06.48

They became heroes in all the ways people become heroes, by accident or by disgrace. They were the outcast, the rebels, those that had no time to lose and were impatient with their life. They made fortunes and lost them and made fortunes again and lost them again in a cycle that doubled the size of the city every eighteen months until there was no further space where to build. Then the smaller buildings were torn down and larger and taller buildings were erected, streets were made smaller by these new constructions and more crowded day and night. One day a building was constructed directly on the water, on a wooden foundation. After the first floor was built it settled ten inches in the water. A further floor was built on top of it and the building settled in more, and when all four floors were built a good part of the first floor was submerged. People looked at the semi submerged building as a curiosity or a monstrosity or a monument to lost wealth. The owner of the building went to live on the fourth floor. His wife, Sara, joined him on that day but left in the middle of the night in panic while nothing had happened. A year later two families occupied the third and second floor while the first floor was modified to account for its new function, a stair gradually raised from the water level towards the upper floors. Half height storage space was salvaged. Sara never returned to the building and her husband married again, with a ceremony that was staged on the terrace of the building itself, with a hundred and twenty guests.