The one thing that should be said about her was that she was an extremely private person.
There can be no doubt that anonymity was her primary goal, along with maintaining a low profile, thus flying under the radar. She’d always gone to great lengths to keep her private life, private. In short, inconspicuousness was her middle name. Although this personal attribute was partly responsible for the path she trod, it’s hard to believe that the entire affair began with the woman simply waiting for a bus. As it turned out, the bus never came. A second look at the posted timetable told her that she had another hour to wait. Since she was in a town that she wasn’t familiar with, she decided to go for a stroll to kill time.
None of this really mattered, she had no other commitments that day, besides, nobody knew she was there, or why. In fact, she had gone there that day because the internet had told her that this town’s branch of her favourite bookshop had a copy of the travel-guide she wanted. Having this in the bag she was carrying meant that her trip was successful. Wandering through the town for a while suited her fine, after all, visiting new places was very much the thing she liked to do.
She had been meandering through a number of the town’s minor streets when she came across the small, second-hand shop. She decided to enter and look around at the curiosities that these businesses often had on offer.
As she walked in, her attention was immediately caught by a small, round, shiny, bright blue object. She had barely picked up the stone when the strange creature appeared at her elbow, giving it a gentle nudge.
“I’ve been trying to get rid of that for an age,” she said, in a thin, croaky voice.
She turned to see that the apparent owner was a small individual dressed in black, very thin and extremely old.
The old crone cackled and said, “Yes. This is unlucky for some and lucky for others. I think this might suit you, my dear. It is very cheap; for you it is very cheap”
Shrugging off her sense of repulsion, she asked, “What is it, exactly?”
At this, the owner replied, “Let’s call it a talisman. Yes, a talisman. That sounds nice, doesn’t it?”
“I suppose so. What does it do, this talisman?”
The shop owner grinned. “Ah! There you have it, you see, there you have it.” She dropped her voice to a whisper. “Held in the fist, this will take you anywhere you want to go!”
She stood, turning the thing over in her hands, when the owner went on.
“You could go to any of the places in your book.”
Startled, the other said, “Book?”
“Yes, dear. The one you just bought, dear. The one in your bag. But don’t let any of this distract you. There are things I need to tell you, before you leave.”
It was at this point that the owner turned the sign over in the window and locked the door. She explained fully how the stone could be used. How, wherever in the world she wished to travel to, this had to be done without being seen. She recommended choosing isolated locations, such as a desert or a forest, but arriving in a busy crowd was best. When she wished to return, this too needed to be a private thing, such as a room in her house.
Considering the woman’s personal temperament, keeping things private came naturally. Her constant desire for remaining inconspicuous meant that the rules being imposed would not be difficult to follow. Agreement was struck and money changed hands.
A couple of hours later, back at home, she realised something… although the thought of such future travel adventures excited her, it wasn’t until she considered the practical nature of it that she realised that the book she had bought would be a wonderful source for choosing places to go, with lots of pretty, coloured pictures, but in itself, it wasn’t enough. To be able to arrive somewhere else, a precise somewhere else, would require something more than a simple travel-guide. She needed something with coordinates.
That evening she paid a visit to the library. After an extensive search on one of the provided laptops, she noted three such books. The best of them was The Book of World Geography, boasting precise information about time and climate zones, with latitudes and longitudes. She was told that it was a reference work only, to be read in the library and not taken out. Only under special circumstances could it be removed from the library. In such cases, a relevant form had to be filled out on the understanding that late fees where set at a much higher rate than for other books.
After pleading her case, based on how important it was for her research, the librarian produced the form. Although reluctant to fill it out, giving her personal details, something she normally avoided at all costs, she knew that it was going to be needed. When it was handed back, she was told that she could borrow it for the maximum period of two weeks, but no longer.
That night she used the guide, along with further information found on the internet, to create a list of all of the places she could visit. It would be just one day at a time, maybe taking the odd day off, with each visit being enough to take in the sights. That’s what it would be, an incredibly comprehensive sightseeing tour of the world!
By the early hours the list was complete. For the time being, she no longer needed the borrowed book. Her detailed notes contained more than sixty destinations, everything from Rome, Italy to Perth, Australia. She had earmarked the first seven or eight trips during the following twelve days. Absolutely dizzy with excitement, despite a short sleep, she was determined to start the following day. So, that is what she did. Over the eight days that followed, she managed to take in six countries, enjoying the wonders and sights that each had to offer.
Sadly, it was on that eighth day that things went awry.
It just so happened that she was in North-eastern China, on a cable car, gazing out at the beautiful landscape and the river that ran below, when she rather impetuously felt that she’d had enough and decided to return unobtrusively to her room at home. She retrieved the amulet from its reinforced pocket and held it tightly in her fist. It was at this very moment that the cable car lurched violently to a shuddering halt. As a result, like many others, she was thrown forward causing her to make a grab for the safety rail. Unhappily, this sudden movement, together with a tiny nudge of her elbow from a fellow occupant, had her unclench her hand and release the stone.
She peered down and watched in horror as the precious thing fell silently the great distance to the mighty river below, where it could be barely seen making a tiny splash.
It was this single incident that brought her wonderful travel adventures to an abrupt end. However, this calamity, being pretty bad, had other repercussions.
Despite her passion for complete anonymity, any inconspicuousness that drove her became a pipedream when it transpires that the weekly accrual of fines for not returning the book by its due date will, in time, accumulate to such a huge amount that both this figure, together with her name will inevitably take its rightful place in the Guinness Book of Records.