Cheesman Chronicles

The quartz floor was five metres square wide, one thousand metres tall. For as far as the eye could see, there was nothing else around it. No buildings, no trees, no grass, no anything. Not even another one of these Pillars. Just the one.

Enola didn’t mind it, of course. In fact, it was relaxing. The separation of herself from everything else, high above the normal ground. Wherever she was, she was alone.

That wasn’t a problem. The strange fact of this place was that whatever she desired, it appeared for her. If she were bored, a bookshelf filled with fantastic and wonderful stories would appear. If the were hungry, a kitchen with a full pantry popped right up. When tired there would be a bed. When energised, a treadmill. Her every whim was immediately granted. And it was wonderful.

There were some things it couldn’t create. It never made anything that could help her get down from the Pillar. No hot air ballons. No rope. No helicopters or planes. She even tried to have it make all the materials for a makeshift parachute. The canvas and wires appeared for her, but as soon as she put them together, it was gone. In the blink of an eye.

It also couldn’t make life. Try as she might, she never could get a dog or cat or bird or anything else. Either these creations were too complex for it, or it refused to give her that company.

After a while, she gave up trying. With all the toys and distractions available for her, and without means of escape, she decided to just enjoy her time up on the Pillar. There were times she ached for others, but that was temporary. The could have her own fun.

She still didn’t know why she was here. One day she went to bed in her normal apartment, surrounded by posters, bookshelves, a desk with a computer, chairs, mirror and closet. When she woke up, she was here. A space almost exactly the same size, yet empty of life.

Some days she would sit against the edge of the Pillar and look down. Like sitting on a balcony. The bottom remained foggy even on clear days. All that greeted her was the foundations. The hard quartz rock, carved away to create a perfect Pillar.

It reminded her of the ones from the Parthenon of Athens. Thicker near the bottom, tighter near the top. While she could call it ‘man-made’, it wasn’t created by chance. A square base held it upright, set into the ground and refusing to move for anything.

Not that there was much of ‘anything’. Without any trees or bushes, there was no wind. Without clouds over her, there was no rain. It just… was.

And in a strange way, it made her happy.

#

One day, while overlooking the edge of the Pillar, Enola noticed a dot. It glided across the ground like an ant, marching along it’s path. At first she thought it must be her eye playing tricks on her. She’d been staring too long. There was never anything on the ground, and there never would be.

She shook her head, clearing her mind of the image. Yet when she looked back, it was still there. Still moving.

“Impossible,” she muttered to herself. Her voice was weak and tired, not having been used in… she wasn’t sure. Months? Years?

The dot began to move closer to her. Closer to the Pillar. From Enola’s perspective it moved at a snails pace. Was it walking? Was it running? Without anything for scale, she couldn’t know.

She wished she had some kind of way to look closer to it. Then, just like always, a pair of binoculars appeared beside her and landed on the ground. She frowned, but took them eagerly, peering through to figure out what this dot was.

The ground was blurry as she first put them on. Not only was the binoculars out of focus, but the act of keeping her hands stable was enough to disarm her. She adjusted the straps and brought it into focus, leaning over the edge to provide stability.

It was a person. A human, just like her. Dressed in some shabby clothes like they’d been dragging their body through the empty world for years. Their hair was in a tattered mess, masking much of their dark face. They looked up to Enola.

She startled, dropping the binoculars.

Down and down they fell. They fell as far as she could see. Then further. If it made a sound when it hit the ground, it wasn’t for her to know. It hit one part of the Pillar and bounced towards the person. Enola could just about see the dot – now a person – dodge out of the way.

Just as she wondered what happened, another pair of binoculars appeared beside her. She grabbed them and looked back again. This time, the person was looking back up at her.

Then they waved.

Enola paused. It had been so long since she’d seen one. A wave. The way humans used to communicate over distance. To tell the other that they were friends and could be trusted. To warn them of coming dangers or to invite them to great rewards. Or even just to say ‘hello’.

Something broke inside of her as she saw it. That gaping hole inside her chest ached as the muscle flexed after months of neglect. She winced as the memories of her friends and loved ones soared through her mind. Though never forgotten, they had lost the colour they once had. Replaced as dark and muddy versions of the events. Not to be trusted. Not to be remembered.

Now the images sputtered through her mind like a dancing troupe. Reminding her of the times and journeys shared. Recontexulised with the loving care that they gave her, and she to them.

All from the wave of someone she didn’t know.

She realised she should probably do something. She waved back, awkwardly raising her hand. It felt more like she was shaking a dead stick than extending an olive branch.

