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When the familiar silhouette approaches the cave, Bam leaps to his feet, running to the pile of rocks. Rachel promised to visit every week, which according to her, was every seven “days,” told by the cycle of light and dark Bam could see from the hole in his cave. Sometimes she doesn't come, though, and Bam is starting to think it's one of those weeks.
But she’s here now, so that’s all that matters. Rachel descends from the upper world as she always does, but this time, she’s clutching a large bag instead of the basket she always brings.
“Rachel!” Bam exclaims happily, climbing up the first few rocks before waiting. Rachel doesn’t really like it when he tries to climb all the way to the top.
“Hi, Bam.” Rachel carefully places her foot on another ledge. Once she’s farther down, she lowers her bag. “Can you take this? I don’t want to lose my balance.”
Bam nods and takes the bag. It’s a lot heavier than usual, the contents shifting as he carefully sets it down on the ground. “What do you have?” he asks, as Rachel finally reaches the ground, dusting herself off.
“There was a big celebration today,” Rachel explains. “I had to help out, so I was late. But I got us some food and gifts.”
Bam watches in fascination as she lays out a blanket and sets food on top of it. They’re stored in little containers. “What do you do?”
Rachel frowns. “I…make sure people get what they need. And keep them happy.” She doesn’t look very happy about it, though.
“Do you…not like making people happy?” Bam asks, a spike of worry rising up in him. What if Rachel didn’t like to visit him?
“No, it’s not that,” Rachel shakes her head. “They just…always expect me to do everything for them. It’s infuriating.”
Bam doesn’t know what that last word means, but he assumes it’s bad. “They don’t like you?”
“They don’t appreciate me,” Rachel says bitterly. “I do so much for them, but they don’t care.”
“Well…” Bam doesn’t know how he can help. Rachel has done so much for him that he doesn’t think he can ever repay it. He doesn’t know how someone could not care for her. “I appreciate you.”
“…Thank you, Bam.” She doesn’t look at him, but starts to open the food. “Let’s eat this, okay? I wish we could have more than leftovers, but that’s all I have.” She sighs again, taking out the utensils. “Here you go, Bam. Try not to spill any of the food.” Personally, Bam doesn’t mind eating it off the floor, but Rachel always gets mad when he says something like that, so he simply nods and takes the plate she gives him.
There’s a lot more food this time. Usually, Rachel only brings one or two dishes and maybe soup. But there’s a variety scattered before them, from rice to meat to vegetables and a small container of creamy soup, which Rachel pours in a bowl and hands to him. "It’s potato soup.”
Bam takes a sip, eyes lighting up at the taste. “It’s really good!”
“It’s alright,” Rachel nods. “There were better ones, but this one is okay, I guess.” She drinks it slowly, unlike Bam, who gulps his down quickly. He waits for Rachel to finish before taking more food, though. According to her, it is impolite to do otherwise.
When Rachel finally sets her bowl down, Bam immediately starts filling his plate with food, careful not to take too much. He always ended up eating more than Rachel, but he always only took half to start, just to be fair. Rachel would usually offer him whatever she didn’t eat.
There’s a lot of new food he doesn’t recognize. “These meats taste different,” he notes, poking at the small portions with his fork. It’s still delicious, but he doesn’t recognize them.
“It’s duck and venison,” Rachel says. “Ducks are a type of bird that lives in the water, and venison is from these big creatures called deer.”
Bam nods eagerly. He’s always curious to know more about the upper world Rachel comes from. He’s heard about birds before, but… “What does a ‘deer’ look like?” he asks.
“Hmm…” Rachel picks up a rock from the ground and starts to scratch lines into the rocky ground. The lines are wobbly and messy, but Bam doesn’t mind. “Do you remember what a horse looks like?” she asks.
“They have four legs, a long tail and neck, and a big body,” Bam recalls the image in his mind.
