The Abyss

by Paul Stewart
Episode 1

With Helen gone and the wind still howling along the coast, I headed inland and north.
A farmer gave me a lift as far as Ye. It was dark when we arrived, and the farmer asked
whether I needed a room for the night. “My cousin, Javier Sanchez”, he said. “He has a
hostal. Very nice rooms.”
“Fine”, I replied. I really didn´t care where I stayed.
We drove through the small town, and stopped outside a large, white single-story
building. It stood out against the black volcanic malpais like a lamp in the dark night. The
entire Sanchez family came out to greet us. They welcomed me like a long lost friend, and
though the guesthouse was not yet open for tourists, Javier insisted I use their spare
room.
That evening, we sat round the table eating a thick meat and vegetable soup. Javier
introduced his family. Isabel was his wife, Magdalena, his mother and Maria his oldest
child. The boys were called Felipe and Jose. When I nodded hello to them, they smiled and
pointed into their bowls. “Puchero canario”, they said. When I tried to repeat the words,
they giggled, until their mother hissed at them to be quiet. “Perdona”, she said, turning to
me.
I lifted my hands and smiled. “It´s okay”, I said. I wanted to tell them how kind they
were, but I could not. My lack of languages had annoyed Helen throughout our trip.
“Michael”, I said, pointing to myself.
“Miguel!”, Javier laughed. He turned and said something to Maria in Spanish, and I saw
her face turn red. She was sixteen or so, still young enough to blush.
“My father apologises that he cannot speak English”, she said, looking up. “He asked
me to welcome you to Ye”.
“You speak English”, I said.
She nodded, and her father spoke to her again. “My father asks what brings you to
Lanzarote”, she said.
“Tell him it´s a long story”, I said.
Maria laughed. “We haven´t got a television”, she said.
I smiled back, took a deep breath, and began. I told them how Helen and I had come to
Europe from Canada for two months of culture, but how, after six weeks of art galleries
and museums, the pair of us were exhausted. “Of course”, I said, “it was all amazing, and
so old. The paintings, the sculptures, the buildings –we even slept in beds older than the
state of Canada. But the travel was difficult, and the more tired we got, the more irritable
we became”.
The weather hadn´t helped either, I remembered. We soon discovered why the air-
tickets had been so cheap for January and February. It snowed in Stockholm, Berlin and
Prague, and rained everywhere else. When we woke to a fourth day of heavy rain in
Venice, we stopped arguing just long enough to agree to spend our last fortnight in the
Canary Islands.
The temperatures in Lanzarote were, as promised, up in the mid-twenties, it wasn´t
raining, and the Playa Blanca was as beautiful as it looked in the photos. But the brochure
hadn´t mentioned the wind. Howling in from the east, it turned the beach into a
sandstorm, which stung our legs as we walked down to the sea, and made sunbathing
impossible.
“This is horrible!”, Helen shouted, and pulled away. I watched her disappearing into the
swirling sand. Things were going from bad to worse. Everything about me annoyed Helen;
the things I said, the things I did, the things I didn´t do...
The next day we took a coach to the Timanfaya National Park. All around us, the lava
stood up in jagged peaks like the surface of the moon. Nothing grew. I thought it was
incredible, but kept my opinion to myself. I knew that whatever I said, Helen would
disagree.
We walked towards the edge of the barren, smoking landscape. Helen turned to me
and took both my hands in hers. I went to kiss her. She turned away.
“I´m sorry, Michael”, she said. “It´s over”
 As I finished my tale, I looked up to see that there were tears in Maria´s eyes. Javier,
too, was looking unhappy. He demanded to know what I had said and, as Maria
translated, he stared at me fiercely. I thought I had somehow embarrassed the family by
being so open. I had said too much –something else that had always annoyed Helen.
When Maria and her father started arguing, I didn´t know what to do.
Finally, Maria turned to me again. “My father says he will take you on a trip tomorrow”,
she said. “He also says it is good that you chose to come here. In the ancient Guanche
language of Lanzarote, Ye means ´the end of the world´”.
Javier was still staring at me. I smiled back, but my heart was pounding. Something odd
was going on, something they weren´t telling me about. I felt tired and anxious, out of my
depth.

GLOSSARY

howling: the wind howls when it blows hard and makes a loud noise.
headed: went towards
he gave me a lift: he took me in his car
like a long lost friend: (to welcome) a stranger like a friend you haven’t seen for a long
time.
giggled: laughed in a child-like way.
what brings you to Lanzarote?: why did you come to Lanzarote?
brochure : a magazine or leaflet which gives information about, for example, holidays and
travel.
the swirling sand: the sand was moving like a liquid, moving round and round quickly.
jagged peaks: uneven shape, with lots of sharp points.
barren ...landscape: a dry, bare landscape with few or no plants.
it’s over: it’s finished.
being so open: he is being honest and not trying to hide anything.
the end of the world: a place which is very remote.
my heart was pounding: it was beating fast and loud because he was frightened.
out of my depth: to feel you do not understand or you are in a situation you feel helpless.