The person down there didn’t seem to care, traces of a smile forming on her face. They then mimed something. Putting their hand to their head, they extending their thumb to the ear and pinky to the mouth. They then pretended to say things. Or maybe they did. There was no way for Enola to hear them. Not unless she had a–

A phone! That’s what she was doing. She gave a thumbs up and imagined a phone. The image of a flip phone entered her mind. She thought of every button, every wire, every microphone and speaker. The antenna that connected it to the rest of the world and could let her talk to them. Just something to reach out and hear a voice that wasn’t her own.

When she opened her eyes, nothing appeared. She frowned. Was this place stopping her from communicating with others, too? Or was it too complex for it to create?

Then perhaps a radio? A wireless? A walkie talkie? She tried everything she could. Nothing would appear.

This place didn’t want her to talk with others. She always knew that, but this was insulting. The person was right there! If they had climbing axes and a long rope, they could scale the side of the Pillar and meet with her!

A long rope.

She had tried making rope before. If it was thick enough to hold her weight, it’d just disappear. Before it could be anything useful. But thin rope could be very long. She’d never tried making it as long as the Pillar, but she thought it’d be possible.

And back when she was younger, there was a cool thing she’d do with a piece of string and two cups. When pulled together, they could transmit sound like a radio. Like a phone.

She quickly imagined two empty tin cans with their tops open. They appeared right in front of her. Then she cut a small hole in the middle of them, stuck a bit of rope in them, and the imagined a long piece of rope.

Beside her, a massive winding lasso of rope appeared. It was a little frayed, and a little weak, but it would do. She took one end of it and fed it through a can. She tied it up, and cast it over the edge.

It fell down for minutes. The size of the Pillar made just as clear as when the binoculars fell. The can tumbled and rolled. The rope flew by Enola in a blaze of fire, whirring away as they flew off after the can. She quickly tied the end of it to her own can, holding the end in case it took her down with it.

Finally, it came to an end. The can stayed firming in her grasp. All the rest of it now dangled over the edge of the Pillar.

She dared a glanced down it’s sides. Did the dot-person know what to do next? Did they pull on it? Did they walk up to the side and pull on it? She hung her hand over the edge, keeping both hands on the tin in fear she would drop it if she weren’t careful.

The rope became taught.

It was ready.

Enola wasn’t sure if she should speak first or let the other person go. The social niceties meant nothing up here. And who knew how long the other person walked for. Maybe they hadn’t talked to anyone in ages, either. It was a small comfort. Knowing that they were also nervous about speaking.

After a minutes of silence, Enola stretched her arms and spoke:

“Hello?”

A pause. She imagined it would have to make it’s way all the way down the rope first. No travelling at the speed of light like a phone. She had to wait.

Would the sound waves travelling down the thousand metres of string even reach the other person? Whenever she tried this with her friends, the string was no more than a few metres. At this long, maybe it couldn’t get that far. And then of course, if the other person could hear her, would they respond? Would the rope carry their voice back up?

Finally, after a minute of waiting, her can made a noise.

“Oh thank goodness, you can hear me.”

Enola caught her can, having nearly fallen from her grip. Another voice! Another person to talk to! She couldn’t tell anything more about them by the voice. Their age, gender, race, nothing. It was like an old radio; too much interference for anything clear, but just enough to make out the speech.

“What’s your name? Mine’s Enola.”

“Nice to meet you, Enola. My name is Alex.”

Alex. That was a nice name. Something simple. Something different to ‘Enola’.

“How did you get down there?” Enola asked. “Where did you even come from?”

“I came from a Pillar, like yours,” they explained. “Been at least two week since I last saw it, though. Probably longer. Can’t really tell in this place, hey? I’ve walked for a lot longer than that though. Closing up on a month. That I’m a bit more sure of. My feet wouldn’t be killing me this much otherwise.”

Enola laughed. Her mind cast back to before she was on the Pillar. Even just a days walk through town would have blistered her feet. Would the ground below be more comfortable? Maybe. She couldn’t tell from up here. Maybe it was as soft as grass. Maybe as hard as concrete.

Now she could ask.

“What’s the ground like, then?” she said. “Better or worse than pavement?”

“Better,” Alex replied. “Kind of like a dirt road after a bit of rain. Not muddy, but soft and easy. Yet one that you wouldn’t want to walk on forever. At least, not alone.”

“How have you survived then? I’ve never seen any animals for food, or water for drink, or trees for shade.”

“Been a bit rough, I’ll say that much,” they chuckled. “I’ve found a few spots here and there that give me what I need. Like on top of the Pillar. Though nothing as grand as that. A bit of bread, a water bottle, that’s basically it. Even then I don’t think I’m summoning it. Just random occurrences. My guess is that whatever this place is, the appearing abilities only work high up. Down here, we have to make do with what we can.”

“Why did you leave your Pillar then?”

