The lake was so pleasantly quiet that Mea felt like inventing a quiet game. One sentence, two whispers and a check of the result. Colombine agreed at once. Lu Cia looked trustworthy, which Mea knew could mean anything. In this collage of Montenegrin stops, the message will have ample room for a small detour.
Illustrated fiction inspired by original Travel2City photographs. The places come from separate journeys, not a one-day itinerary. Characters, dialogue, props and some composition and lighting are artistic interpretations.
Mea leaned towards Colombine and whispered: Let us wait for the light. It was a short, gentle sentence and, she thought, perfectly safe. The green water beneath the branches required no supervision. Colombine nodded with a purposeful expression. Lu Cia stood aside, pretending to be interested only in the lake. Mea did not believe her for a moment, but nobody had visibly broken the rules. She therefore considered the message successfully dispatched.
Beside the forest stream, Colombine took over the delivery. She leaned towards Lu Cia and repeated the sentence so quietly that Mea heard only water and leaves. Lu Cia nodded, then briefly raised an eyebrow. It was not an especially reassuring sign. Colombine nevertheless looked satisfied, as though she had delivered exceptionally precise instructions. Mea rested her hands on her bag strap and waited. Rescue questions would spoil all the fun now.
Before the great bend in the river, Lu Cia solemnly announced: Let us look for a bite. Mea drew breath as though preparing to explain the entire problem, then burst out laughing. Colombine insisted that she had pronounced light quite clearly. Lu Cia shrugged and said her version had advantages of its own. Behind them, the river curved between green hills. The message had taken a similar bend and arrived somewhere entirely different.
Beneath the willow, they finally sat down without further rules. The little boats rested near the bank, and the water had enough small sounds of its own. Mea whispered nothing. Colombine smiled into the distance while Lu Cia looked across the water, pleased with the success of her inaccuracy. Nobody needed to say they were happy together. That message passed between them perfectly without a single syllable, and required no checking.
“We all understood this in exactly the same way.”
From notebook to book
The Map with No Last Page
Travel2City journeys continue between the covers of a book. Discover our illustrated travel world.
On the way back, nobody asked where the light had disappeared or the bite had come from. Mea simply thought that some misunderstandings deserved to be kept exactly as they happened.
