Something there is

I couldn’t be sure, but I didn’t think that it had been there the day before. Yet here I stood looking up at it and quite clearly it was there now. Towering above my head, it stretched like a giant snake across the countryside; a brown-grey serpent lazing in the late morning sun.
     Looking either way I could not see where it ended or began, or if it ended and began anywhere at all. It seemed to stretch forever past the fir trees to the south and past the duck pond in the north. An endless collection of granite cutting through the land. Then I thought that perhaps it just was. It didn’t need to start somewhere and end somewhere else just to exist in this particular piece of my world.
     I raised a hand and ran my fingers along its rough surface, feeling the cracks between the stones. I wondered how thick it was. I put my eye to a gap in the stone, but could not see through to the other side. More stone was in the way. The granite blocks had all been washed clean and they almost shone in the light from the sun now high in the sky. There was no cement of any sort holding them together, they had just been packed tightly one on top of the other. I tried to think when last I had walked this path. Surely I had come this way just yesterday, and it hadn’t been here then? Or had it? Perhaps it had always been here.
     “Charvis lives on the other side,” I thought to myself. “I remember seeing him a few days ago. Maybe he built it.” I wasn’t sure, but I think I had once heard that Charvis had wanted to put something up between our two properties. Or maybe that was the man who had lived there before Charvis. I couldn’t remember his name, but perhaps he had been the builder. After all, I wasn’t really sure how long the construction had been here.
     I turned and started walking north alongside the structure. I paced myself because I realised that I might have to walk forever if I intended to find its end. Every now and again I faced the stones and ran my fingers along the edge of one of the blocks. It was comforting in a way.
     As I walked, I sensed that someone was walking along the other side of the barrier, matching me step for step. As I stopped, he would stop. When I started up again, so would he. After a while, once I was convinced that it was not just my imagination playing with me, I ventured a greeting.
     “Good morning.”
     “Good morning.” It sounded like it might be Charvis. I had never spoken to him before though, so I couldn’t be sure.
     “Is that Charvis?”
     “Yes.”
     “Oh. Good.” I wasn’t sure what to say. So I waited for him to say something instead.
     “Is that Masters?”
     “Yes.”
     “I see.”
     I stood in silence wondering what one should say in this kind of situation. I looked up and noticed how blue the sky was.
     “Nice day, isn’t it? The sky is very blue.”
     “It is pleasant, isn’t it?” He paused. “I wonder though — is it the same there as it is here?”
     “I suppose so.” I hadn’t thought that his property might have different weather. Maybe he was in a different time zone. I checked my watch. “What time is it there?”
     “Oh, about eleven o’clock.”
     “Good. That’s the time here too.”
     “I see.” Charvis sounded relieved. I ran my finger against the stone again.
     “I was just wondering…” I paused to make sure I had his attention. “I was just wondering. Do you know who built this wall?”
     “This wall?” I had to presume that Charvis was looking at the same structure.
     “Yes. This one. With the granite stones and no mortar between the blocks.”
     “Yes, that’s the wall I have this side too.” It sounded for a moment like Charvis was humming to himself. “I thought that you had built it.”
     Perhaps I had. I hadn’t really thought about it. “I don’t remember building it. But I suppose I might have.” I tried to remember when I might have put it up. “I thought that maybe you had built it.”
     “I don’t think so.” I could hear Charvis scratching at the surface of one of the stones. “I can’t remember though.” He was quiet for a moment. “How long has it been here?”
     “It’s always been here.” My answer surprised me at first, but then I was sure that it had.
     “I see.” He was quiet for a moment. “But I walked this path yesterday and I can’t remember seeing it then.”
     “Interesting.”
     “What was that?”
     “I said ‘interesting’, because I also walked this path yesterday and I’m not sure that it was here then either.” I looked up at the top of the wall which was a few feet above my head. “But I didn’t see you, which means that maybe it was here. Because if it was here and we were both walking where we are now we wouldn’t have seen each other.”
     “I suppose not.” I felt that I had made some sense at last. “So maybe it was here yesterday then.”
     “Maybe it was.”
     We were quiet again. I started walking once more. I could hear Charvis do the same.
     “Masters?” His voice stopped me.
     “Yes.”
     “Are you in or out?”
     “What do you mean?”
     “Well, if someone builds a wall, aren’t they either wanting to keep something or someone in, or something or someone out?”
     “I suppose you’re right.” I hadn’t thought of it that way. “I think that I am in.”
     “I see.” Another pause. “That’s strange, because I would have said that you are out.”
     “Hmm.” There wasn’t anything else to say.
     “Maybe.” Charvis sounded like he was thinking hard. “Maybe we are both out.” He was testing me.
     “I was hoping that we might both be in.” I was, really.
     “Is it possible that we are both in and out at the same time perhaps?”
     “I suppose it is.” I scratched behind my ear. This was a new twist to the whole situation. “So does that mean that we are being kept in, or we are being kept out?”
     “I’m not sure.” Charvis had anticipated this question. “Is there any reason why you might want to keep me out?”
     “I don’t think so.” Although maybe there was and I just didn’t want to say so. “What about you?”
     “I wouldn’t say so.” Silence again. “So we’re both being kept in then?” He was a tricky customer, this Charvis.
     “It would seem so.”
     After another uncomfortably quiet moment I began walking again. Charvis did the same. I kept looking at the construction and wondering how it had got to be there. If I didn’t build it and Charvis didn’t build it …
     “Masters?” I stopped and turned to face the wall again as I heard the voice from the other side. I suddenly though it strange that I was talking to a wall.
     “Yes.”
     “Perhaps we both built the wall.”
     “You mean together?” I was slightly unnerved by his suggestion, but somehow it didn’t sound unreasonable.
     “Yes. Maybe it was a kind of team effort.”
     “I see.” I thought I heard him humming again. “So we built it together then?”
     “I think so.” He had a good argument.
     “It makes sense, I suppose.” I couldn’t disagree with him, really.
     “Yes, it does.” More silence. “It is a fine piece of work.” Charvis was obviously impressed that he had helped in its construction.
     “Very well built.” I had already established this, but I said it to confirm my position.
     “And without any kind of cement.”
     “Quite true.” I traced my finger along the edge of one of the stones. “Tall and strong.”
     “There’s something of a beauty about it, isn’t there?”
     “Yes.” I agreed because there was really. It was very comforting knowing that I was being kept in by such a firm construction. I looked up and down the barrier and somehow felt very safe.
     “Masters?” The tone of Charvis’s voice made me realise that I had gone very quiet.
     “I’m still here.”
     “Good.” It sounded like he was tapping at his side of the wall. “I thought you had left.”
     “No, no. I’m right here.” I was glad for his company, so I wasn’t about to go anywhere.
     “I was just wondering.” There was that tapping sound again. “Should we leave it here?”
     “What? The wall?”
     “Yes. I was thinking that we could try to move it. After all, there’s no cement.” He was right, it would be easy enough to move.
     “I quite like it though.” I had convinced myself that I did.
     “I see.” Another pause. “But we don’t really need it, do we?”
     “I think I would miss it.” I did, really. “After all, it’s been here for so long, it would change the whole landscape if we moved it.”
     “But don’t you want to see what that might look like? It might be better.” Charvis was unsettling me.
     “I’d rather keep it the way it is.” I thought for a moment. “After all, if we took it down and it ended up being worse, wouldn’t it be too difficult to build it up again?”
     “Not really.” That tapping sound again. “It only took us a day to build.”

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