The Town That Lives In One Building

This whole town lives indoors. Send this to the person who complains about their neighbours. In Alaska, on a cold grey bay, there is a town called Whittier, and almost everyone in it lives in the same building.

Hele denne by bor indendørs. Send dette til den der klager over sine naboer. I Alaska, ved en kold grå bugt, ligger en by der hedder Whittier, og næsten alle i den bor i samme bygning.

The building is fourteen floors high and was built for the army long ago. Now it holds flats, a shop, a post office, a police station, a small clinic and a church. The mayor, the doctor and the person who sells you milk all live upstairs from each other. When it snows, and it snows a great deal, nobody has to go outside at all. The children reach the school through a tunnel under the ground.

Bygningen er fjorten etager høj og blev bygget til hæren for længe siden. Nu rummer den lejligheder, en butik, et posthus, en politistation, en lille klinik og en kirke. Borgmesteren, lægen og den der sælger dig mælk, bor alle ovenpå hinanden. Når det sner, og det sner meget, behøver ingen at gå udenfor overhovedet. Børnene når skolen gennem en tunnel under jorden.

Getting into the town is stranger still. Cars come in through one narrow tunnel cut straight through a mountain, and that tunnel is shared with trains, so everybody takes turns. At night it closes and nobody drives in or out. The town simply stays where it is, warm and lit, one tall building standing in the snow with mountains all around it.

At komme ind i byen er endnu mærkeligere. Biler kommer ind gennem én smal tunnel skåret lige gennem et bjerg, og den tunnel deles med tog, så alle skiftes til at køre. Om natten lukker den, og ingen kører hverken ind eller ud. Byen bliver simpelthen hvor den er, varm og oplyst, én høj bygning der står i sneen med bjerge hele vejen rundt.