The Map of Heathen

Peter entered from the corner of my room and yelled, “Happy Valentine’s Day, Mom!” He looked even more handsome with his new haircut. He was about 5’ 7”, light complexion, and had hazel eyes just like his Dad who had passed away last year in 2107. It had been weeks since I last seen him, and he is growing up so fast. “The cost of roses was too expensive, but I managed to get you one!” Since the world was almost extinct of plants, the cost to get flowers was more than buying a cell phone. “So, we have this whole day to ourselves what do you want me to fix?” Peter asked me. He became my personal handyman and due to my old age of 71, I cannot even open a jar of pickles anymore. “When are you ever going to find another wife?” I asked him and he simply smiled and told me that his divorce with Pat scarred him.

“Can you please fix the door handle in my closet?” I asked him.

I sat in my rocking chair with a cup of earl grey tea. Five minutes later Peter came back, “I couldn’t help but snoop around the closet to find this old photograph taped on the last row of the shelf…what is it?” I told him that it was a tree that changed my life. Peter kept insisting me to tell him what happened. “Alright, I will tell you the story about the tree, please sit…it was the summer of 2019 and I could feel the slap across my face, “Hit her again!” one of the girls shouted from across the field. Eliza was on top of me and when she moved her hand backwards to hit my face again, I quickly moved to the left and used my right leg to pull her head across the floor. Being in the wrestling team really had its perks.

I promised myself to never get into a fight again but after she mentioned your Grandma, I have had it with her prissy, entitled ass. Your Grandma died when I was just seven years old. I remember the smell of sunflowers on a Sunday morning with her hands on my cheeks telling me that everything is going to be alright. She was a caretaker; it was her duty to drive to her patients every time they needed help. That morning, she never came back. Your Grandpa got a call from the fire department announcing her death in a car accident. Life was not easy after that, your Grandpa became an alcoholic, and we were dirt poor. I was a loner and a rebel who did not give a shit about anybody. I was a nobody, and I tend to keep it that way.

That girl Eliza had the nerve to say, “At least my mother can afford it, and she isn’t in heaven yet”. I punched her in front of everybody. We had P.E. together and I was lucky enough Mr. Gallardi was not around to witness the move. This was the last week of school and I figured why not, I might as well beat the crap out of her since college was not on my radar. Eliza was that girl that everyone hated but had no guts to confront, because her Dad owned half the state. Her family was loaded with real estate and an inheritance worth twice as much as Microsoft’s stock. Eliza had eyes the size of golf balls, blonde hair, and she always wore the latest trend off Marie Claire magazine. Her posse of two was worse, they were her slaves and looked exactly like her but with different hair.

I put my hands around her neck and said, “Talk about my mom again, your dead!”

I was expelled for the remainder of the week but had to attend the graduation ceremony. Out of nowhere, he stood there, a tall brown figure with his hair pulled back. He put a candy and flower lei on me and yelled, “YOU GOT LEI’D!” Robert was the only person who made me feel like I existed in my world full of chaos. Your father was a charmer, a complete nerd, and a borderline stalker! (Peter laughed)

After the graduation ceremony, I headed home and found your Grandpa on the kitchen floor with an empty bottle of Jack next to him. His beard and mustache was attached to the bottle and as I tried to remove it from his face to throw it in the trash, he woke up. He yelled that I stole his booze from him. “If you weren’t such a stupid drunk parasite, you would of at least make a decent Dad!” I yelled from inside my room. He got up and kicked the door down, pulled me from my shoulders, and smacked me. I kicked him on the crotch, and he fell to the floor. As he laid there unconscious, I took my luggage and filled it with everything I needed to escape. I made sure to pack my passport. I was 18, hated my life, and all I wanted to do was to run away. That day was the right time since I was of legal age.

In history class, there was a story about a group of hikers who tried to find the Garden of Heathen and never came back. Ever since then, I had a burning desire to find that place. I researched the last known location the hikers traveled to; some foreign pit-stop called “Rest N Go” in some ghost town in Canada. I took the next train to Panthoria, Canada. This was the first time I had ever left Michigan and it was exciting. On the train I looked around and found an empty seat next to a girl who looked like she was about my age. She had long black hair, blue eyes, and light brown skin. Her name was Madeline. For about 10 minutes of silence, she asked me, “What are you reading?” I showed her the book, and she was amazed at the bright gold cover as it said, “The World Unknown”. She mentioned that she had been living in Canada her whole life and that she was only visiting the U.S. for her sick Aunt. Her Mom and Dad left her when she was only 2 years old. It felt nice to find a person who shared a dark past like me; it was like looking into a mirror and finally finding an equal.

