At a certain distance from the middle, things start to appear, a tale by Curt G. Jimenez

The cartographer and his wife live in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes, the cartographer leaves for several weeks, figuring out the lay of the land, returning with a map in his hands.

There is nothing beyond the middle of nowhere besides flat land.

At a certain distance from the middle, things start to appear.

But the cartographer draws mountain ranges, oceans, deserts, and jungles where there are none.

Mike, the cartographer’s wife says, What do you think about a garden this year?

That sounds nice.

I’m thinking tomatoes, peppers, maybe some broccoli. What do you think?

It’s important to me too.

Were you even listening?

The cartographer is not really a cartographer, but a shoemaker.

He loves feet but is ashamed that he loves them so much.

After a while, Mike believes it is easier to live with a lie than to deal with the consequences.

He is away for several weeks, walking in the middle of nowhere, testing the shoes he’s made because he loves walking.

His wife is not really his wife, but a woman named Melody who looks a bit like his wife.

The shoemaker’s real wife, fed up with being in the middle of nowhere, grabbed one of her husband’s maps and followed it to the ocean.

But where an ocean was indicated, there was a city.

She called the city Ocean, until a week later, she learned of what her husband had done and decided to never return to him.

She met Melody in a geography class. Both women wanted to know more about the world, but on opposite ends of the spectrum.

I don’t want to be anywhere, Melody said. Where can I find that?

I want to go everywhere, the shoemaker’s wife said. I’ve come from nowhere, she said. She handed Melody the map and they hugged until people started staring.

Melody went to nowhere and lived as the shoemaker’s wife.

Mike can’t tell the difference because he is always looking down at his feet.

Stop doing that, Melody says.

What?

Looking down. Why don’t you ever look at me? You hate me.

You have beautiful eyes.

Uh-huh.

From the day I met you, I thought you had the most beautiful eyes.

Melody wonders if anything can grow and be delicious in the middle of nowhere.

Mike’s wife goes to the ocean. She throws sand up into the air and some of it falls into her eyes.

But she laughs.