We both stood there looking at the end. I looked at her. She looked at me. And we both look back at the end. And we didn't know quite what we were looking at, but we both knew beyond all shadow of any doubt, but we were looking at the end. There was no mistaking it. There was no way to mistake it. We were where we were. At the end. And it felt very strange. Like maybe we should do something about it. But neither of us knew what to do about it. Because neither of us knew quite what it was. Apart from it being the end.

"I didn't expect it to be all end-y looking like that," she said. I nodded in agreement. I mean, you look at something like that, and you know what it is. But you don't expect it to be so obvious. Especially not in a position where you're not entirely certain what it is apart from being what it is. The whole ontology of the situation. Perfect sense. But it really just felt kind of strange. Being in the presence of that. And not knowing quite what to do about it. Aside from just sort of acknowledging that it was there.

"Do you think," I began speaking slowly, " that it wants anything from us?" Valid question. However, maybe the better way to phrase it was whether or not it needed anything from us. After all, the end it doesn't just present itself to people, doesn't it? I don't think so. I don't think that it really is in any position to be able to present itself like that. Not to people. Not to just casual people like us. Casually standing around and then noticing that it's there. So clearly it must have some reason for having presented itself to us. And I would like to think that it was because we were special.

"I don't think that's it," she said. "If we really WERE special, then we wouldn't be allowed anywhere NEAR the end." And she had a point. I mean, it was not like there would have been any kind of a valid reason for us to see the end if people were actually paying attention. I mean, it was right there. And we were completely unprotected from it. If any force had been paying attention to the situation, he would have known that all we would've had to have done is simply walk towards the end and it would have consumed us. But as such, we were completely in danger of meeting the end. And I really was no way around that. It was very clear that something was very, very wrong. But I don't know that either of us really knew what it was.

"Are we absolutely sure that it's our end?" I asked. And I believe that this was probably one of my more available and clear moments. After all, it was clearly the end. But the end of what? Neither of us really knew that. We could look at it and tell that it was the end. But what kind of end? Really just being able to see this strange phenomenon of what it was and for what it was, it really didn't answer any questions. In fact it did nothing but pose more questions to us. So we weren't exactly in a position to be thinking about it all that clearly. However, we were in a position to be able to consider situation being what it was. And that was the fact that this thing was in our backyard.

"I don't know." she said, " but it's not like we can just leave this here. Can we?" and that was really the issue. This thing had just sort of appeared in our backyard. And we didn't know what to do with it. Theoretically we could just have it moved. Or something like that. But we I didn't really want to have to explain it to anyone. Because we didn't know it or understand it all that well ourselves. So there really wasn't any reason why we should bother anyone else with it. However, eventually there would be questions. Our backyard was all fenced off from the rest of the world. However, there was an electrical meter back there. Invariably someone would have to read that meter. And when they did, they would have to take note of the fact that the end was in our backyard.

So we figured the best thing for it was simply to build a shed around it. A big plastic thing. It was easy enough to do. Actually way too easy to do. Because we could actually place a plastic base right underneath the end. And erect plastic walls around it. And put a little roof on it. All without ever really being in danger of touching it. We've locked the thing up. We're responsible homeowners. We don't want anyone to accidentally run into it. And there are a few stray cats in the neighborhood that might wander in there. I suppose eventually we're going to have to deal with it in one way or another. When we move or whatever. But for the time being, we're just happy that it's back there.

And every now and again, Will go back there with a couple of beers. Open up the doors and just sort of stare into the end of everything. Or the end of whatever it is that that is the end of. And will just have a nice little conversation. Nothing too busy. Nothing too complicated. Just having a drink at the end. It's nice. It's nice to have it back there. And I don't think I'm worrying about it at all. And I don't think she is either. It's really nice. It's really nice to have it back there. But I can't get help but get the feeling that is possible that there could be some kind of stress related to that. Having the end in our backyard. I'm sure we'll work it out in time.