Cliffs and Concerts

 

Darren grabbed the top edge of the cliff edge and hauled himself up. Sweating and still a bit jumpy he looked around at the view. The world had changed. He used to freeclimb before the Event had reset people’s minds and helped them appreciate life more. The equipment he used now was triple checked and thoroughly redundant. Still, even perfect preparation couldn’t foresee everything. Last week the rock he anchored to gave way, and the secondary hold was also lost in the cascade. He remembered falling, then nothing, then waking up at the pillars again.

He redoubled his efforts to be safe, getting a drone to make a third anchor point at the top of the cliff as well, one that drew in the rope as he ascended.

In the three hundred years that followed he climbed four hundred more mountains. Each time, camping out near the top and sketching what he saw. In between he digitized the work and wrote reports for a travel based NewWeb encyclopedia. He had been studying the plants on his way up as well. Collecting samples and sending them off to various researchers.

Over the years he had become friends with many of them. Some focused on the genetic lineage of the plants, others on their nutrient properties. He had experimented with various sauces and teas from the more rare ones, and had a small export system set up to handle requests from people who read the articles.

In his downtime he had been practising the violin. Not only playing, but composing pieces, and making his own instrument from scratch. Each of those diversions had a dozen people in his area doing the same thing – and he networked with them as well, trading tips and working out new directions to go.

Once a year there was a special concert, the first half was everyone playing their most favourite work they had made that round. After that, they took turns doing a variations on the pieces they had just heard for the first time.

He kept in touch with his cousin Erin more than most of his family – though they all checked in with each other at least once a week. She worked with the concert series as well, not only locally, but around the world as the events progressed throughout the year. She never played but got to listen to all the parts beforehand. She juggled the order they played, and helped design the lights and stage props that would flow quietly in the background.

In her spare time she wrote plays, directed them and worked with the Entertainment department to get them broadcast around the globe. She had just written a story about a family who’s daughter had come back to life in the third wave. The daughter was overwhelmed at first, expecting the same world she had just left, but adjusting as other parts of her woke up to a more balanced mental life. The daughter wrote a play within the play, describing her former life.

People watching could understand her struggles better, and could now picture what she went through with more than just empathy. As they paid attention on her tale, they could focus their minds to make an internal simulation of the shape, and view it from an external vantage point while still being in that frame. Her gifts and struggles became part of the group knowledge and local life around her shifted as they learnt the lessons.