Library of Dust: Story of Jonas Sharp

Jonas Sharp was your average healthy 32 year old male. He had a good job, friends, and family. Jonas was adventurous, and loved the thrill of a challenge. One day his whole life changed forever. One of his friends Rob Thomas mentioned an article about sea cave exploring and thought it would be cool to try it out. The next day Jonas and Rob headed off for the coast. Being inexperienced they took lessons and were told about the of sea caves in the area. The instructor had warned all the divers that they would all be going in the same cave one group of two at a time. Jonas being adventurous wanted to go into the deepest cave and convinced his friend that it would be fine to leave the assigned cave and go into the darker, deeper abyss. Halfway down his friend decided they shouldn't go any further but Jonas could not turn away he wanted to go deeper. They finally reached the end of the cave and started heading for the surface when all of a sudden the cave collapsed on his friend. Jonas tried with all his might to free his friend but it was useless. Jonas was running out of air quickly and his friend motioned him to leave him. But Jonas refused and then started to black out. The last thing he saw was the look of terror on his friends face as he became lifeless and sucumbed to drowning. When the rest of the group finally found Jonas he had been without air for six minutes. It was well known that being without air for that amount of time would cause serious brain damage. Jonas was in a coma and hospitalized for 3 weeks, when he awakened he could not speak and had lost most of his memory except for the moment of terror when the cave had collapsed on his friend. The doctors finally came to the conclusion that they could do no more for him and committed him to an asylum because he was considered insane and no one could care for him. Jonas was in the asylum for 15 years. Every night he would relive that experience, that moment and he'd yell and scream in agony for his friend. Jonas finally went mad and strangled himself to death. The canister above which holds Jonas's ashes for eternity, lives out the scene of terror that became his doom. The swirl of the sea and the dark hollows of the cave are shown and an image of a beautiful red fish that we hope is the spirit of Jonas, finally set free from his nightmare . Go to http://www.davidmaisel.com/works/picture.asp?cat=lod&tl=library%20of%20dust to see this canister and many others and more of David Maisel's photos.