On top of the world (short)

Billy sat on top of the world.

Every day he’d climb onto his throne, and gaze down at civilization below him, rearranging and reorganizing the landscape. Day after day he watched the people grow taller, and feel himself rise with them. Week after week, Billy saw further across the earth. The seas and the lands opened themselves up to his gaze, stretching out farther all the time.

Billy took his instructions well, and helped to shape the civilization he gazed down at each day. Until finally the instructions ended, and Billy climbed off his throne. With a sense of sadness, he saw his own seat taken apart before him, and laid to the ground.

He strode home with a feeling of finality.

The next day, Billy marched back, and found his throne rebuilt on the ground. He climbed back in, and looked about him – but all he could see the were the pillars for people that he’d help to erect – blocking out the sight of the world he’d help to build.

Slowly and surely, though, his throne rose. With each passing month, the pillars around him shrank as he again cleared their roofs, and gazed back down, sitting on top of the world.

He loved sitting on top of the world, but he didn’t like climbing up and down. Billy felt secure in his crane, but not on the ladder.