A Hollow Cube is a Lonely Space by S. D. Foster

Author:S. D. Foster [Foster, S. D.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Eraserhead Press
Published: 2011-12-13T16:00:00+00:00

Now he’s gone, and I’m here lying beneath a blanket of debris, resting my head on a fallen wall. Soft buildings do make good pillows. The newspaper article is clenched tightly in one claw, the skyscraper razor in the other. My eyes are closed. I’m so tired. And once I’ve drawn a line across my throat, I hope never to wake up.

The Pit: accident or design? What is my role in The Pit? How can I make this pit a better pit? Is there anything beyond The Pit, life after The Pit? The light that escapes through the seal of the overhead hatch, faintly illuminating The Pit, and the periodic opening of the hatch suggests it, perhaps.

These are the big questions that occupy the mind of a thinking man. And a thinking man needs his space. This pit is the perfect place. Dark. Quiet. Circular. A circle, with its infinitude of sides, is symbolic of the scope of human reason. Yes, this pit is perfect.

Was perfect. Before he arrived.

I’m not averse to sharing. Sharing is a virtue. And a thinking man is a virtuous man. But how can one ponder the big questions confronting humanity when one’s nostrils are filled with his stench? When one can hear lice shuffling through his unkempt beard? One can’t. I need my space. So, I’m going to do it, though I loathe the thought of misshaping my symbolically significant circle.

With the end of my toe, I draw a line, dividing The Pit roughly in half, and say with contrived aggression (I’m a philosopher, not a fighter), “As senior member of The Pit, I decree: There shall be no transgression of this diameter,” stroking my beard, not because it itches, but because the action imbues my words with wisdom.

My new pitmate doesn’t reply. But I hear the dry rub of his fingers, and I take it as tacit consent.

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