The Summit

An explorer approached the summit of what he thought might be the highest mountain on the planet. To his knowledge, no one had previously conquered the peak. He pulled himself up over the last ledge and looked down to see the sky and the sea come together in a line. Then he saw that someone else was there, sitting on a rock.

The climber approached the figure. It was a man who sat gazing at the horizon. The horizon-watcher did not notice the climber until the climber tapped him on the shoulder.

"How did you get here?" asked the climber.

The man turned. "I climbed, as you have," he said.

"Why are you sitting here?"

"What else should I do? I have conquered the highest mountain. I am the ruler of the world."

The man had a cloud around his head, and as the climber stood there, the cloud began to reach out and surround the climber's own head so he could hardly see. But the climber fanned the air with his hands and exhaled several times to disperse the cloud from around his head.

"Could you be mistaken?" asked the climber.

"Mistaken about what?" asked the man.

"Maybe this isn't the highest mountain."

"It is."

From his backpack, the climber withdrew a sighting device to measure how high the two men were in relation to the rest of the planet.

"We will see," said the climber.

The mountaineer took sightings. Far away across the sea, he saw the peak of an island rising above the point of the cross hairs.

"There is a mountain higher than this!" the climber cried.

"Nonsense," said the horizon watcher.

"Provable sense," said the climber, pointing in the direction of the higher summit. "Look."

The rock sitter got up, muttering under his breath. He staggered to the eyepiece and squinted through it. The cloud around his head followed, enveloping the telescope; condensation formed on the lens and nothing could be seen through it.

"Rubbish," said he; "This is the highest peak. The ground underneath that mountain is higher than the ground beneath us. That is all."

The mountaineer folded up his device and put it back into his pack. Throwing the bundle over his shoulder, he said, "Goodbye." Then he began to make his way down toward the sea. When he reached the ocean, he set sail for the island.

Upon conquering the island mountain, the climber found no one else there, so he set up his sighting equipment to verify that he had reached the highest peak on Omicron Lyrae IV. After scanning in all directions, he found no other peak that came near the point of the cross hairs. He shouted to the sky and the sea, "I've conquered the highest mountain; I am the ruler of the world!" He sat down on a rock to to contemplate his achievement. He lost track of time.

There came a voice. "Why are you sitting there?"

The climber turned around and saw the silhouette of a child. It was impossible to tell if it was a boy or a girl, because a fog had moved in while the climber was dreaming.

"How did you get here?" asked the climber.

"I climbed up," said the child.

"This is the highest mountain peak in the world," said the climber.

"How do you know?" asked the child.

"My equipment tells me," said the climber.

"Show me," said the child.

"How can I show you," said the climber, "with this fog?"

"There's no fog," said the child.

"You are playing games with me," said the climber, but he got up anyway, and as he got close and lifted the child to the eyepiece, he could see that the child was a girl. She squinted through the telescope.

"What do you see?" asked the climber.

"A mountain," said the girl.

"That is the second highest mountain in the world," said the climber.

The girl got down and opened her backpack. She took from it a box with buttons and a screen. She sat on the ground and pressed the buttons and looked at the screen.

After a short time, she said, "You are wrong."

"Nonsense," said the climber. "My instrument tells the truth."

"No," said the girl. "The world is curved. The horizon bends down away from us. The ground under that peak is lower than the ground under this one. That mountain looks lower, but it's really higher than this."

The girl showed the mountaineer the calculations and deductions she had made using the box with the buttons and the screen. The climber could see the screen, but because of the fog, he could not discern any of the symbols it displayed.

"Ridiculous," said the climber. He walked back to his rock and sat.

The girl said to the man, "Goodbye," and departed for the higher peak. She took the climber's equipment.

The girl spent years crossing seas and ascending mountains, each time finding that there was a higher peak somewhere on the horizon. She grew to womanhood, but kept climbing and seafaring until her legs could hardly carry her weight. Her hair was the color of snow, and her skin was the texture of stone, when she reached top of a mountain and deduced that it was the highest in the world.

The woman set up the climber's sighting apparatus, checked in every direction, and then used the box with the buttons and the screen to be certain that no other peak rose high enough to challenge her, even when the curvature of the planet was taken into account. The woman exulted to the sun, the sky and the sea: "I've found the summit of the planet!" She declared herself Heiress of the World. Her words traveled out into the atmosphere and dissipated into time and space. She sat down on a rock. Clouds rolled in; soon the woman could see nothing.

If you ride an aerocopter to the top of Sky Mountain tomorrow morning and chisel around in the frozen dirt, perhaps you will find the bones of the Heiress of the World.

Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000 by Francisco Carrera.