The Map Introduction

After we finished saying our rosary, we pulled out our maps, carefully unfolded them and looked them over. They were bulky and detailed, but what stood out on mine was a place called Sloth Valley. It looked desolate and vast. I cringed, and then I glanced over at my uncle so I could show him my map and ask him what he thought, but when I glanced over I saw him looking intently at one particular spot on his map. Looking over his shoulder I saw a place marked out on his path called Vainglory Mountain. From the look on his face it looked like he was up for the challenge, confident in God and with a healthy dose of curiosity. In another area of his map I noticed that we both needed to pass through an place called Gluttony Thicket.  I tensed up even more as my mind and imagination filled up with uncertainty and thoughts of all the things we might encounter on our journey. I felt myself getting lightheaded, but I caught myself holding my breath, so I took a deep breath, and then decided to put the map away for the time being.

 

As Anita looked over his shoulder, his memory flashed back to his wife who passed away three years ago. He could see her in the hospital that last day when they both said to each other "I love you" little suspecting that those would be the last words they would say to each other on earth. They had many stormy episodes in their marriage, but in the end they were praying the rosary. He hoped he would see her to apologize for how his pride had allowed a deep wound of resentment to make his treatment of her be a cold distancing so many times. His face firmed up to face the many failures in his life that he was about to experience.      

He was tearing and felt like he was about to sob uncontrollably when a cold breeze slapped his face and he saw a dark cloud headed towards the ship, and he said to his niece, "This is kinda stressful. You know who I'd like to meet here if she wasn't a fiction character, Anne of Green Gables. She would give us a little comedy relief and sunshine."

Then, from the corner of my eye I felt someone staring over in our direction. I slowly turned my eyes toward her, trying not to be obvious and saw that it was a bright eyed, red headed girl. Her eyes were sparkling and she looked really happy, almost bursting at the seams with enthusiasm, like she couldn’t wait to speak to us. I nudged Fred so he could take notice. When he looked up, he seemed to immediately recognized her. Under his breath he muttered “That looks like...” but before he could finish, the captain burst in and walked right up the red headed girl, leaned in to discreetly tell her something, and then suddenly she got up and they both walked out of the room