Heaven's Right Over There

by yaboi Keelay Ahsley Wullums

The world was on fire and nobody we knew had died. For all we knew, we were going to live forever. After all, we had an important job to do. This was our first trip scouting for the people. Our teacher had brought us to a high point at the edge of the valley where camp was being readied to move.

“What do you know of fire, young ones?” our teacher asked.

We knew that it danced like us but didn’t have a body like we did. The older people could summon and destroy it at will. Until we learned their ways, we were only supposed to get close enough to feel it’s warmth, or else we would get hurt.

“Which is exactly why we’re not going over there.” said our teacher as they pointed to an area of land under a dark sky. “The fire is hurting the earth, but it’s nothing the land can’t spring back from. However, once the sky clears, we won’t find shelter or food there for many years. so where will we go?”

Apart from the land under dark skies, we were left with three options. We could go into the mountains, across the plains, or along the meeting of the two. Cold months were ahead and while the plains held plenty of grains and roots in the summer, they held nothing but snow once it started falling. The mountains always held green and plenty of shelter for animals we could eat. Surely we would go-

“There” blurted my scouting partner Zeb, their finger out stretched towards the sky. they weren’t pointing at the dark sky but a fluffy, golden and white kingdom made of clouds with beams of light erected to it like ladders from the ground. “Let’s take the people there. I bet they have everything there because what wouldn’t try and get there? It looks so warm and inviting. I bet it’s heaven.”

By that point our teacher had started chuckling and replied “Anyone who tries to get there is a fool. The place you imagine does not exist. What you see as a paradise is a sea in which you can’t swim, held up by that on which you cannot walk. Remember looks can be deceiving.”

I was glad Zeb hadn’t really figured out an option I didn’t consider. Zeb was always saying they were the smart one just because they answered questions faster, even though I knew just as much as them. Clouds still didn’t make much sense to me, but the people had never lived on one. Confused, Zeb asked “Why didn’t you doubt the pain the fire caused the earth? You based that on the sky, but you deny paradise? Perhaps you are the one deceived by the sky. Perhaps it tells both of us the truth. Maybe I can’t stand on air, but I can stand on a mountain peak and they can reach the clouds on the right day. Isn’t it at least worth trying for a shot at paradise?”

Our teacher sighed before answering “Those who climb the peaks into the clouds are blinded of everything except the path before them. They can no longer see their way home. Is paradise worth losing your family?”

“I’m not like those others though!” snapped Zeb “If I can only see the path before me, I will mark the path towards home. I won’t leave my family for heaven. I’ll come back for them and everyone! We’ll all go to paradise together!”

Our teacher was getting visibly upset so I tried giving the correct answer to their first question. “We should go into the mountains because that’s where food will be during the cold months”

“Good answer,” said our teacher, calming down “where do we make our entrance?”

“I don’t know.” I replied. Some of the older people had trouble climbing hills and if we headed straight in, I didn’t know if they could make it.

“Look over there” Said our teacher, pointing below Zeb’s paradise “I see a river about half a days travel away. We can camp there and start following it into the mountains. Hopefully it gives us a safe path.”

I was proud of myself for getting the answer right even if we were traveling along where the mountains and plains met for another day. Eventually we’d go into the mountains. Our teacher, Zeb, and I would find a path that even the oldest of the people could walk on safely.

The next morning, I awoke to my mother shaking me, asking if I knew where Zeb was. None of the people had seen Zeb that morning. We were supposed to move that day, but we didn’t. Older people went off searching for Zeb. The people were all worried. Their grief summoned rains and explosions in the sky. Things stayed like that until one night when I had a dream. Zeb came to me and said they had found the paradise. They said it was everything they had hoped for and more! Then, they told me that our teacher was right and that they couldn’t see their way home. I would have to lead the people to Zeb.

The rains had stopped and I told our teacher about the dream. They closed their eyes, softly at first. Then their eyes began to squeeze tightly as their lips pressed together and their head began slowly shaking from side to side. Suddenly, My teacher’s eyes opened. They took a deep breath in, nodded, and said “It’s time to move.” By the time the sun set, our camp had settled on the banks of the river we spotted days ago.

When I showed up to my next scouting lesson, my teacher was smiling for the first time since Zeb left. “Are you ready to climb up a mountain?” they asked. I told them I was, but I was confused. Hadn’t we gone to the river to find a path everyone could walk on? Were we going to search for paradise? There were no clouds in the sky. The rains had come and there weren’t even dark skies over the hurt land. Besides, how would the people who had trouble walking get there? How did they figure into Zeb’s plan? Before I could ask, my teacher lectured “sometimes to find a path others can take, we have to go places they can’t go. It allows us to see things they can’t see. However, while we do, they see and do what we don’t have time for. Everyone does their part to take care of the others. You must be wise to not think too highly of the role you have.” How was I supposed to not think highly of myself when I was taking the people to Zeb in paradise?

I had never carried so much water as I did while we were hiking up the mountain. I kept switching the side my shoulder strap was on, but as soon as one shoulder recovered, the other was aching under the weight of my pack. My teacher saw this and took breaks hiking to hydrate and point out which plants were safe for eating. Eventually, we got above the trees. As I looked out, the plains stretched on longer than I had ever seen. Not only could I see camp, I could see the valley where it had been the previous morning and the spot where it had been before that. All the grass was stamped down in that one little spot. In the opposite direction, countless mountains jutted up on the horizon. My teachers voice sprang up behind me asking “Can you see a safe path?” I could. Below us, the river wound gently through the mountains being fed by a lake. A lake! That would be the perfect place to set up camp for the cold months. Animals have to get water somewhere. They would come until the lake froze over. Then, we’d be fine because some of the older people knew how to pull fish out of ice. As I looked up to my teacher to tell them what I saw, I spotted something on the rocks a ways behind them. It looked like a person. A person who seemed to be lying down, staring at the sky. I was baffled by the stranger’s foolishness. Here, you could see endless mountains and plains. It was more beauty than I had ever beheld and this loner was looking up into nothing but blue. you could see that anywhere with anyone! My teacher followed my eye line as I wondered and issued me towards the figure with caution. As we got closer, I started to recognize the face. It was Zeb’s. Along their neck was flesh that had turned red and lead into streaks down their shoulder and chest that looked like the roots of plants. Zeb was wide eyed, but they weren’t moving or breathing. It seemed to be contagious because suddenly I was having trouble breathing. Each inhale and exhale became stunted, harsh, and staggered. My face got hot as if I was standing too close to a fire. My vision got blurry. I started leaking water from my face like one of the infants when the explosions in the sky went off. I wanted to wail like them. I couldn’t. I couldn’t focus on that, because, of how, hard, it was, to breath. I wanted so badly to control it again. Why was it so hard? What happened to Zeb?

“Is this what happens when you leave paradise?!” I pleaded. If only Zeb had stayed there. I got their message. I would’ve brought the people eventually.

My teacher looked back at me with eyes red and swollen and said “This is why we don’t search for paradise in the clouds.”

The world was no longer on fire, but I wished it was because when it was, heaven was right over there.