slowly angled his head to face them.

"Oh shit," they all thought. The statue was alive and moving. Now that it was looking at them, Kevin felt a shiver of panic that he'd done the wrong thing.

"You don't think I hurt him, do you?" he asked the others.

"I don't think that matters. He looks pissed," Evan said.

The posture continued to change as the statue reoriented its path to head for the teens.

Before the kids could sort out their emotions, their legs took over and they turned around and ran.

Evan realized he ran off without his friends and his brother after he reached the corner of the cave and gone left. With his back hugging against the wall and his chest heaving raggedly from short breaths, he lingered, not daring to peer back to see where the others had gone. By the time Evan calmed down and regained control of his nerve, the others were no where to be seen.

"Oh this is bad," he thought.