Julie Marriyanna smiled as she placed her journal in a bright green waterproof bag; It was the last essential item on her packing list, everything else was already in a suitcase by the door. Celebrating the last of her preparation, Julie lifted her arms in victory. She stepped into a spin and let go of the bag milliseconds before realizing maybe? the journal was too precious to throw. In slow motion, it pierced the air, hit the side of her suitcase, changed trajectory, and fell to the floor with a Thud! “Sorry” Julie winced as she rushed to hold the journal in her arms, hoping, one day, it would forgive her.
Off to the side, a cat sitting on Julie’s pile of clothes began to vibrate. Arriyan, momentarily as startled as Julie, fled under the table revealing an incoming phone call. Julie picked up the phone, it was YuiMae Standrou. “Hey Mae!”
“Jules, you ready? I want us to close our suitcases at the same time.”
“Yeah, perfect timing,” Julie tucked her journal cozily under a sweater.
“Ok, three… two…one…GO!” Mae shouted.
Julie plopped on her suitcase and fastened the zipper, zziiipppp. She heard the same sound, but slightly higher pitched, statically come out of her phone, zz..z..iieeeee..ppppppp. “Shhh stop.” Julia hissed at an intrigued Arriyan pawing her phone. “Myeow.”
“Is that a cat? When did you get a cat?”
“About six months ago.”
“Jules, really? Why didn’t you tell me? I told you when I got a fish two weeks ago.”
“I dunno,” Julie shrugged in solitude, “I’ve been writing him into my English project as a calm and connected sort of character. I guess I want him to keep his real-life mystery until I’m done with the story”
“Err ok, well, meet me by the silver statue tomorrow. Don’t be late! Promise?”
⟿
Julie made the promise and kept it. Soon enough, both girls were in upstate New York, not far from Julie’s summerhouse. Mae relaxed into a chair outside the cabin about to take a nap. And she would have, but Julie ticked Mae into playing tag in the forest.
⟿
Mae was it, her messy bun fell out into a ponytail and she chased Julie who ran with full force straight north. Mae caught Julie after a mere few minutes. Julie was it as Mae ran circles around a puddle. Julie reached across and nearly fell in, but tagged Mae. Julie ran north again and Mae laughed as Julie flapped her arms until they reached a rusty ladder. Julie climbed up but Mae stopped as she realized where they were. She held out her hands toward Julie, and said “Wait!!! Don’t go there!! Don’t you know where we are?”
Standing still, Mae felt her heart beating out of her chest, a sense of panic settling in.
“The glass platform,” answered Julie nonchalantly.
“Yeah, people go here to die,” said Mae.
“Come on, that’s dark, even for you. There’s no way everyone who comes here comes to die” said Julie as she tilted her head to the side, puzzled by the comment.
“How do you know?”
“Because we’re here, and we’re not here to die.”
“We got here by accident!”
It wasn’t really an accident. The glass platform was Julie’s favorite writing spot and she was in the mood to write. But, Julie didn’t correct Mae.
“Whatever, let’s go, it’ll be a cool view.”
“NO,” Mae was in the mood to argue.
“You’re just scared of what you don’t know”
“No, I’m scared because I do know”
“Ok then, tell me, what do you know?” Julie allowed her feet to slip back to the ground and turned to face Mae.
⟿
Mae tapped her hand against her chest to slow down her heart and made up her mind to tell Julie only enough to persuade her to leave.
“The architect, who made the glass platform, wanted to kill himself, BUT, he wanted to be sure, he would die when he was meant to.” Mae took a deep breath before continuing, “He programmed the platform to remove a different glass panel every hour. Then, he chose a direction and ran, waiting for a missing panel to appear under his feet. Eventually he fell through, never to be seen again. All people that come here, come here to run, hoping to fall through. If they get tired of running before they fall through, it means they weren’t supposed to die.” Mae said this last sentence with suspicious hesitation.
Julie loved stories so she played along, “It’s good if they don’t fall through, it means luck was on their side. I’m sure it doesn’t happen for everyone.”
Mae’s eye twitched. Julie shook her head and climbed up the ladder. “It’s just a legend, plus the view really is beautiful.”
Mae stood with wide eyes as Julie disregarded everything she said. Mae didn’t want to go up the glass platform but, more than that, she didn’t want to be left by the glass platform, alone.
⟿
Mae closed her eyes, held her breath and climbed up the ladder, shaking with each step. Julie assumed Mae was simply scared of heights, took Mae’s hand when they got to the top, and guided her along the glass.
