March 24, 4023
Dearest Brain,
I see that you are intent on making the ascent tonight. Very thrilling!! So I will take us back in time little bit to March 19th for your entertainment. If you check the calendar, you will see that is a Sunday and I should have no business at the Institution. But alas, I work 24/7 and I did go to the Cathedral to prep for the week, and it seems an opportune moment to take you with, in the absence of the Critical 16.
I see you're a little woozy from staying up so late these last few days working overtime yourself; and as there was an ice storm Saturday night, the walk through the parking lot is very precarious in itself-- no worries I will support your grey cells in case of any slip or fall. A walk in the fresh air always does a Mind good. You'll see that we are required to park as far away from the Cathedral itself, so as to not take up prime space from Other Visitors. It's not terribly far, about 300 feet but the wind is howling, the road is unpaved and slick, and both of us frail and vulnerable... paper thin. I had no idea! I myself have lost nearly 10 pounds working these two years at the Cathedral. Sad but true :(
Fortunately, being Sunday, it is not so early in the morning, so instead of pitch black at 7 AM we are comfortably crossing in the dawn at 8 AM. A marginal difference, but the lighting is strikingly different. It is even better at 9 AM. That is when the 16 routinely ascend... It is then that the magnificent stairway which we are now climbing is covered with thin crisscrossing trails of rainbow. It's something to do with the way the long exterior East side windows overlap with the glass rail of the stairwell on the interior. It excites the selected16 to no end, and they lean dangerously over the edge, trying to trace the beams from the floor to the wall to the ceiling, while we do our best to reel them back in.
But we are not so lucky this time in viewing any such supernatural wonders... We have just the plain stairs. A lot of them. I have not yet counted and when I say three flights it seems like nothing... but it's something like 72 steps! Most average adult humanoids are winded on arriving at the top, but the 16 Titans are belligerent and wailing by half way jostling for first place... as you can imagine... and they make this climb every day with us, four times a day....
The top landing affords us a view of the surrounding area. B-- it is magnificent, as everything in this towering stairwell is glass we can see without obstruction to right and to the left. We are in fact surrounded by other Cathedrals! Yes apparently that is the wave of the Future and our precinct is leading the way... The one across the street has a bell tower that reminds us of the passing of our lives at every quarter interval with fragments of the same song; a quarter of the song at quarter after; half at half past; three quarters at the forty-five and the full song on the hour. My associate Larsen knows the tune by heart-- some hymnal, rehearsed on piano, but the words and title forgotten. (Larsen incidentally is on Sabbatical and the replacement is Daniels, who does not know the song but is doing very well at the Institution.)
When we overlook the impertinence of the nagging reminder of the elapsing hours, the chimes are quite beautiful and are in fact (along with the splendid structure of the building itself), one of the perks of working at our location of the Institution. To the far right of the block, just barely visible, is the corner of yet another Cathedral, with a fun house. We take the 16 there once a day, if the weather is nice... for an hour to expend their steam.
But please sit down B-- at the top of the stairs is a lounge. A Persian rug 18x9' and a sofa, as well as a chaise; several opulent plants, the mature expensive kind of palm and jade. Thank you for offering your red cigarette case with scraps of paper to take notes on... I too don't smoke but have always found these packs most convenient for taking along in the breast pocket. I've collected some second hand, as some of the most important people to me have been smokers at some point in their life if not all of their lives. I have had some special relationships, near and distant, across far and recent past, that have made me a better reader than I used to B-- Indeed it's made me The Warp that I am today.
You sit here and catch your breath while I go and take care of a few things down the hall. I'll try to be quick and then I'll tell you a little bit more about this and that. I'll only be gone a moment through these steel double red doors... <3W