cyberwaves.fm
MEMORY 03 / 05 · 2087

OVERHANG

Big Sur, California — Sea fog, breaking waves

On the coast at Big Sur, a house of glass and concrete hangs out over the Pacific from the top of a sheer cliff. It was built as an observatory for the sea: the surf ninety metres below comes up through its frame all night, and the fog around it glows violet.

The memory

I stayed there for one night, the winter I couldn't sleep anywhere.

You reach it by a path cut into the rock, and for the last stretch you walk directly beneath it: a block of concrete the size of a ship, pushed out over the sea with nothing under it but fog. A thin line of pink light runs along its underside. From the ledge it looks like it's floating.

The room at the front is glass on three sides. A bed, a lamp, nothing else. No curtains, because there is nothing out there but the fog, violet at that hour, resting against the windows.

What I remember is the sound. The waves break at the foot of the cliff and the whole house carries it up to you. Not loud. More like lying inside a very slow breath: in, and the floor hums; out, and the glass goes still. Wind moving along the face of the rock. Every so often one wave larger than the rest, and the lamp trembles.

I was sure I'd lie awake all night listening. I counted maybe forty waves.

— a guest, December 2087

Recovered log

OBSERVATORY LOG — OVERHANG, BIG SUR — 09 DEC 2087

  1. Sea fog moving in. Swell 3 m, period 14 s.
  2. Guest room occupied. Lamp on.
  3. Underside light at night level.
  4. Set of large waves. Structure within limits.
  5. Fog holding. Wind easing.
  6. Signal steady.

What the night sounds like here

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