It was almost like walking on air, they could see the ground covered in rocks and broken branches dozens of feet below them. A yellow bird flew by, chirping hello. Vibrant tree branches from the forest’s tallest trees swayed overhead.
The platform stretched for miles in each direction from the center but, the one edge Julie and Mae were close to, had a natural wall of tree trunks. No one could die by walking off the edge “Oh!” said Mae to herself, as if the makeshift wall answered a question she had spent centuries pondering over.
Then Mae paused, squeezing Julie’s hand tighter. She spotted a gray figure in the distance. Mae spoke aggressively “I think we should go the other way, back to the ladder, I don’t want to run into anyone.” Julie shrugged her shoulders and they went to sit by the ladder, backs to the gray figure.
A few moments of silence later, Julie screamed a greeting to the void and waved into the distance. The gray figure that was moving in their direction started approaching faster, yet still maintained a certain peacefulness. Julie knew the gray figure, and had visited him before, he was her grandpa after all.
⟿
“Ow! Why’d you stick your elbow into my side?” Julie exclaimed. Mae bumped Julie on purpose and didn’t feel a smidge of regret. Her mind was racing a million miles a minute, eyes bulging out of her head. “Jules, why the fuck did you call the only other person standing on a death trap to come towards us?!?” Julie didn’t answer, but started thinking Mae believed the platform was an actual death trap.
Julie’s grandpa, the man in the shadows, walked with feathers extending from his backpack, a guitar hanging on his back, and rocks clanking in a bracelet around his ankle. When his eyes met with Julie, she felt speechless. His presence always warranted stillness in her. When his eyes met with Mae, an anger boiled in her body. He sensed the tension but had never seen Mae before and was slightly taken aback. When he sat down next to Julie, Mae moved to run towards the ladder but Julie grabbed her arm and stopped her.
⟿
“Hey buds, my name is Galian M. Arriyan” the man briefly waved his hand. “What brings you here today?” He winked at Julie. “We’re here just for the view, not to try killing ourselves or anything like that,” Mae responded. Julie winked back with a nod, asking her grandpa to play along .“Oh” replied Galian “That’s a new one.” Julie let out a soft, almost unnoticeable giggle.
“Told you,” snarled Mae, completely unaware of Galian’s joking tone.
“Would you like to enjoy the nature with me?” Galian asked in a soothing voice.
“Yes, I would very much like that!” replied Julie.
She laid down on her back, and listened while her grandpa G told a story.
“Allow your body to melt into the ground as you look towards the sky. Breathe in the clean, crisp blue, air and allow your gaze to get lost in the openness. Remember this vast freedom, the one clouds travel through, and gently close your eyes. Imagine a golden energy pulsing through your body, now, allow that energy to flow from your center into the world. Think of it like a beam of light and send it up high. Feel it reach beyond the tree tops, beyond the clouds, beyond the atmosphere. When it reaches space, keep going, let it travel beyond earth, beyond the sun, beyond the milky way. Take in this new openness. This vast space. Allow your energy beam to expand in all directions. The part of it in space will pass through the stars, the part of it on earth will intertwine with all the clouds and trees and living creatures. You are connected to all of it. You are all of it. Now, slowly, reel in your beam of light from beyond the milky way. Bring it back to the sun, to earth, to the atmosphere, to the clouds, and to your body. To return to reality, deepen your breath, feel your hands on the ground, listen to the birds and remember that you are on the glass platform. Wiggle your fingers and toes, move into a stretch and when you are ready open your eyes.”
Julie sat up with a new sparkle in her gaze, everything within the world looked new. She took out her journal to capture the feeling before it faded as her grandpa G got his guitar and began to strum a melody. It was a beautiful moment if there ever was one.
⟿
Mae had sat through the entire story. Her defenses were more relaxed, and her heart more open, but her mind remained alert. She noticed Julie’s comfort with Galian was not that of two strangers, it couldn’t be. To Mae it seemed almost like they had met before, like this meditation was a routine.
When Julie stood up to dance, to walk on the platform, Mae remembered where she was and despair seeped in. She was sitting near the architect who designed the glass platform and the myth behind it, the myth that killed her brother, while her friend spun around entranced in the music this murderer played. Mae couldn’t contain her emotions, not with lowered defenses, so they began to overflow. She needed to get away, Julie and Galian’s happiness was overwhelming. Mae got up, gazed out into the sky, grounded her feet into the glass and took off running.
⟿
It took a second for Julie to connect the dots. Mae was upset, Mae told her the platform was a place people went to die, Mae told her that people who want to die run. Julie had been on the platform before but she only ever sat by the ladder, what if there were missing panels!? What if grandpa G just never told her about them? What if Mae was headed right for one??? Julie dropped to her knees yelling “NO, where are you going??? STOP!”