COMPREHENSION

a. How does Michael feel at the beginning of the story? Why?

b. Which were Michael and Helen’s problems during their journey to Europe?
c. How do the Sanchez family react when Michael tells the story of his journey?

DISCUSSION

a. Michael and Helen found it difficult traveling together. What sort of person makes a
good traveling companion? What sort of person would you hate to travel with?
b. Michael and Helen were in Europe for “two months of culture”. Is this your idea of a
good holiday? If it is, where would you particularly like to visit? If not, what type of holiday
would you prefer?
The Abyss
by Paul Stewart
Episode 2

Although I went to bed that night determined to leave first thing the following morning,
things did not work out as planned. Maria wasn´t at breakfast, and when I told Javier I
wanted to go, he misunderstood me. I was sitting in his four-wheel-drive when Maria
appeared. She came running towards the car and stuck her head in my window.
“Remember”, she said. “Whatever happens, my father is doing what he thinks is for the
best.”
Before I had the chance to ask what that meant, Javier had set off. I felt more nervous
than ever.
We drove on in silence past fields of cactus, the low sun bright in our eyes. After some
while I realised we were following signs to Cueva de los Verdes.
I recognised the name from my guide book. Molten lava from a volcano had formed a
river, the outer edges cooled and hardened, while the centre continued to flow. It resulted
in an underground cave system, some seven kilometres long. The book had also said that
the cueva had lights, yet when we arrived, Javier gave me a torch.
He unlocked the door and the pair of us went down into the cool darkness
underground. The lava was amazing, yellow, grey, orange, red; and the shapes! Where the
river had turned to stone, it formed spiral pillars and dancing figures, as wonderful as any
of the buildings and sculptures that Helen and I had seen.
We climbed stone steps, we crossed glistening chambers, we crawled through narrow
tunnels, deeper and deeper into the earth. The further we went, the more uneasy I
became. Despite the beauty of the cave, something about Javier´s urgent behaviour
frightened me. “Where are we going?”, I asked.
Javier turned and smiled. “Que linda!” he said, and kept walking. I had no choice but to
follow him, along a narrow ledge, down some steps and across to the far end of a large
chamber. There he stopped, turned and took me by the arms.
“Miguel”, he said. I was shaking so much, I couldn´t reply. “Miguel, I am sorry for you.
With Helen”
So he can speak a bit of English, I thought, and wondered how much of my story he had
understood the previous night.
“You are sad”, he went on. “You think it is like Ye, the end of the world”.
He turned and shone his torch ahead of him. I found myself staring at the most
fantastic sight I had ever seen. High above my head, the cave looked like the inside of a
great Gothic cathedral, below me, and just centimetres away from my feet, the ground
opened up. I moved forward carefully and peered down into the abyss. I couldn´t even see
the bottom.
Suddenly, I felt hands on my shoulders. It was Javier, he was pushing me over the edge.
As I fell forward, I screamed and closed my eyes.

***************

GLOSSARY

glistening: shining or sparkling, because they are wet.

peered: looked with difficulty, because of the darkness.

COMPREHENSION

a. Why couldn’t Michael leave the hostal as he had planned?

b. Pay attention to Michael’s description of the cueva. Did he really agree with Helen on
going to Europe for just “two months of culture”?

DISCUSSION
a. Why did Javier take Michael to the caves? What was he trying to do?
b. What do you think about the ending of the story?
The Abyss
by Paul Stewart
Episode 3

***************
The next instant, I heard a splash. I stopped falling. My feet were wet, and I realised I
was standing in a shallow pool of water. The abyss was just not real, just a reflection of
the ceiling.
Javier was smiling. He reached down to help me out.
“Not the end of the world”, he said.

(from Lucky Luke and other Very Short Stories)

GLOSSARY

the end of the world: here, it means the worst thing that could happen.

VOCABULARY WORK

List words and expressions from the complete story which describe Michael’s feelings
from the moment Maria says: “My father says he will take you on a trip tomorrow” (you
can find at least seven of them). For example: “my heart was pounding”.

DISCUSSION

a. How do you think Michael felt at the end? How would you have felt?
b. Think about Michael and Helen’s relationship. Do you think their problems started
during the journey? Why (not)?