Ribo was praying with her eyes closed. She was facing the darkest tunnel she had been in front of in her life. This was her decisive moment and her moment of glory. Her face was calm, but her body emanated a powerful charm that radiated across the colony. Slowly Ribo turned and faced her clan that had gathered.
She cleared her voice and said, “My dear clan! Our world here may be ending, but I believe our ancestors who told us that there is a whole new world at the other end of this tunnel. We have always been forbidden from entering this tunnel unless it was an end-of-the-world situation. The tunnel is told to be a crazy maze and anyone who gets inside gets lost forever and dies running around in circles. Even the rowdiest of our lot over all these years haven’t explored this tunnel. Entering it means death as we have been told, but….”
She let her words hang in the air for a second. The crowd was silent and looking up at her with rapt attention.
Ribo continued, “But it is my sworn duty to protect you all as your Chef (German word for boss). It is my pride to be called as your Chef. But I am one amongst you. I am a daughter, a sister, and a friend to you all. I embark on this journey to find a new world for us. The one that is colorful, bright, and has a lot of food. With prayers to Apollo Smintheus, the mice god, and with the blessings of our ancestors, I am going to enter the tunnel now. See you all soon with good news.”
As Ribo took her first step into the tunnel, the entire mouse colony broke into thunderous applause and cheered for their beloved, courageous leader who was going to find a new world for them.
Ribo thrived in the dark. At night when the humans slept, is when she and her clan crept in and found food. Her superior mastery of the dark tunnels, extreme understanding of the labyrinth of the human colony, and her alert senses of sight, smell, and taste were the reasons behind her quick rise through the ranks and being appointed to be their first woman Chef at such an early age.
But the darkness of this tunnel was something else. Ribo had to stretch her keen sense of vision to the limits to keep moving ahead. She lost track of time. Her ancestors who had heard stories and details of the tunnel from insects and other small organisms had made a rough map of the tunnel, but it was sketchy at best. She only knew she had to keep going on straight for a long time and then the maze starts where she would have to make her choices. The right choice would lead her to the new world and the wrong choice meant she would be lost forever in the tunnels. She was determined to make the right choice.
As she marched on in the dark, Ribo’s thoughts went to her dad. She had always been Dad’s little girl, the apple of his eye. His world revolved around her and stopped when she was not around. A crazy Dad! When she had been made Chef, there was no one prouder in mice history than her father had been at that time. A tear escaped her eyes as she thought of the last look on his face before she entered the tunnel. He was putting up a brave face, but she knew that he was torn inside and crying inconsolably. The time she spent with her dad flashed in front of her eyes and there was one statement he always said, “Everything that you learn will come of use one day.” She was hoping it all came of use in this journey of her life.
As she was reminiscing old memories, she came upon the first choice point. The straight tunnel ended there, and it split into two paths. One went straight up and the other went deep down. Ribo calmed her beating heart and her nerves that were shot. She needed to think clearly. She sat down deep in thought. She pondered for what felt like a couple of hours but didn’t have a solution. Ribo knew the more she spent time pondering, the more difficult the choice became. She stood up and went to the spot where the tunnel split up and down. She said loudly “Dear Dad, please show me the way so that I win and come to see your face again and be in your arms again.” Suddenly a vision flashed in front of her eyes. She was learning to swim in the water pond with her dad. She felt herself being pulled down into the water. Her dad shouted “There is a monster down there pulling you down. You go on up and up and up!”
Ribo opened her eyes with joy. Where did that vision come from? she wondered. But she knew she had to take the path that went up. She took the path that led up and kept going. Her next challenge was where the tunnel split into left and right. She didn’t expect the next challenge to be this soon. The left tunnel looked smooth and easy whereas the right one looked rugged, old, and shabby. She wasted no time to look up to her dad’s teachings. “Never take the effortless way out in anything. There is no fun or glory in that. Take the tough path. The victory is sweeter.”
“Thanks, Dad,” she said aloud and took the path that led right, which was old shabby, and rugged. This is what she had trained for, and she was used to this. She marched on resolutely.
After hours of straight walking, the next choice point came up. The paths were going in a zig-zag fashion. She peered in and realised that depending on which zigzag pattern she took she would be taken in different directions. She had to find the answer. She closed her eyes and jogged down memory lane. She reached a memory where her dad said, “So what if you are left-handed? Yes, it is exceedingly rare for someone to be left-handed in our clan. It is how you were born. It is not a deformity. You are simply different and that makes you unique amongst all. Your left hand is your more powerful and dominant hand. Your left is your power.”
Ribo smiled and opened her eyes. Her dad wasn’t back in the colony. It seemed as if he was by her side guiding her. She started with left, then right, followed by left, then right again, and followed the same zig-zag pattern for hours. One misstep and she would be lost forever. But she knew God and Dad were with her.
After a long time, the zig-zag pattern ended, and a long stretch of tunnel was in front of her. She entered confidently as there was only one path to take, but little did she know that this was the biggest challenge. She went on for hours, but the tunnel was stretching to infinity. She looked up to God and looked for her dad’s teachings, but she came up blank. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t go back and she didn't know what lay ahead. Was she going to fail her people? Was she going to spell their doom?
Ribo was confused, irritated, and delirious. She was imagining things, hallucinating and going mad. But she knew she had to keep her act together. She resolved to keep going, keep going, keep going. Don’t give up, keep going she told herself. She lost track of hours and days, but suddenly she heard noises of humans, cars, and the sound of air entering the tunnel. Ribo had tears in her eyes as she ran the last few hundred meters. She saw light at the end of the tunnel.
She reached an opening in the tunnel and put her head out slightly. She burst into laughter and tears at the same time. The scene in front of her was a colorful new city. It was a park where children were jumping and playing. The weather seemed wonderful. The smell of food wafted in the air, and she looked around to see restaurants and roadside vendors selling all sorts of food. This was what her clan had wanted. A new, safe place to settle down.
Ribo hadn’t failed them. They called her their Chef. But she knew she was only a servant of the people chosen to serve them. She had not only found a new city, but she had found her moment where she had learned something on her own. Keep going, keep going. Don’t give up. That’s what she had learned. Like all the teachings and wisdom her dad had given her, now she had her wisdom which she would pass down to her children.
She exited the tunnel to have water and good food. She had the route committed to memory and wanted to rest a bit before starting the journey back. She knew her clan had a difficult journey ahead of them, but they needn’t fear as they had Ribo, their Chef, to guide them to a new life.