She wakes up.

Although the curtain is not open, she knows what’s out there, fog. She doesn’t even know why she needs curtains. It is always the same thing outside. The floor is not high enough to have some sunshine.

She turns on the TV to watch the morning news while she brushes her teeth; she gets this habit from her dad.

Nothing is happening, nothing exciting, nothing new.

The newsreader ends with the same sentence again. “According to statistics, today might be the day of every one hundred years that sunshine will reach each part of our tower. Wishing you a Sunshine Day!”

She had heard that sentence more than 10 thousand times before. The day she was born was the day of sunshine, so according to statistics, that day may never happen in her life.

The phone rings. The apartment manager, “It has been ten years since you worked outside, and you have never missed one day of work. Now it is time for a day off, and a surprise.”

“What is the surprise, an apartment above the clouds?”

“That would be too huge of a surprise; you will find it out.”

“Can I have cash instead?”

“No, I suppose that is non-refundable.”

“Okay, but I don’t need a day off, I need my Perfect Attendance Award.”

“No, you need…”

She starts to cough blood, a symptom that has manifested for several years.

“You definitely need the break. Also, you will receive your award. No worries. Hope you have a Sunshine Day!”

“Thanks.” She hangs up the phone, still coughing.

If she goes out for work, her job is to clean the tower’s surface, which would be covered by acid sludge overnight. She could not imagine the lives of the people living at the bottom of the tower, who face the risk of those sludge invasions every day. The place she lives in is safe. But it is not enough. Maybe one day, the sludge would rise and invade her apartment. As long as she is still in the fog, under the cloud, safety is not ensured.

She needs to get above the clouds. She needs some sunshine.

What to do? She feels so strange thinking about the question. Work can kill, but nobody mentioned that leisure could also kill.

Knock, knock

Who’s there?

It has been years since the last door knock, which delivered her father’s ashes to her, nothing else. When people die under the clouds, all of their heritage goes to the Government. 

Nothing bad could happen. No other closed ones are still alive.

She opens the door. 

That is definitely a man above the clouds. One can tell that just by the atmosphere around him. 

He speaks, “I am here to take you, my dear lady, on a one-day trip to the top. Your friend has paid for this trip.”

Guess that is the surprise.

 Why not? He won’t bite, probably. 

She could not remember much about the trip, she drank a lot in the bar above, and agreed to go to his apartment to watch the sunrise. When she wakes up, she is well-dressed, covered nicely with a blanket, and has a pillow under her head.

“He truly doesn’t bite at all,” she thinks.

The man above the clouds calls out, “Save that Lyon wine for me, I have got the money. No… not from my Dad, see you there, bye-bye!”

The man above the clouds walks to her, “You seem to have had a nice sleep. Now, is anybody ready for some sunrise?”

“Yes, I have to say that it is too fast, but you are such a gentleman.”

The man above the cloud gently helps her to the Panoramic skylight, the sun is rising, and an orangish-red line appears on the skyline.

“We are so lucky today, the sunrise is so clear.” The man above the clouds speaks, “Want some fresh air?”

“Sure.”

The man above the clouds opens the window, letting the fresh air in.

When she breathes in the air, she starts to cough immediately. She coughs harder and coughs out even more blood as she inhales more air.

“In the end, the apartment above the clouds could not save my life.” That was her last thought.

For the next morning news, “Yesterday was Sunshine Day! Hope you had a wonderful day! For that person that committed suicide, they must have been very hopeless to do so on a Sunshine Day. Reminder, never open the windows, especially on a Sunshine Day, the day that the air becomes extra poisonous, even for the Man Above The Clouds.”

Bio

About this story, Xinyu Zhou notes:

Humans want to go above the clouds, so they built the Tower of Babel, and try to reach the things above the clouds. What happens to them when they reach and step on the clouds?

They fall to the ground; because it is just something empty.