The Pyramid

Ellison closed her eyes, held her breath, and let the sun shine upon her. She loved these moments when the smog broke to let the light through. She could almost imagine she wasn’t a Groundling. She could see herself in the Pyramid, breathing filtered air, the sun always on her skin as she would be far above the smog line.

As she floated in her dream world, reality rolled in. The next dense smog blocked the sun for her once again. It would be days, perhaps months, before Ellison would feel the sun on her skin again.

A private jet could be seen in the break in the clouds that had just moved over Ellison. And, as she watched the PJ move by, she could have sworn there was something that was falling…

Yes, indeed. There was something falling from the jet!

Ellison tracked the object with her eyes. It would fall in the woods behind her house. Deep within, but she knew those woods well. After all, there wasn’t anything else to do as a Groundling child. Unless she wanted to join one of the child gangs, roaming the streets as if they were mobsters. But Ellison’s ambitions were much higher, so instead, she chose to read, alone, in the woods. And today, it just might pay off.

Once the object was out of sight, swallowed up by the tree line, Ellison set off running.

This wasn’t her first time sprinting through this path. Whenever her parents would fight and start smashing things in their home, the few beautiful items that they have breaking into thousands of pieces, that’s when she would run this path too.

But this was different.

Yes, her chest felt like it was going to burst, but burst with excitement rather than fear. Yes, the metallic taste in her mouth was disgusting, but today it tasted like hope.

Ellison made it about halfway, she assumed, before she needed to rest. She was at the edge of the forest - now she’d need to go about a half-mile in and find what had fallen from the PJ.

She walked quickly, her breathing labored. One day, she thought, she’d be in the Pyramid, and she’d be able to run much further. She just hoped her lungs weren’t too damaged by the time she got there.

As she approached the area of the woods where she had placed the object - she could tell based on the proximity to a small opening in the forest nearby. But when she approached the area she was planning to search, she realized she was not alone. It first came as a sense, then was confirmed as twigs snapped beneath someone’s footsteps.

‘Hellooo?’ came from the forest. It was a friendly-sounding voice. A boy. Or a teenager, rather. ‘You come to see what fell out of the sky, too?’

Ellison could see him now. She recognized him from school. He was a grade below her, she knew, and about nothing else.

‘I found it.’

He held up a little black book.

Ellison began moving towards him, then stopped. Her heart was racing again, this time with sheer excitement.

‘I’m Rich, by the way. Here. Have a look.’

Rich, a stupid name for a Groundling, Ellison thought, tossed her the book. It was leather-bound with a clasp. It had clearly been handled a lot, Ellison thought. She undid the clasp and opened it. The paper inside appeared to have been referenced often and yet… nothing was written on them.

‘I think it’s invisible ink,’ Rich said. ‘We need to find a UV light. Think you can help me with that?’

‘Yeah!’ Ellison replied excitedly. ‘I know where I can get one!’

Rich smiled. ‘That’s awesome. What’s your name, by the way?’

‘Ellison.’

‘You go to Gate School, right?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Cool, then we can discuss this at lunch on Monday. Where is the UV light, by the way? Can you bring it to school?’

‘Umm… no. It’s in my dad’s, um… nightclub.’

‘Oh yeah, your family runs the strip club! I thought that was a rumor. Shit!’ Rich started laughing. ‘What?! You aren’t embarrassed, are you!?’

‘It’s not exactly the most ideal thing to be known for at school.’

‘Its not the worst thing to be known for either So….when can we go to the club?’

It was 12pm on a Saturday. There would be clientele at this time but there would also be the blacklight, illuminating the stripper’s neon ‘underwear’, which served completely zero function that Ellison could see.

‘We could go now?’ Ellison suggested. Rich, who had never been to a strip club, smiled more than he probably intended to. “That sounds like a great idea.”

Rich disagreed with Ellison on the garments, mentioning that they were clearly framing what the customer came to see. It’s all about the packaging anyway, right? Ellison rolled her eyes.

They sat at her regular family booth and Ellison felt embarrassed by the fact that she was, indeed, 'a regular' at the only strip club in town at the age of 17.

Star was on duty today, like every Saturday. She walked over, her fake tits preceding her, ordained with crystals and tassels glued right onto the skin.

‘Hey, Ellison. Who’s this?’

Star looked to Rich.

‘This is Rich. A friend.’

‘Oh, hello, Rich.’ Star smiled at him, batting her eyelashes. ‘So… what can I get for you two? Soda? Beer? Hard liquor?’

One of the perks of owning a strip club - it can be quite easy to get served before the legal drinking age.

‘What do you suggest?’ Rich asked.

Ellison interjected, ‘Let’s skip the alcohol. We should keep a clear head.’

‘Oh Ellison, let the man decide!’ Star playfully added back. ‘It’s not like you’re going to have me charge him, is it?!’

‘No. Of course not.’

And with that, Ellison lost Rich to Star. Just like many men before, he had been sucked into the strip club. Maybe this is what Rich dreamed of as his ultimate adventure. But there was more for Ellison to accomplish. Once Star had gone to retrieve the drinks, Ellison opened the book. The contents illuminated under the club’s black lights.

‘Oh my god.’ Ellison said under her breath. She looked up at Rich. His eyes were on Star, watching her make his cocktail.

