The Cairn

On the far side of civilization, in the wilds beyond the farthest homesteads, there stood a cairn. It doesn't matter when or precisely where, only that it stood at the frontier of the unknown, where no human had ever set foot before. This small, delicate stack of rocks was less than a meter tall. One day, a child discovered it while exploring the wilds beyond her home. There it stood, in its solitude.

What is this? The child thought to herself.

Who built this?

She walked tentatively around the cairn, studying this strange, unnatural thing. It seemed to her, somehow, to have always been there. When it cast a long shadow in the late afternoon sun, the child went home, her questions unanswered.

The next day, the child returned. She and the cairn stood alone together.

This is mine. She thought.

She skipped in a circle around the cairn. She jumped over it, and jumped over it again, and again. She skipped and jumped until she was bored.

At long last, she sat beside the cairn and spoke to it. "Where did you come from?" she asked, "Why are you here?"

The cairn didn't reply. And when, again, it cast a long shadow in the late afternoon sun, the child went home, her questions unanswered.

That night, a fierce storm blew through the hinterlands, and the following day, the child returned to see if the cairn was still standing. It was.

"How?" she said, incredulously.

She considered the cairn for a long while. It confounded her. Then, with a gentle push, she toppled it over. And there was no more cairn, and no more shadow. Only stones. The child was alone.