The Library of Maps, #1

THE FIVE MAPS

I
The Library was about to close
When she discovered the maps.

She tugged the metal box off the shelf,
And it fell to the floor with a bang.
Other readers looked up,
Irritated by the noise.

As there were only a few remaining minutes left
For contemplation and study,
She chose five of the v`ellum maps,
Slipping them into her voluminous pockets.

Sitting at home that evening,
She drew out the first one,
Unrolled it, and laid it on the table.

The first map contained only the movements of the Dreamers.

The second contained a sketch of the Land of the Inbetween.

The third contained a diagram of the central city of the Land of the Inbetween,
Its giant computers and cyber archives dominating the fragile homes of the inhabitants.

The fourth contained plans of the Great Star Ship,
Attached to a small map of the universe.

The fifth map?

For a long time, she could not bring herself to unfold it.
It was almost dawn when she did.

She sat holding the map in her lap
As the sun appeared outside her window.

The map,
Smaller than the others,
At first looked totally empty.

Then she noticed,
When she narrowed her eyes,
A single line,
So faintly traced as to be almost imperceptible.

It was a map of the future.

That morning, she returned the first four maps to the Library.

But the fifth she kept,
Each day perusing it when she came home,
And each day finding the line longer.

II
When she died, she left the map to her children.
But it was only her granddaughter
Who—as a young woman—
Finally unrolled it again.

It was empty, and so she put it away.

A year later she found it by accident,
And realized there was now a solitary line on it.

At the end of the following year,
Having slept continuously,
She unrolled the map again,
And found one more line.

III
Over the next fifty years of the granddaughter’s life
—with her waking but once a year—
The map slowly shaped itself
Into a chart of the Land of the Inbetween.

It was after her death,
In the Land of the Inbetween,
That she met her grandmother again.


by Moira Roth
Written 3/21/01