Charting the Deep

A sprawling navigational chart lay pinned flat across the promenade's timber table, detailing coastal channels in crisp indigo ink. I stepped directly onto the heavy parchment, bypassing the petty outlines of shores and safe harbors to seek the vast expanse beyond. Resting one knee upon the paper, I took hold of a vintage brass divider and pressed its pointed tip squarely into the deepest current line, measuring the direct passage toward the open horizon. Let ordinary sailors cling timidly to marked shallows. Having committed every fathom and reef to memory, I rose to my feet, ready to command the sea.