When Peekay gets home for Easter break, he and
Doc go on an overnight trip to a waterfall and to examine a cliff that possibly
contains limestone. The real reason for the trip was that it would likely be
Doc’s last adventure. Though he was healthy, he was over eighty years old. He
was still in good enough shape to climb the cliff, and he found limestone and a
cave. The cave was full of massive crystal stalactites and stalagmites. The
cave had taken hundreds of thousands of years to form. The crystals and a ledge
formed what looked like an altar. Doc is stunned by the cave’s beauty, and
wants it to be his final resting place, to have a crystal form over his body
over the course of thousands of years. Doc doesn’t observe any religion. Marie
tries to convert him into a reborn Christian, but he refuses. This is because
the crystal cave gives him a different type of immortality to pursue. Doc wants
to become part of the crystal cave, his body made immortal by crystal. The cave
is a symbol for the old Africa, before outsiders came in and soiled it. Harsh,
jagged, yet beautiful, and completely empty of outside life. Doc pursued this
beauty in life through music. He found it in the prisoners and their work
songs. His Requiem for Geel Piet attempts to capture this beauty. His cactus
collecting is another attempt to see Africa’s old beauty. Both seem harsh and
unfriendly until you get to know it. But by dying in the cave, Doc will become
part of the beauty he seeked for years.
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