The End of the Pyramid

In that evening I got home half an hour earlier than usual. The first nuisance met me at the door of the elevator. I collided with the neighbor from down stairs, Ivanka. She looked at me coldly as always and haughtily turned her head in the opposite direction as if trying to tell me that in the animal hierarchy I take the place of a plain, chubby, nasty, greasy, kitchen cockroach.

In her presence, mostly the look of her thin, uncombed white hair made me think of the beyond as usually represented in the horror movies. I tried to meet her eyes and then kindly let her take the place in the dark cabin of the elevator. I chose the stairs for myself and without a murmur climbed them.

A few minutes later, with huge efforts I reached the fifth floor. I was panting for breath and wrestling with the thought that it would not be a bad idea to finally get fit. The pictures of the sacrifices I would have to make came to my mind but fortunately I remembered the TV show I watched on Saturday afternoon about the anorexia. Between two invigorating breaths I tried to find my keys for the apartment which were, of course, put I the last possible pocket. “An ordinary Monday night”, I thought.

Just then, for the first time I felt in the air something different, something so unknown that I couldn’t explained it with words.

I shooed away the sudden premonition and put the key in the latch then rotated it and after entering the hall I started humming as if wanting to proof my win over any trouble: “The wind brings news from the world- fearsome, worrisome sad every new day”. Twenty minutes remained to the beginning of the news emission in seven thirty so I turned the TV on and started preparing dinner. “The hearts of people are melting in awe, hearts are sick with darkness, man is lonely.”



The turkey sandwiches and the glass of red wine played their role and made me relax and wait for the news emission to start. There was some TV show with two silicon blondes trying to link/connect/a few words into more or less meaningful sentences. They talked about fashion, freely stood for their thin idea of morality and seemed to subconsciously instill the viewers that the artificial beauty can actually replace the lack of soul. “’More and more I want it all for myself!’ People are shouting and run in their own ways.” The song kept on running in my head.

Seven thirty came at last. The news emission was an inseparable part of my evening routine that’s why I turned all my attention to the news announced by the two newscasters with professional tone:

“New actions have been taken by the MPs for the dept collection. The authorities suggested solutions for the perforce of eventual actions in forcing the obligors to pay to the exchequer. Some of the possible measures against them are seizure of properties and attachment of accounts. According to a previous prognosis this could get a strong support with votes of – 73%-for, 20%- abstainers and only 8%- against if the voting was conducted today.”

After that followed some cadres of the parliament and an interview with a MP I had never seen before. I knew very well what exactly that information meant so I swallowed with pain. That strange feeling came to me again but I resumed following the news. “Lift up your eyes – get ready. Lift up your eyes – get ready.”

“Once again the gay parade received an official support from the three top parliamentary presented politic parties. Their national leaderships sent official letters to the organizers of the event. The common in all letters is the declaring that the contemporary democratic realities and the new values require respect to the difference and differentiation of any form of discrimination, manifestation of hatred or violence.”

“Lift up your eyes – get ready. Lift up your eyes – get ready.”

“The news from the world. 200 people in India died from unknown virus by now, announced the Indian Informative Agency IIA. The virus is called SRAG and except the fever, it also causes infraction of the work of the internal organs. In all patients, they all are about 2000, can be noticed symptoms of high temperature and decreasing of the thrombocytes and leucocytes in the blood.”

The screen of the TV turned black. I put down the remote control and took the book which had acted as my sleeping pill for the past few weeks. It was early, but I felt tired besides I had a desperate need to get away from everything for a while. I started reading lifelessly and without turning off the lamp I dozed off while the familiar rhythm, word and melody kept on running invitingly in my head:

“Lift up your eyes – get ready. Lift up your eyes – get ready.”

I woke up in two fifteen that night opened my eyes and for a moment felt as if I hadn’t slept at all. I had had that hardly unexplainable experience before so I thought it was due to the lamp which was ruthlessly burning my eyes. I rose from the bed when I stretched me hand to take the book again it started happening. It probably lasted for one or two minutes but it was shaking so scarily and strongly that it seemed to me as if hours passed before it stopped.

I saw the lamp dancing crazily on the table followed by the bed beneath me then the wardrobe, the TV as well as everything else. At first I thought it would be best to run outside but then suddenly I remembered (who knows when, I had been acquired by that information which was really useful in that situation) that it is the stairs which are the most vulnerable part of the apartment buildings so I rushed towards the kitchen where my reserve goal was- the massive oak table. While trying to go under it I covered about five meters- from my bedroom, into the hall where the lively angry walls hit me about six or seven times and then into the kitchen.

