TOWER ROAD TUNNEL—Countless years after the commencement of the Great Scaffolding, the task of carrying forward the tale of a pre-construction McGraw Tower has fallen to Cornell’s wizened upperclassmen.
“How could you imagine what life was like back then? You were born under The Shadow. It is all you have ever known,” lamented Delilah “Godmother” Stern ‘25, sitting cross-legged on the dusty stone floor amidst a crowd of wide-eyed new students.
The gathering of the Elders, which occurs fortnightly in the tunnels beneath central campus, dates back to the First Rising of the Fence, when the survivors of the McGraw Tower renovations originally fled underground. Now, with the internet only accessible through eduroam, these students are completely cut off from the outside world and must rely on oral tradition to keep the memory of the Before-Times alive.
“In the old days, the sound of the chimes rang clear as a mountain stream from the belfry, and gourds flowered upon its steeple,” whispered Stern, stirring a chorus of gasps and murmurs from the awed freshmen. “A hundred light paces would take you from Ho Plaza to the Arts Quad, the path free and unobstructed, and…” her voice trailed off, choked with emotion. ”…when the pink petals began to fall, we had a recognizable backdrop for our senior photos.”
At press time, Pythia “The Great Seer” McLean ‘27 delivered a prophecy heralding the return of a legendary figure, who would place a pumpkin atop the tower’s spire and banish the great Shadow from the lands once and for all.
