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Tyler Benjamin Petty

The Towers

Updated: Jul 28, 2023


Two architects stand overlooking a beach.


The First Architect lacks perception and picks loose soil as his foundation.


The Second Architect is simply naive, yet has good senses. He picks a strong flat plateau as his foundation.


And so, none know, there is a storm coming.


The First Architect builds his tower expecting winds to come in the future; he builds strong stone walls in his attempt to fortify his tower.


The Second Architect realizes he has started with a good foundation, so he, suspecting that the weather will be fine, builds a glass tower to view the beautiful scenery.


Upon the coming of the storm, fast howling winds take over the land for a fortnight beating and pushing on the two towers.


The First's tower stood strong amongst the winds that hurled rocks about; the foundation was almost completely unaffected.


The Second's tower however, slowly broke apart as the panes of glass fractured from the rocks flying by. And by the end of the two weeks only the first tower stood. The second tower lay in a pile of shards on the ground.


The First Architect says to the second, "Ha! What were you thinking when you built yours? That the sun would glaze over us with a warm hug?" He said grinning. "Open your eyes at the water before us and expect storms, you inept man."


Discouraged at the cold truth, the Second Architect walked away for a day.

He realized in his absence, however, that his stone platform stood strong and thereon lay the possibility of rebuilding his tower. So, he came back with the winds engraved in his head, and he built a tower to withstand the hurling of the rocks, a shorter tower made of stone to match the foundation. The Second Architect, with opened eyes, could tell that the First's foundation was weak, so he said, "If you want, you may come and build a tower on my plateau, there is enough room,” with dignity about him. "For yours has a weak foundation."


"I would never trust you, a fool who builds expecting sunny days and light breezes." the First Architect rebutted, and so he smugly ignored him.


The Second Architect went on to rebuild his tower, still including windows to let in glimpses of light.


The First Architect paid no attention to the Second Architect, only aiming to tallen his tower he built it twofold, and there awaited another storm on the horizon.


In that short window of time, the First Architect, who had the greater of the two towers, realized upon the arrival of the second storm that winds were not the only force, but the First Architect seemed excited to see his tower tested and the other crushed.


The Second Architect was fearful, but cognitively ready for the winds and all else that would come.


So, the winds came hurling rocks in the storm's stead, but shortly afterward the waves arrived, the only true force of reckoning fit for that beach, the only one to be most expected.

And the waves pushed in faster than any other, leaving no time to prepare.


The First Architect saw the waves and tried to remain in a state of calm, but it was short lived as his foundation began to shift. With the faltering of his ego, his body started to shake with the tower, for he was entirely powerless. The bricks started to crumble, and eventually the loose mud was carried away along with the tower.


And the moment that lasted for the rest of the Second Architect's life, when all storms had cleared out of the bay, was that his tower stood the tallest until the end of days showered with sunlight.


So, the One Architect stood on his tower with a happy visage, while the body of the other was lost to the sea.


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1 Comment


Carmen Sieg
Carmen Sieg
Jan 19, 2021

Nicely done 🥰👍🏼👍🏼❤️

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