Later on when I recalled the memories from that experience in those few scary minutes I realized the whole time I had been hearing the sound of glasses, plates and other objects breaking. I also realized another interesting and a little unusual fact- in the whole horror, when it wasn’t clear how all that catastrophe would end I didn’t fear.

Just the song sounded in my whole soul:

“The wind brings news from the world-

fearsome, worrisome sad every new day.

The hearts of people are melting in awe,

hearts are sick with darkness, man is lonely.

More and more I want it all for myself!’

People are shouting and run in their own ways.

But when truth comes- the enemy bows.

And that’s why I trust in Jesus.“



And then the chorus followed:

“Lift up your eyes- get ready. Lift up your eyes- get ready.”

After that the tremors stopped followed by the electricity. Just then I stared to realize that the occurrence wasn’t just an unobjectionable nightmare but a disaster from which I could’ve escaped only on seven o’clock and fifteen minutes with the sound of the alarm. I felt a twitch in my leg. Nothing serious, I thought, probably just one of the many scattered kitchen utensils had hit me.

Without paying attention to this detail I got out of the shelter, however this time I gropingly headed towards the staircase with the intention to beat in the storeroom. The door widely gaped so without pausing I grabbed the flashlight, which surprisingly hadn’t moved from the place I last left it, and pressed the button. A beam of light unmercifully revealed all the damages caused by the tremor. In all this disorder I only managed to lean on the wall for a second and then went outside.


There ruled the fuss, the conniption and the fear with such power that my first reaction was to hide somewhere far from it. It seems to me that the power of these elements excelled the one of the earthquake a while ago. Children’s weeping mixed with screams of mothers and fathers interflowed in one and sounded like a background to the excelling it in decibels buzz, coming from the hooters and engines of the cars, in a rush for somewhere.

In all this riling mass of scared people running in all directions I saw my neighbor Ivanka from the lower floor. Frozen in a pose, similar to a statue before dismantling with arm pointing in some direction, she talked to someone who wasn’t there. I went to her and patted her shoulder but she didn’t seem to feel anything. I left her.

I headed towards the center of the town, towards the palace in which my friend from work lived- Vihren Brezov. Two days before I was invited for dinner in his and his wife- Lilyana’s place on the occasion of their moving in the new house. We stayed to three thirty in the morning. That night I had reached a conclusion that our relationship with Vihren can grow in some form of friendship.

The more I was approaching the central part of the town the more the clamor amplified. When I reached the street on which the Brezov’s family lived The noise was unbearable. Apart from not being able to hear my own thoughts from the screams, the visibility was also impaired. I zipped walking, overt mark that I was starting to become susceptible to the panic everywhere around me.

Dust and little spray of water from a near-by leaky plumbing created a thick fog which was increasingly embracing me the more I was approaching the goal. I was running into people who were walking in the opposite direction of mine, rambling and looked as if they were traumatized. A moment after I realized what was the reason for all this.

The house of the Brezov’s family and its neighboring ones had disappeared. In fact they had turned into ruins.



***



Lilyana served the dessert and sat at the table with us. The dinner was nearly over but I didn’t want to leave yet. I put a huge piece of cake in my mouth and after enjoying the taste in my mouth I continued:

“I suppose I have to leave you but as I can see you’re too kind to throw me out.”

“Oh, come on”, Lilyana blandly smiled, “I really enjoyed it tonight. Didn’t you?”

“So did I but it’s already too late”, kindly resumed Vihren and looked at his watch,”I’ll have to get enough sleep tomorrow as lots of work awaits me on Monday.”

“Don’t you ask youselves why are we doing all this?”, I filled for last my mouth which effected the quality of my speech, however, I continued. “ Why are we working so hard all day, why are we trying so hard to grow in our careers, why are we living like there is no tomorrow and the life seems to slip out of our us. We are building pyramids, monuments of vanity which is not sure when will collapse. I have the feeling that most of the people are missing the most important thing.”

“I am an optimist”, my colleague’s wife answered with a smile on her face, “I like it that way. I can’t know all answers so I’m trying to live the best while I still can.”

I felt really sorry for this kind family. I wanted to tell them that I knew the answer of the most important question but I could I tell them when they didn’t even have the intention to ask it.A few minutes later I left.



***

I was looking in the direction in which there was once a beautiful house and my heart sank. As I was looking at the ruins the memories of that night with the Brezov’s family and the optimism of Lilyana hit me so strongly that my legs felt weak. For the fisrt time I clearly realized- Man is blind who by denying he can not see what is going to happen. And he’s never ready. But I knew- this was just the beginning…

On that moment these word naturally came out of my mouth:

Lifts up your eyes- get ready. Lift up your eyes- get ready.