burning and drowning

It's difficult for him to live in this world. He keeps wanting to go diving. He loves it down there, living deep with his diving buddies. I understand why, I understand about the worlds that open, way down there. But I have to keep coming up to the surface. I can't live down there. I think it's my job to go between the worlds, bringing the treasures up to the surface so other people can see them too. But there are some things you can't bring up with you. And all this to-ing and fro-ing, this constant coming up means I'll never get down as deep as he does. These days, he is my only diving buddy. Although I am sometimes afraid he will dive too far below, alone, and drown. He's afraid of that too, I think. "Whether you go up or down, you burn or drown," he said, and I could see him wistful of Icarus. If there is a direction in me, it's down into the deep. I would choose to go by drowning. But I'll never go too far either way, and sometimes that's what makes me sad. The worst that will ever happen me is the bends from time to time, as I bob along the surface for a while, a little out of breath. I hope he can still come up from time to time, or that the next time I dive, he won't have gone down so far that I can't reach him.