{"id":1137,"date":"2020-02-28T23:31:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T23:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/?p=1137"},"modified":"2024-08-23T18:54:01","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T18:54:01","slug":"9th-floor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/9th-floor\/","title":{"rendered":"9th Floor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<aside class=\"other-formats\">Other formats: <a title=\"9th Floor (PDF)\" href=\"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/ebooks\/en\/pdf\/9th-floor.pdf\">PDF<\/a> | <a title=\"N\u00edunda h\u00e6\u00f0 (\u00edslenska)\" href=\"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/is\/niunda-haed\/\">\u00edslenska<\/a><\/aside>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/9th-floor.png?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/9th-floor.png?resize=1024%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"9th Floor \u2014 Illustration by B\u00f6rkur Sigurbj\u00f6rnsson\" class=\"wp-image-2104\" style=\"width:256px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/9th-floor.png?w=1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/9th-floor.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/9th-floor.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/9th-floor.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/9th-floor.png?resize=900%2C900&amp;ssl=1 900w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/9th-floor.png?resize=500%2C500&amp;ssl=1 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Illustration by B\u00f6rkur Sigurbj\u00f6rnsson<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis hotel is quite an experience,\u201d said David, wide awake, staring into the empty darkness above the bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUhm,\u201d murmured Carmen, somewhere from the land between sleep and consciousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI mean, I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever slept so high up. Ninth floor, man. Ninth floor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYeah, that&#8217;s high.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIsn&#8217;t it amazing that you can feel the altitude, even if you&#8217;re not even looking out the window. You just feel it. It&#8217;s there in your body, your bones, your guts. That high riding feeling. It&#8217;s just there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAmazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI mean, what is it? What makes you feel the altitude? Is it because you know you&#8217;re high up and have seen the views before and the mind just paints the picture on the back of your eyelids? Or is it gravity? Because it&#8217;s so strong up here? Or maybe because it&#8217;s weak? I don&#8217;t know. Could also be sounds. I mean, you can hear the sounds coming from far below. Really far below. The sound-waves hit your eardrums at a narrow angle and the brain says wow, that&#8217;s a really narrow angle and therefore the sound must be coming from really far below. I don&#8217;t know. Could it be a combination of all these things? I don&#8217;t even know if it is psychological or physical. Or some kind of a weird psycho-physical mixed-reality experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhatever. Can we talk about it in the morning? I&#8217;m kind of tired.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSure,\u201d said David, reluctantly letting go of the subject, silently continuing the dialog in his own head, though, concentrating intensely on his sensations, feeling the altitude, feeling the gravity, being bedazzled, listening to the sounds from far below, hitting his eardrums at an unfamiliar angle, fascinating angle, keeping him wide awake, blowing his mind, causing him to go on thinking in circles, about the wonders of altitude, gravity, trigonometry, psychology, physics, and gravity again, all in circles, until finally, in the early hours, also becoming tired, falling asleep, just to wake up a few hours later, on the ninth floor, without feeling anything, just waking up in a hotel room like any other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<aside class=\"wp-block-group book-ad has-text-color has-background\" style=\"color:#000000;background-color:#65aab1\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:33% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"683\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/among-other-things.png?resize=683%2C1024&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Among Other Things \u2014 Book cover Ana Pi\u00f1eyro\" class=\"wp-image-2143 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/among-other-things.png?resize=683%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 683w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/among-other-things.png?resize=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/among-other-things.png?resize=768%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/among-other-things.png?resize=1024%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/among-other-things.png?resize=1365%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1365w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/among-other-things.png?resize=900%2C1350&amp;ssl=1 900w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/among-other-things.png?resize=500%2C750&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/among-other-things.png?w=1600&amp;ssl=1 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Among Other Things<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>This piece of flash fiction appeared in the flash fiction collection Among Other Things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you enjoyed the story, we encourage you to support the publication by buying a copy of the book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Among Other Things<\/em> is available as paperbacks from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Among-Other-Things-B%C3%B6rkur-Sigurbj%C3%B6rnsson\/dp\/993594669X\/\">Amazon<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/among-other-things-b-rkur-sigurbj-rnsson\/1146128813\">Barnes and Noble<\/a> and e-books from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Among-Other-Things-B%C3%B6rkur-Sigurbj%C3%B6rnsson-ebook\/dp\/B0DC4VDQZC\/\">Kindle Store<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/books.apple.com\/us\/book\/among-other-things\/id6636554661\">Apple Books<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kobo.com\/us\/en\/ebook\/among-other-things-1\">Kobo<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.storytel.com\/in\/books\/among-other-things-9136592\">Storytel<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can also support the author through <a href=\"https:\/\/patreon.com\/UrbanVolcano\">Patreon<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/buymeacoffee.com\/borkur\">Buy Me a Coffee<\/a> or by rating the book on<a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/book\/show\/217146264-among-other-things\"> Goodreads<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-horizontal is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-499968f5 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-text-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/among-other-things\/\" style=\"border-radius:50px;color:#ffffff;background-color:#000000\">book details<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/aside>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A flash fiction by B\u00f6rkur Sigurbj\u00f6rnsson. David finds himself in a novel place that prompts him to think about altitude, gravity, trigonometry, psychology, physics, and gravity again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2104,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28],"tags":[30],"class_list":["post-1137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-flash-fiction","tag-travels","col-md-6 col-sm-6"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/9th-floor.png?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1137"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2178,"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1137\/revisions\/2178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/urbanvolcano.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}