When I mentioned the Garden of Heathen, she wanted to go with me. Three days later we arrived in Montreal and needed to catch a bus over to Panthoria. The city of Panthoria looked like a ghost town. We stayed in a run-down motel with the walls made of dark grey chalky wood. “The secret to find the answers is from within the good of your soul.” The host was a mysterious old woman and she looked as if she knew why we were here. She handed us the keys to room number 4. Madeline and I drank 2 bottles of red wine and as we were laughing about my fight with Eliza, she kissed me. I could not resist. (Peter looked alarmed and had no idea I was bi-sexual) It was the first time I felt alive in years. Her lips were soft, and her hair felt like silk.

She moved my hair to the corner of my ear and told me to get ready, it was 6AM. The coordinates were about 5 miles away and we had to travel by foot. It was scorching hot and I felt like I was about to die. About 2 miles out I could see a sign that said, “Rest N Go”. We were at the halfway mark. “Hello, anyone here?” Madeline yelled. I took all the things we needed from the store. We waited for another 10 minutes but no one came. We searched everywhere. Nothing.

It was 8PM and it started to get dark. We had no idea where we were and all we could see is a plain desert with no mountains or any sign of life. There was a small crevice about a mile away and inside, the air felt cool compared to the hot desert outside. The cave was pitch-black and the only thing we could see was a flat surface of a rock formation that we used as a bed. I used my phone for a flashlight, Madeline stretched out her hands and sighed, “I am going to bed.” I could not sleep. I kept hearing a whistle nearby and it sounded like the wind. The noise led me deeper inside the cave and I seen something shiny about 6 feet away from me which appeared to be a gold box. I ran towards it and it had a writing on it that I did not understand. I took the box and woke up Madeline. I tried to open it, but it was locked tight. “I found this in the cave. Do you know what it says?” Madeline looked at the box and said that it looked like it was a Greek numerical symbol of the number seven. She said, “Epta”. The box started to shake, and it dropped from my hands.

What came out of the box was a little black book, with a hard leather cover, the initials, “J.H.” in the front, and a tight string across of it. When we opened the book, we found a passage in the front that read, “September 14, 1709 – I sailed across the open ocean to find a hidden crevice in a desert land. It has been several months, and I still could not find it. I am not sure if I am going in circles, but this place had to be here. I am sure of it.” We continued to read the book, and on the next page, it looked like a map. On the bottom it said, “City of Panthoria, Pathway to Heathen”. Half of the book contained a sequence of numbers and scriptures that looked like days and months of the year. We read a passage and it seemed as if the person who wrote this book was trying to find the Garden of Heathen. The last page said, “At my last breath, The Garden finally appeared, find the tree that bears the most fruit, you will be satisfied. Beware, those who eat the fruit will die if greed is what you seek.” We need to go now; this map will lead us to it.

When we exited the cave, I could not believe it, we stepped into a bed of bright green grass with flowers cascading about a yard away. There was a waterfall with tall trees surrounding the bottom of the water. The air smelt like lavender. We followed the map and it led us to a tall tree overlooking the Garden of Heathen. “Its here! We made it!” Madeline shouted. I took a photo of the tree which had 20 shiny red apples hanging over it. “Don’t eat it!” But I was too late. She had already bit a huge chunk of the apple. After she ate it, money started growing from the branch she took the apple from. There were 20 $1000 bills that sprouted. When she pulled the bills out of the tree, the ground started to shake. We were back at the desert land and the book was gone. The opening of the crevice was gone. Madeline had the bills in her back pocket, and we had split it.

“Have you ever tried to find it again?” Peter asked me. The secret to find the Garden of Heathen is that it is nonexistent to those who seeks the tree for greed and power. The Garden only appears to those who are in desperate need of help, and it will only give enough; never more or less.”