⟿
The wind picked up, Mae let her feet carry her. She ran, and ran, and ran for 10 minutes until she was certain she was alone. Then, she collapsed.
Her body felt heavy, she couldn’t stand being near Galian.
⟿
A sobbing Julie, carefully watching where she stepped, ran to Mae.
“DON’T TOUCH ME” Mae screamed.
“I don’t want you to die,” Julie cried.
“Ugghhrr, even if I wanted to kill myself, I couldn’t do it here. You can’t fucking die here Jules, none of the panels ever disappear.” Mae slammed her arm into the floor as if that was a bad thing.
“What? But you told me..”
“I know what I told you, I didn’t tell you the full story.”
⟿
Galien caught up, panting, eyes full of worry. Air escaped Mae like that of a balloon someone couldn’t manage to tie. “I hate you Galian” said Mae.
She lifted her head and let the rest of the built up words fall out of her. “I had a brother once, Klado. I loved him, and he knew that, but if love was enough to keep someone alive, he would still be alive.”Galien stumbled back a step, he feared Mae’s next words.
“Klado came to the platform to die, he didn’t want to know when he died, he just wanted it to happen. He ran and ran and ran, the panels were always there. He told me he stopped to curse at the floor, at how it wouldn’t let him die. And that’s when he met the figure from the shadows, a Man with a Clanking Bracelet who said it was his lucky day. That Man said if the missing panel didn’t appear, it meant Klado should keep living.
All suicidal people, and me because Klado told me, know the story about the glass platform. When I first heard it, of course I hoped he would run and come back alive. And he did, but he didn’t. When Klado came back he changed. I had to watch him change, I had to listen to him wake up gasping for breath in the middle of the night. Hear this Galien, Mr. Smartass architect…”
⟿
Architect? Julie thought, her grandpa? She looked to meet his eyes with confusion but he wouldn’t look her way.
⟿
“…Klado came back to the platform again and again, but you must know that. He ran the whole thing, panel by panel, hour after hour. No panel ever disappeared. Klado wasn’t just ‘lucky enough’ not to fall. It was a trick. It was all a trick, a trick he figured out.
And that, THAT, IS CALLED BETRAYAL.
You didn’t think anyone knew about this, did you?
If there really was a missing panel and Klado fell through, he would have just disappeared. If he didn’t fall through, maybe he would still be alive! But no, he couldn’t have a chance of dying here, no one dies here!
Instead, Klado slit his throat.
My mom found him outside the house and told me when I got home from school.
Now I’m dead inside
And it’s all your fault.
You killed me because you wouldn’t let him die”
⟿
Mae buried her head in her knees, curling up into a ball.
Julie was stuck between thinking Mae was hallucinating or her grandpa was an architect trying to trick people into living. Either outcome made her dizzy and she swayed side to side, grabbing a nearby branch.
⟿
Galian held his palms to his heart and drifted into a seat. He had designed the platform and, more importantly, the myth with a good intention. He spent years on the platform being the last line of defense for those who were suicidal. Galian didn’t want anyone to take their life, especially not Klado; he remembered Klado.
Klado was an intelligent boy, wise for his age. He saw patterns in nature that others did not, he accepted the darkness in him, or so Galian thought. It was not a surprise Klado had been the one to see through the secret of the platform.
⟿
Mae continued “We don’t know what happens when people die. In case you don’t notice, we are very much alive. It might be a wrong choice to kill yourself, I mean, even I think it’s disrespectful to run away from the experience of being human, but from here we don’t know that it’s wrong.”
⟿
Galian was curled up in a ball, in pain beyond tears, his life’s purpose dismantled by a student in a matter of minutes. Julie watched intently, she knew the answer to her question: Mae was not hallucinating.
If Mae was hallucinating grandpa G would know. He would have responded by now, to try and help. Instead, he took a glass cutter from his backpack and cut out a panel, letting it fall. Vibrations could be heard as it reached the ground. Everything he lived his life for, broken down.
⟿
Galian could not stand the thought that everything he did trying to save people could have in any way caused harm, especially to Klado’s sister, especially to his granddaughter’s friend. That was the opposite of who he lived his life to be. He did not deserve to be in this world. In a split second decision, forgetting Julie stood watching, he stepped forward and fell through.
“Grandpa?” Julie spoke with a cracking voice.
“Grandpa?” Mae echoed, snapping her head to look at Julie.
(Accompanying image may be subject to copyright and does not belong to us)
