Extreme Difference Read Free

‘family’ reached its somewhat pathetic conclusion, Sandy asked Nan to explain what the place was all about, and why he was here.
    The others filed out of the cavern, no doubt going about their allotted business, or just getting out of the way of any other rituals Nan might suddenly feel inclined to implement.
    Several crude benches were scattered about the cavern, mostly up against the walls, but apart from two, which were obviously made from some kind of metal, the material used for the others remained unidentifiable.
    ‘Please sit down Sandy, and I’ll do my best to answer any questions you have, although you may be disappointed in my lack of knowledge of this place.’ Nan had now assumed a much more relaxed attitude towards him, and almost seemed like any other normal human being, except he had difficulty in trying to recall anyone in particular.
    ‘What the hell is this place?’ asked Sandy, the words stumbling over themselves in his eagerness to get them out.
    ‘It is where we live, and have done so for a very long time, long before I came here. Stories are handed down from the elders to those who take their place upon the elder’s death. I am an elder, and I try to keep the stories as true as possible when retelling them, but it is thought that some have embellished the history of this place to suit their own ends.’
    ‘That doesn't surprise me one bit, but what is this place?’ Sandy asked impatiently. ‘Where is it, and what does it consist of?’
    ‘It was created for us by some higher power, and we are created to populate it. Some people claim to be able to recall things from a past existence, but I think that’s heresy, and there’s no proof that we have existed before the creation. I think it’s just imagination on their part, and not healthy.’
    ‘First I’ll tell you what we know about the physical world, and then about the different types of people who live here.’
    Sandy opened his mouth to speak, but Nan raised his hand to silence any interruption of his narration.
    ‘Imagine a large shallow bowl, where the smooth rim has been cut into a series of ragged points, and then plaster the inside with a two or three centimetre layer of mud or some such material, taking it right up to the top of the points. Now half fill the bowl with fine sand, and where the sand meets the mud layer, make some small holes to represent caves.
    ‘That is basically what our world looks like, except that it is very much bigger, in fact it is nearly sixty kilometres across, as far as we can tell. The sun is very fierce, and during the day the sand gets so hot that if you were to walk on it, you would burn your feet very badly.
    ‘At night the temperature drops to below freezing, and even a quick venture out onto the sands would result in severe frostbite. This leaves a short time in the early morning and evening when we can safely venture out into this inhospitable world, and we have to be careful about that.
    The growing bins are taken out in the early morning as soon as the frost has disappeared, and brought back in before the sun climbs over the mountain rim to bathe the sands in direct sunlight. The same thing happens again in the evening, once the sun has dropped below the high rim of the mountains, the bins are brought out again to utilize the softer reflected light from the shiny peaks, and returned to the caves just before the cold cycle begins.
    We have to do this to enable us to produce enough food to live on. There are other sources of food, as you will see, but green plants along with their fruits and berries, are essential for our well being.’
    ‘The caves and tunnels are part natural, and part man made. Over many generations, extensions have been made to some of the caves to house our artefacts and growing bins, and connecting tunnels have been laboriously hacked from the rock to make access a little easier. Some of the tunnels go very deep into the body of the mountain, and so it is believed,