In Paradisum

01. A History Of Here

         I was standing in the kitchen; we had hung up little lights, which made the room seem to sparkle in the darkness that came after second down. I believe where you are from these lights are called Christmas lights. Here we do not celebrate Christmas. I stood in the low ceilinged room imagining that this is what stars look like. I have never seen stars. Here the sky after second down is a solid black. It is not till day that we see anything in the sky. Here, where I am from, is not there, which is where you are from.

         Here is a small world, consisting of only one city, with a population of about a thousand. Our city has a formal name, but because there is no places other than where we are, we call it Here, for there is no there.

         Many would tell you that nothing exciting happens in Here. The history is dry and easy to learn, for there are truly only 3 things to learn of. The first was about six years ago, when I was in my second year of the second level of the Education System. Many people fell ill with a disease unknown to anyone. Those who fell ill early on died almost instantly.

         The second history event directly affects the first. When the disease had hundreds a building was made—it seemed over night—those who were sick, including myself, where admitted immediately to The Factory. The building was large and filled with beads. The walls where bleak, and no one above the final year of the first level of the Education System survived, I was the oldest to be cured.

         Soon, everyone was healthy, and the years in the Education System had been rearranged due to the lack of students. My year had been reduced from 20 children to only 5. The year above us was merged with ours to balance the number of children.
The Factory was shut down and any person was forbidden to go near it for fear of the epidemic returning.

         The Third event happened just less than three years after The Factory appeared. I was in my first year of the third level of the Education System when The Way was built. It is similar to what you call an elevated train. It encircles the city and follows the major streets of Here. It made it so much easier to travel and get to the other side of Here in a quarter of the time that it would have taken earlier.

         For me, there is a fourth event, when a strange boy arrived and taught me how to remember what had been forgotten.

         As I tell you my story, please keep in mind, that I am here, and you are there, and that here is not there.