We would give all for the other

She wall-papered her room with maps. Huge, detailed, maps of the world. At night she would lie in bed and travel, tracing routes from city to city. Motionless except for her eyes, adventures like none other would take place inside her head. Once she took my hand in hers and told me what she dared not admit to anyone else. There was a solitary pin sticking through our city. A red beacon amidst the lines and symbols. It marked the only place she had ever been. She dreamed of filling the maps with pins. To explore and discover as much as she could. She wanted to experience it all. She had my hand in hers as she followed the outline of some distant country. She was captivated. She loved her maps in a way I knew she would never love me. I could see it in her eyes as she scanned her walls. They glowed with a longing I’ve never seen anywhere else. It was when she asked me to join her though, that I did a double take. Her voice softened as she pressed her back up against an ocean. Her eyes cast down in such a way that my heart froze. That was when I realized I was wrong about the whole love thing. She had my hand in hers and with a small squeeze she told me that she would stay. She would stay here forever. She said she would stay here forever as long as it meant she was with me. That was when I knew I would travel anywhere. I would travel anywhere in the world. I would travel anywhere in the world as long as it meant that I was with her.


- Ryan Avery