Once there was a woman who lived in the land of the tower people. The tower people were just like any other kind of people, they just happened to live in towers. Some were small and near the ground, while others were tall. Some were strong and some were neglected and some were very weak. And while most were made of wood, some were made of the thickest stone.
The woman’s tower looked very normal from the outside and the people around her thought she was exactly like them. But hidden in her tower were a lot of unseen rooms. So many in fact, that she had developed a habit of keeping them locked and hidden – especially when other people came to visit. She even went so far as to create a whole section of her tower for other people to see, just so they would think she was like them. She had to, she was very pretty and a lot of people wanted to visit.
As the years went by she grew tired of this, and spent more of her time at the top of her tower, where she could relax in the bright sunshine and look across the lands, exploring with her eyes and mind. She grew to love the height and what it revealed to her, and how it made her mind wander and wonder. So much so that she tried to make her tower as high as she could. Every day she dragged stones up the long winding stairs inside, fixing them to the top, and adding floor after floor, room after room. She loved her tower deeply and especially the top where she could feel the sun and forget some of the dark rooms near the bottom - rooms she tried not to go to anymore.
However, there was a problem: the tower was now so much higher than the ones around her that how different she was had become harder to hide. When she looked down at her friends’ towers, she felt so different that it was uncomfortable. She knew she wasn’t normal – all her hidden rooms were proof of that - so she began to keep to herself more and put all her attention on her tower, each day increasing its height.
After many years, it finally became high enough for her to see over a hill that lay to the west, which excited her because one of her favourite things was to sit on the top platform of her tower and watch the sun go down. In her dreams she had imagined there was a mystical land and people who lived on the far side of the hill; people who did not live in towers, but roamed free among trees and meadows. So she was a little shocked, but intrigued, when her tower grew high enough for her to see over the hill and into the valley beyond and see that, there, another tower had been built – one that was very tall, and standing almost on its own.
The tower woman had a telescope and holding it up she could see the top of the other tower and there, looking back at her though his own telescope was a man. He did not seem like her old friends, but that pleased her, and so she started to signal to him. It was slow at first, because although all tower people instinctively know signal language, the woman and the man used slightly different signals. But as time went by she realised that if she let go and used her intuition she knew exactly what he was saying. He was funny and random, and made her laugh. She loved how geeky he was and it meant she was able to be herself with him – and how the nagging fear of all the dark rooms beneath her feet was smaller when she talked to him. Over time, they became close friends and her fears and need to hide lessoned.
However, as her fear retreated it left a hole, and she felt a loneliness and longing she’d never had before. She so loved talking to her tower friend, the geeky guy who lived alone in the valley, that she wanted more. She wanted to hold him, and be held by him. To touch and be together.
This new feeling grew and she began to realise how long it had been since she had left her tower. So much so that she wasn’t even that sure how to do it. The entrance had grown stiff and just getting to the bottom, passed the dark rooms, was hard work. But in the end she managed it and she began to make her way from her tower to his. When she got to it though, she got a shock. The man’s tower was incredibly high; at least twice the height of hers. She smiled with delight, and wonder, realising that it was only because of the height of her tower, and extraordinary height of the man’s, that had made them visible to each other. She loved how they had found each other that way. She also longed to see what could be seen from the top.
However, she could also now see that there was no door. If she was honest that scared her a bit, but it also appealed to her and so she began to climb.
At first it was easy; the man’s tower was enveloped in creeping vines that made it simple to get a hand hold on – in fact, she even loved that his tower was covered in the twisted vegetation, since she had noticed some creepers beginning around the base of her own tower when she’d left it. So the fact that her tower man had many more just made her all the more determined that he would love her for who she was.
As she climbed, she called out the man, telling him she was coming – and more than once asking him about a door. But when he looked over the top, down to where she was climbing, all she heard was him shout down that now was not a good time, and that she should go home and he’d tell her when it was a good time to come. He even promised to make a door just for her if she would just go home and wait. But the woman had come too far and wanted his touch too much to be able to go back. Besides, she was sure that even if there was no door she would at least be able to get in a window. And being a woman who knew she was always right, her head was full of happy ideas and thoughts: she imagined finding a way in, hugging her new friend, and finally – after exploring a few of his own dark rooms, which just thinking about made her feel excited – that they would make their way together to the very top of his tower and sit and watch the sun set together, where they would finally be no longer alone. And so, with all this in her mind, she climbed fervently, shouting back that she could not wait, and not noticing that the man had disappeared.
Before long, she was able to make out a window ledge far above her. Excited, she climbed faster, covering the distance quickly so that she was soon able to pull herself up and over the ledge and sit breathing deeply with the exhaustion. However, her breathing became a gasp when she saw that, although it was a window, it was filled in and brick up. Moreover, shuffling forwards to see if there was any way to work the bricks loose, she discovered a truth that nearly broke her heart, the cement around the bricks was fresh – all the time she had been climbing, the man had been bricking up the window.
In the hours that passed after the woman discovered the bricked up window, she had sat numb and scared on the ledge. She knew she was very high and that a fall might kill her. She knew she ought to climb down, but the thought of doing so and returning to her own tower alone was painful. She also knew there was no point in climbing higher – even if there was another window, she knew that it too would be bricked up by the time she got there. She did wonder if she could make it to the top and pull herself over the parapet and chase the man around the platform until he gave in and let her hold him. But that seemed impossible, even for her. So instead she just sat, and tried to figure out what had gone wrong.
After a while, she heard a noise and realised that the man was on the other side of the window. That though he had shut her out, he still wanted to contact with her. She felt angry and called out to him, telling him so. He replied, although his voice was muffled, she heard him tell her again that it was too soon and that he was not ready to have guests in his tower. She shouted back that she was not a guest, that she was like him and wanted to be with him. But then he said that he could not let her in that window as it led into a room he did not want her to see, to which she replied that it was those rooms that she particularly did want to see because she had rooms of her, and that she understood and wanted to be understood in return. Finally, he said that he did not want her to be disappointed, but she immediately called back that he was probably disappointed in himself and that with her help he would be fine. But the man did not like that and grew angry that she wanted to change him, which made the woman confused, as she did not understand how someone could be not what they wanted to be, yet not want to be changed, and before she could stop herself she said some horrible things that later she wished she hadn’t.
It was quiet after that, so that she was not sure if the man was still there. She called out again, but his voice was so faint she was not sure if he was still inside or had retreated to the top of the tower. The wind made it hard to hear too; it had picked up and even seemed to want to tear her from the ledge. Clinging to the ledge, she started to feel afraid. What if he left her there? What if he didn’t pull down the bricks and let her in? What if she was left on the ledge until exhaustion made her fall asleep and she fell? She knew that she had to make a decision: she had to either give in climb down or somehow stay awake and keep trying to persuade him to let her in.
And it was then, as she sat trying to decide which to do, that she heard a terrifying rumble. Looking back towards her home she was able to make out the top of her own tower and see that there was a problem. She had been away too long and neglect meant some stones were becoming loose and her tower was starting to crumble. If she was to save it, to have a tower to go back to, she would have to leave soon. For a while, she cried in frustration and pain and fear.
However, she knew she had to make a decision. She loved towers, and still wanted to live in one, but if this man would not share his with her, then she would move on. She would find a new place and build her own again. She build on rock and make it even higher. So high that she could see everything and everyone, long before they could see her.