It was all here. The plans to heist the savings from a Pyramid family!

Who would have thrown this out of their jet? Were they simply unaware of the contents? Or was this manna from heaven?

Star came over, delivering Rich his potent drink and Ellison a glass of water. Once she had left, Ellison scooted directly next to Rich, showing him what she had discovered.

‘Oh, shit!’

‘Yeah.’

‘You want to go for it?’

‘I don’t know… why would someone throw this out of their PJ? It just doesn’t make sense.’

Ellison found it difficult to sleep after finding the black notebook with Rich. They talked about it most days over lunch now. Could these plans for breaking into the Pyramid be for real? They decided to try the first step to see if that would even get them into where it said it should - the ventilation system of the Pyramid.

The following weekend, Ellison and Rich approached the Pyramid fence and, just as the instructions had said, they found a trap door in the ground. Beyond the door was a tunnel. It was clearly Groundling made. According to the notebook, this tunnel would extend under the edge of the base of the Pyramid. There they would climb a ladder, lift a floor tile, and they would be in the belly of the building, the interworkings that the inhabitants never visited, if they even knew it existed. This is where the Groundlings worked, if you were lucky. Hidden away from the surface, making sure that everything functions perfectly for the chosen ones. The planned ones. The Pyramid folk.

Per the instructions, Ellison and Rich moved the tiled at exactly 11:58pm on a Friday. This is when there was a hole in the schedule and for 10 minutes no one would be in this section of the Pyramid.

What they found was exactly that. Space between the inner and exterior walls of the Pyramid. Ducts filled the space, leaving the Pyramid, entering into a mechanical filtration system, and then entering back in, almost like the building's own circulatory system.

Ellison breathed deep, and immediately began choking and coughing on the air. It was worse than at home!

'This is where the filtration happens. You were expecting filtered air?'

'The filters are right here!'

'Nah, this is where the Groundlings work. You don't think they'd waste that precious air, do you?' Rich asked.

And with that, they retreated.

‘So, the heist plans seem to be real,’ Ellison went over their conclusions again the following Monday.

‘Yup.’ Rich responded.

‘I think it’s a setup. Some sick person from the Pyramid trying to frame someone.’

‘Is it framing if you go forward with it?’

‘I don’t know.’

Ellison wanted so badly for this to be her adventure. For this to be her ticket out of this awful reality. She needed something. If she didn’t throw a Hail Mary pass, how would she ever escape taking over the family business?

There’s always money in stripping, she could hear her mother say. Until there isn’t, Ellison thought.

‘WHERE DID YOU FIND THIS!?’

Ellison sat up straight with a jolt.

‘What?!’ Ellison exclaimed back.

Mr. Freeman grabbed the notebook out of Ellison’s hands.

‘Give that back!’ Rich shouted.

‘Both of you, my room, NOW!’

‘Where did you find this?’ Mr. Freeman, the science teacher, asked Rich and Ellison. It was frigid in this room. It was always frigid in this room.

‘It’s ours,’ Rich said. ‘We bought it.’

‘You bought a notebook together?’

‘Yeah,’ Ellison chimed in. ‘We’re dating now and we want to fill it with memories of our budding relationship.’

Ellison grabbed Rich’s hand, and Rich began to play along.

‘Interesting,’ was Mr. Freeman’s response. ‘Then why is it so beat up if nothing’s written in it.’

‘So many incredible moments. It’s hard to decide what to fill it with.’

‘Well, it’s quite damaged, let me give you a brand new one.’ Mr. Freeman went over to the cupboards in this classroom, opening it to reveal a stack of new leather-bound notebooks, exactly like the heist instructions.

‘And what else do we get?’ Ellison asked.

‘What do you mean?’ Mr. Freeman asked.

‘Well… you know, this book is quite valuable to us. Even if it took some time for you to get it to us, I think a fair compensation should be considered.’

‘I agree,’ Rich chimed in.

‘Mmmhmm, mmmhm….’ said the teacher. ‘I hear you.’

‘10%’

‘It won’t be that much - only 20,000’

‘You expect us to believe a Pyramid family’s savings in cash is only going to be two-hundred K?’

‘We don’t drain them - we just poke necessary holes in the bucket. It’s how we pay for this school. If you want 10%, I think that’s only fair. Thank you for retrieving this. And I’ll make sure you get your $20,000 after our next hit. Each.’

It was thrilling, but it was clearly too good to be true, Ellison thought.

‘But who threw this out of their PJ?’

‘Someone from the inside. Someone with insurance.’

With that, Mr. Freeman replaced the little black notebook and sent the pair on their way.

2 months later, on Ellison’s 18th birthday, she received a card she wasn’t expecting. In it said a simple message: Happy Birthday. Check your bank statement.

Ellison immediately went online. She never imagined Mr. Freeman would pull through but, there it was. Twenty-thousand dollars more than what she had the day before, bringing her grand total up to $20,058.76

It might not be enough to pay for college, but it would be a start.

She called Rich.

'Did you get the money too?'

'What?! What do you mean!? Happy birthday, by the way!'

'Rich. I got the cash. It's in my bank account. Check yours.'

'It's not in there!' Rich exclaimed.

Ellison thought for a moment. 'I think it's coming, Rich. I think you'll get it when you turn 18.'