The Mystery of the Magical Map

                             

It was dark, pitch dark! The eyes couldn’t discern the nose in front of it, let alone what lay ahead. The feet, didn’t like this wayward irresponsible behaviour, leading it through grass, thorny bushes, splashing into some puddles, and then on some pebbles, which poked through its very soles. Totally unacceptable it relayed to the mind… which was busy figuring out where she had reached. So many confusing messages, the nervous system was zinging like the rainforests at night buzzed with cicadas and the extended insect family.

“Damn!” she whispered, barely audible to herself… “where is the place?”

She felt in her pocket… yes, the scrap of paper was very much there. She felt relieved. She tried to look above…Pitch dark stared down at her, engulfing her, strangulating her.  Where were the stars?

She had no choice but to move on. Thank God for her compass, her pathfinder, a fancy Christmas gift, which glowed in the dark and worked 24 X 7. Apparently, it got charged through the movements of the user. Fancy? It served its purpose.

So, the glowing compass forged forward, but it knew not what it was going through.

She felt it finally, free space. All around her… Her body could move without any obstruction, her arms and legs swung through that dark void, gently patted by a cool breeze swirling around. She looked at her compass, checked the direction, adjusted herself to align with North and moved forward. Just as she was wondering should she pull her sleeve over the luminous dial; she felt a sharp pain as something brushed her arm. Instinctively she sat down to duck. Duck what? Duck whom?

Adjusting her sleeve, she fiercely peered at the darkness all around. It was as if a bottle of Kohl had been emptied into a bottle of black ink! A black hole would be similar.

The map was just a joke in the beginning… till strange things started happening. Like the appearance of Intersection of Ridge Street and 11, Dew Drive. She had been running there since years and there never was an intersection, but it appeared out of thin air, once she had spotted it on the map.

Then those men, quiet, well-dressed pretending- not- to be- there kinds, pretty unsettling. Their dark glasses absorbed everything, revealed nothing! They seemed everywhere. She would be laughing she had found Matrix, only she felt uncomfortable.

There were a few attempts to steal that darned piece of paper too. The map!

Eliza had spoken about it to Sam, her boyfriend then. He put it down to her craze for reading mysteries. Till one day he nearly fainted. Something had touched his thighs. A soft gentle touch, like a knock. When he turned around, he saw it was a little man. He would have said dwarf, but it wasn’t quite.

“Yes, what do you want?” he had asked gruffly.

 “You have the map. Rather your girlfriend does. It has important bearings to our family treasure as has been disclosed by my grandfather.”

“Oh! Really?” he answered in his most bemused voice.

“ See, Mr. Sam I am asking you politely now, else I will be forced to take it my way.”

A little taken aback he tried to diffuse the sudden uneasiness that had crept up. “How old are you young man?”

“167, and my father is 254 and my grandfather 541!”

“What?”

Just then his dog Brutus, a healthy Rottweiler came bounding up, growling at the stranger. Immediately the man had vanished.

All colour had drained from Sam’s face as he patted Brutus and kept saying “Good boy!” over and over again.

Immediately he had met Eliza. Once he narrated the happenings, she carefully puled out the scrap with the map. It was part of a map. It indicated a position 2.5⁰ S and 60⁰ W, roughly in Brazil. A quick research showed the confluence of Negro and Amazon. Well, how had the scrap travelled to New York?

They were about to go to the police, when they realised, they would just be laughed at, and no one would believe them. She decided there was more to it and would check it out. As they were heading out of the house, Sam slipped and rolled down the few steps leading to the garage. It was unbelievable. He could run up and down those steps blindfolded. “What’s going on?” he yelped in pain. The visit to the hospital left him in a cast.

 Whatever was the mystery, she had been selected. A shiver ran down her spine as well as a thrill charged her ego. I mean, she didn’t know anyone else who had been elected this way.

That had been a week ago. Somehow, she reached Manaus. The beauty of the quaint city cast a magical spell over her. She could feel it in her bones. The answer lay close by.

Each day new directions emerged on the now doubtless magical map. She followed it without putting up any fight. One day she was taken over the canopies, looking at the majestic rainforest, and layers of its canopy. The next day she went on a wild goose chase, cruising the confluence of the dark waters of the Negro, refusing to mix with the cold coffee like Rio Solimoes. One day she was forced to go around the streets downtown, looking at amazing buildings and structures hundreds of years old. Lastly, she was led in the middle of the night through the dark Amazonian rainforest.

Now standing here, in the middle of nowhere, feeling the comfort of the cool breeze on her scratched bruised limbs, wearied from its trudge through a real forest, perspiration dripping down her back and her face she just stood. Waiting!

Something was brewing up!

Something was going to be revealed!

Then she saw it… like two fairy lights floating in the distance. Slowly coming closer and closer. The lights intensified, like brilliant balls of fire*. It was coming straight towards her now. Swish! Another ball, this time a white luminescent orb* came flying brushing right past her. She could feel the cold light, and sense the danger she was in. Now the pair of fiery balls changed direction to charge at the luminescent orb. She stood mesmerized watching the fireworks for God knows how long. The silence was broken. The bird song was one of the most mesmerising one, as the horizon slowly turned pale. Like a giant shape shifter from a black anaconda, it changed into a brilliant macaw. The sparkling red orb emerged where the sky kissed the earth and banished darkness to kingdom come. Soon the sky was painted with brilliant colours of ruby red,  amethyst mauve, tourmaline pink, on a backdrop of baby blue! Pearly white fluffed up clouds floated languidly. She looked down to see where she was standing and simply froze. It seemed like a log, but it had a snout and topaz eyes… Mumbling her prayers, she just jumped to the bank, or what seemed like land.

Now her legs shook like a leaf in a gale, and she couldn’t think straight. Where was she? Definitely the banks of the Amazon… but where was the treasure? Feeling dejected, she looked around, hoping to see a route back to civilization if not humans. No longer did the mesmerising sky or the birdsong captivate her. Was this a joke being played on her…? Well, whatever it was she had got to see the beauty of the rainforests, felt the pain of the locals as they were losing the lungs of the world at an alarming rate, saw amazing animals and birds. But what about the bewitched map, which clearly carved ways for her, with clear directions to follow? Was it her imagination or a message from the Universe? The tinkling peals of laughter made her look up. She felt the gaze of someone… looked like a dark boy with a red cap*. He disappeared pretty fast, considering he had just one leg.

Epilogue : The hotel sent out search parties to locate her and found her in a boat afloat on the Amazon, delirious, a few hours later. No one believed her fantastic story. When she reached back home, she kept wondering how she could validate her experience. Suddenly she recalled the magical map and went to look for it. Alas the jacket had been thrown into the washing machine. She quickly pulled it out, her heart beating recklessly, and turned out the pockets…. The paper was washed out! With teary eyes she stared at the damp scrap… Wait she saw it now… the same view that she had witnessed that morning… and that crocodile… it winked!

Author’s note: The pair of fairy lights, the ball of luminescence and the dark boy with the red cap are mythical creatures from Brazilian lore.