“Good,” Rachel praises. “Deer kind of look like horses, but they have thin legs and short tails. The male deer also have these long horns that grow from their hair.”
“That’s amazing,” Bam says.
“They’re pretty common up there, but we don’t eat them too often. It’s a meat rich people often eat,” Rachel explains.
Rachel isn’t rich. She’s told Bam about it many times before. Rich people didn’t have to work, but Rachel did in order to live. She always sounded sad about it, though, so Bam doesn’t bring up the topic often.
Bam continues to ask questions about the foods he doesn’t recognize. Rachel answers them all, and Bam can’t help but admire all her knowledge. She’s not the smartest person—Rachel has admitted that herself—but for Bam, she’s the only connection he has to the world above him. And everything she knows is new to Bam.
Soon enough, all the food is gone. Bam leans back happily, briefly glancing at the crack in the ceiling. It’s starting to darken slightly. Rachel usually has to leave when it gets too dark. He droops.
Rachel follows his gaze. “Ah! I brought some other things today, too.”
Bam watches in fascination as she reaches into her bag and pulls out a stack of…papers? The outsides are made of some different material, harder than the rest of the paper.
“Is this…a book?” he asks. Rachel had talked about them briefly before.
“It is,” Rachel confirms, picking one up and handing it to Bam. “These are picture books. You can’t keep them forever, because I’ll have to return them soon, but I thought you might like to practice reading with these.”
Bam flips it over. Inside, there’s colorful pictures of what must be the upper world, as well as lines of words on each page. He recognizes a few letters and even words from Rachel’s lessons, but most of it is just squiggly symbols to him. “Will you teach me?”
“Of course,” Rachel says. She shifts until she’s next to Bam. “This book is a story about the Tower. Let’s start with something familiar so I won’t need to explain everything at once.”
Bam nods along with her logic; it makes sense. The story is about a boy that climbed the Tower, making friends and passing tests. Bam asks questions about certain words or scenes he doesn’t understand, sometimes asking if she can slow down just so he can admire the pictures. They’re done in bright colors that he’s never seen in his cave. Everything he and Rachel draw down here is always done in the chalky white of rocks, but these pictures almost seem like they could come to life, the characters marching across the page.
As Rachel keeps reading, he can’t help but feel a pang of longing. He has no particular wish to climb the Tower when Rachel is already here with him, but it would be nice, he thinks, to have friends like the boy in the book. According to Rachel, a friend was someone who would always support you and help you, while you did the same in return. Bam knows no one besides Rachel, and while he would never dare to ask for more, he does feel a bit wishful. He quickly shakes the thought away, though. It would be horribly rude to tell Rachel she wasn’t enough.
The story ends right before the boy reaches the top of the Tower. Bam is caught off guard by that ending. All the stories Rachel told always seemed to have a definitive ending—the character was happy. But this story left him hanging, with the boy just about to reach the top. He never even stated what his wish was.
“That’s it?” he says, confused as Rachel closes the book.
“Yes,” Rachel confirms. “It’s not one of my favorites, either. But many of the stories don’t show the top of the Tower. It’s supposed to be a big secret. The only thing everyone knows is that your wish will be granted at the top.”
“How do they know that if they’ve never seen it?” Bam questions.
Rachel lets out a small huff. “I don’t know. But it’s true.”
Well, Bam isn’t going to argue too much with her. The Tower makes Rachel happy, so who is he to make Rachel feel otherwise?
“Anyway,” Rachel says, looking up. “I have to go now, Bam. I can leave the books here for now, though.”
“…Okay,” Bam nods, carefully stacking the books up near the rocks. Rachel has done so much for him today; he can’t ask for more. “When will you come back?” he asks hopefully.
“Soon,” is all Rachel says, taking her bag and climbing back up the rocks. “Bye, Bam.”
Bam waves until she vanishes out of sight. Then he picks up a book, hugs it close to his chest, and tries to sleep.
He can’t wait until she comes back.