The World's Tallest Building

CEAHORSE'S

"Hey mister, can I take a look?”
He looked back, turning away from the pay-per-use binoculars that he was using to peer down at the world below, and replied, “No, boy, you mustn’t. You’re too young to see what I see.”
This sparked the boy curiosity. He started forward while he said. “What is it, a lady undressing? I wanna see, I wanna see.”
“NO” He yelled. The boy stopped cold, scared. The man raised his hand to ward the boy off and continued softly “No, it’s not a woman unclothed that I see. But, like I said, you don’t want to know what is to been seen through these.”
“Listen mister, I paid my hard earned cash to come up to the top of the world tallest building. I came to see. I want to see. So are you gonna just let me see?”
“No without a warning.” He paused for as long as possible to collect his words, also to give the boy a chance to back out. When the boy started forward again he knew he had to go on. “Listen up carefully.” His voice seemed to change. He began to speak like a well trained presenter. His voice was deep, but loud. It exuded confidence. He spook as if he knew what he was talking about. “We stand atop the world’s tallest building. We are at the peek of mankind. When you reach this point it’s wonderful. It’s great. You stand surrounded by nothing but air, clouds, and sky. At first it’s exhilarating to peer out at the world below. To see the little things as they move about. To watch the squirm and wiggle in attempts to gain your height. To watch them climb and to see most of them fail in places where you made it, but soon that changes. Things turn as all things must. You see that toils and turmoil are what makes your own life. You see that once at the top there is no where to go but down.”
The boy was confused, he just wanted to see something and go home and he said so.
“Let me put it another way for you. Looking through these binocular is like putting a new window in a load bearing wall. It lets the light in for a while, gives you a nice view of the outside but can’t quite hold the weight anymore. It’s like removing that pillar to put in a billiard table. It’s fun until things start to seep and wilt. It’s like sticking 100 kilograms of C4 under the mansion that took you 20 years to get and letting ‘er blow.”
The boy raised one eyebrow and responded “Are you saying that thing is a gun?”
“No, it’s a trap”
“A trap, how so?”
“Weren’t you listening? When you look down you see that there is nowhere to go but down.”
“Can’t you just go to a mountain or perhaps get in a helicopter?”
“Uhh.. Ahhh..”
The man had lost it. He wasn’t sure what to say. The boy had made a good point. Yes he was in the world’s tallest building and yes it was the highest man made point from which to perch and look down. But there were other places. There were other wonders that he had yet to achieve. He stepped to the side giving the boy access and walked to the elevator.

LION'S

It took them three years and five days to build it – the tallest building in the world. I’ve seen it in the skyline, on the bus to my grandma’s, but I never been to it, never looked at it up close. So, I decided today was my day. I was going.
Off the metro and up to ground level, I walked through the tsunami of construction and modern shopping towards the epicenter. Dodging bobcats, and fur coats, walking under scaffolding and on catwalks, browsing vender’s knockoff Louis Vinton bags and windows displaying genuine product, watching performers and spectators I found myself, at the quiet center of it all, to be a spectator looking up.
If I took a match out of my pocket and held it between my fingers I think I might have to be a mile away to align the two side-by-side: top with top, and bottom with bottom. Here, I can’t even get the whole thing in perspective. That’s how it is I guess. From far, on the bus, it didn’t seem that big, just a pillar taller than the others around it. Here at the bottom, looking up, I can’t see the ground and the top at the same time. I wonder if the people at the top could see me, or if I would melt into the inanimate objects around me?
Looking up, I have to take a breath.
It’s a wonder the things man can make. Things so big you can’t see them whole at the same time. I thought about going up. I thought maybe I might possibly run into that little man that everyone imagines, the guy that sits at the top, like a brain connected to only its body, surveying the view that elapses everything below. I thought about going up but didn’t.I heard a cello a ways off and walked over to listen, gave the girl some change and headed home.