“Because I couldn’t stand being alone anymore. Haven’t you tried to escape yourself?”

“Oh, plenty of times,” Enola said, before explaining all the different ways she tried. The words flowed out of her mouth easily. The connection between another human sparked the joys of life within her. Her words were choppy, but the emotions were grand and sincere. In just a couple minutes she was already talking to Alex as if she were on the phone, gossiping about the latest news.

Alex listened closely. They added the occasional ‘ooh’ or ‘interesting’ between her words. The delay in time of the rope disappeared as she went. It was now just the way people talked.

“Last time I tried was a few months ago, now, and I haven’t thought of it since,” she finished. “So how do I get down from here?”

“Do you want to know?” they asked. “It wasn’t exactly easy.”

“Go on.”

“Alright,” they said. “Well like you, I tried everything I could. Parachute, rope, fake wings. All of it. But I still couldn’t get down. They would just disappear before I could do anything with them. It was hard. I knew there had to be a way. Yet I was only left with one option: I jumped.”

“Jumped?”

“Yes,” they said. “And that’s how you get down from there.”

Enola scrambled back. The Pillar extended further down. The ground stretched beyond belief. The world swirled. Everything about this was wrong.

She had to jump to free herself? Was that truly the only way to get off of this pillar and head back down?

No, it couldn’t be. It wasn’t worth it. She had everything she needed up here. Anything that she could get below wasn’t worth it. Couldn’t be worth it. All that Alex was saying was just a bunch of ridiculous hearsay. She’d dropped things before. The binoculars, the can, other things from before today. All of them fell without stopping at the ground. They crashed down. They were destroyed.

She felt her grip on the can loosen. The only thing letting her communicate slip from her grasp like a wet bar of soap. It hit the ground, pulling itself along the ground towards the edge.

The spell broke from her as she heard it crash. She jumped down, smashing an arm down over the string in order to stop it from going any further. Pain shot through it, but the cord didn’t move any further.

She clasped the can with two hands. She couldn’t let it escape her hands. Not anymore. Not until she had more information.

“You’re lying,” she said. “It can’t… it can’t be that easy.”

“It is,” they said.

“If that’s the case, then why aren’t there more people with you? Shouldn’t you have a whole group of fellow jumpers? All having taken your leap of faith? Or are they all dead? Smashed in the ground like a disguising 80 kilo mass of mince meat?”

“You’re the first one I’ve met, Enola,” they said. With the interference, it was hard to pin-point how they were emoting. But she thought it was sincere. That they believed what they were saying. “I’m sorry I don’t have a resume or portfolio of other people with me to prove it but it’s the truth. There’s this weird force in place. It stopped me from dying. At just the last moment, I stopped falling. The spell breaks almost immediately, hitting my face into the ground. But I survive. I could live. And you can too.”

“No,” she whispered. “No, I… I won’t do it. What you’re asking me is literally suicidal!”

“I’m sorry,” Alex said. “But please, it’s the truth. You can do it, Enola.”

Her feet froze into the Pillars floor. Those five by five reassuring metres no longer feeling so big.

Could she do it? Should she? She could do so much while up here. Play games, watch movies, read books, study the world. Anything she wanted, she could pull up and immediately get sucked into it. What would be so good being down there? Like Alex said, it was just barren wasteland. Hardly anything to do.

And what would they do then, escape? Would there even be a way out of the empty space they occupied? For all that Enola could imagine, it was just like this forever. Maybe another Pillar would appear, but it would otherwise be completely flat. How could they get out. Why would they want to?

“Enola?” the can vibrated.

“Yeah?”

“You’ve been thinking for a while. Will you take the leap?”

“I… no. I can’t.”

Alex paused.

“Then I’m sorry for leaving you.”

The string loosened and drooped down. The dot below began to move away.

“Wait, Alex!” Enola yelled. “Alex, come back! Please! Come back! We can talk! Figure out another way of getting down! Alex!”

Her voice carried far, but this was too far. There was no way that Alex could hear her. Even as she screamed the dot, the only source of true connection she had made here, drifted away. Her throat burned, her legs quaked, but she kept screaming. It was all she could do.

The dot had hardly moved. But Enola saw it as being beyond her reach. Even before it showed up.

Her doubts of escaping subsided. She knew where she was now. A prison. A prison that gave them everything they want, everything they could imagine, except a real connection. A voice in a can could only provide so much comfort. She needed the real people around her to be real herself. If there was no one to experience life with, then it was no life at all.

She had to go with them. To stay up here for one moment more would be torture beyond anything she had ever expereinced. Now that there was someone here, there was someone to loose.

So she did the only thing she knew might get her down.

She jumped.

---

Thumbnail drawn by me