Eden

Five

The city is at the end of the road, across a river, and looms above us as we stand there staring at it. It's a big city, a high city. I have to look upwards to see most of it. It soars into the sky, like the skyline does in pictures of New York or Hong Kong that are taken from sea level. It looks like that, except that no it doesn't, not really. Actually, it looks nothing like those places at all.

This city looks older, far older, than either of those places can possibly be.

I stand there, staring at it, confused.

I stare. I notice things. Here's what I notice right away. There are no electrical wires. There are no pylons or satellite dishes or highways. There aren't really even any roads. Not roads like I'm thinking of, not roads wide enough for cars. Even the road I'm standing on right now is dirt and only wide enough for one vehicle.

The city is crowded. I can see that, too. From here, it looks as though the hillsides of the city are completely covered with buildings, which are only just far enough apart for people to walk between them. And all those buildings are made of stone. Everything is made of stone, and the whole city has stone walls around it, too. Like a castle does, or an old-time town. Big stone walls all the way around, so that the city, and everything inside it, all seem to be made of stone. Some kind of warm, soft stone which seems to glow faintly orange in the gentle yellow light of the afternoon sun.

And yes, about that afternoon sun. The afternoon sun I'm not especially thinking about right now, but which has been above me since I woke up.

Above me, and unmoving.

I don't really notice it then, not especially, but the sun is halfway down to the horizon, as though there was an hour or two until sunset, and it has been like that since I woke up outside in the courtyard. So yes, the sun hasn't moved, and I learn later that here it doesn't move, ever, and it is always an hour or two before sunset. I don't know why. I don't know that anyone does. It just is, and sometimes things like that just are.

That is really just to say.

So anyway, I stand there looking at the city, astonished that such a place could be. I see every kind of building that's ever been made, all here at once, all piled up together. Pressed together, jammed together, building on building on building. They must be almost on top of each other in places, there are so many buildings there. And the hillsides must be steep, as well, because I can see a lot of the city on the slopes above those walls, and the walls are very high.

I stand there staring. This isn't right. I know this isn't right, no such place could exist.

It just doesn't make sense that it does.

But then again, I'm dead right now, so what do I know, really?