The Explorer and The Photographer

When John walked into the office, evidence of mental chaos met him. Nothing was in order. Not uncommon. But something about it said sleepless nights and disruption of peace of mind. Books and maps were open, paper covering every surface and any space. The desperate whirl of the fan of the desktop working hard to keep the thing from overheating. The air smelled like caffeine; paper coffee cups scattered atop rings stained into the wood. Crumped up notepad paper and old nutrition bar wrappers here and there on the floor. The blackboard at the front of the room was filled with words and numbers and dates and diagrams and incomprehensible scribbles. Red strings connected pictures and sticky notes on the adjacent wall like something from an overdramatic crime show.

And in the desk chair, there was Mark Ladner, spinning in circles like a child with the biggest eye bags that John had ever seen. With a book in his lap that was way older than the two of them combined, and a pen flipping around his fingers, he was mumbling to himself. Lost in his head and his work, the two things he valued and cared about the most.

“Dr. Ladner?” John stepped in and let the door fall closed behind him, his British accented voice the only new thing that had graced this room for hours.

Mark did not hear him nor the shut of the heavy wood.

“Dr. Ladner!”

The raised voice broke the trance. Mark tried to stop the spinning by sticking his foot out to catch on the desk. He missed. One more rotation before he could successfully do it. He looked up at John with a dizzy spin in his eyes and a forced smile.

“Morning John!”

John stood there a little awkwardly, one hand holding a tray of coffee cups and the other with a stack of papers. “It’s the afternoon already.”

Mark looked down at his wrist at a non-existent watch, only to spin around and look at the clock on the wall. He had to squint a little to see where its hands were. 2:25pm.

“Oh, look at that.” His laugh was traced with the hint of insanity.

Silence fell for a second, identifiable by the distant tick of that clock.

“Well, here’s what I could scrounge up in my department,” John offered the stack and it was snatched out of his hands like Mark was a starving predator. He frantically flipped through the pages as a warm, fresh cup of coffee was offered onto the desk. John debated if it was a good idea to give this man any more caffeine. “Stuff with the keywords ‘Peru’ and ‘Ancient Library’, whatever seemed useful. At least, whatever our English database has that seems useful.”

“You’re a lifesaver, you know that?” Even his voice sounded tired.

John shrugged, “I do my best.”

Mark almost cut him off, a spark of an idea coming to his head. “When do you go back to Oxford? Maybe we can find something there?”

“I teach there next semester. Not sure if I’ll be there anytime soon, though.”

“Dammit,” it was a whisper in his breath, “I’ll go through these for now.”

John glanced around the room again, “I’m assuming you’ve been busy, mate.”

“I’m so close to finding it.” Mark gulped down some of the coffee, unfazed by the heat of it. “It’s like there’s just so many missing pieces that it feels like it’s taking forever.” He sighed heavily and slumped back in his seat, “I was hoping I’d pinpoint a location by now.”

“There’s probably a reason no one was ever able to find it.”

“I’m gonna be the one, John. That’s a promise.”

The legend of a lost library in Peru had been studied for centuries. Promises of books that crack the codes of undecipherable languages, maps and star chats of the far distant past, the studies of plants and animals never imaginable. It had been lost for so long, many tried to find it. No one ever had. But if anyone in the world could find it, Mark could. He had known about the search for years, but nothing ever fully pulled him into the rabbit hole. Until the news got out of how another American historian, someone like Mark, had gone missing looking for it. His journal had been found and published, that was the lead.

He had been spending the entire week dedicated to this and he was oh so close.

His diagrams on the walls had theories of where it could be, all coming from the lead of where the man had gone missing. Mark had followed clues from archaeologist journals, South American architectural history, interviews from locals of the legend. Anything he could find he studied, hours and hours spent on this. He really wanted to find this library. Half for the satisfaction of his own historic curiosity, and the other half for his famous record of expeditions.

He never failed and never turned down an opportunity like this to succeed. But it did feel a little discouraging being so tired and chasing information in circles. He just wanted answers. Wanted to find this place for the sake of his own ego as well as his sanity at this point.

“I can give you my access to Oxford’s online library. And I’m pretty sure I also have access to the Cambridge one.” John was drinking his own coffee, slower than Mark was.

“You really are the best, John.”

There was a knock on the office door.

“You expecting anyone else?” John rested against the desk.

“No.” He took another swig of coffee. “Come in!”

When a woman walked in, Mark shot up out of his seat. Papers flew everywhere and his cup almost spilled hot liquid all over the ancient books on the desk. He ran a hand through his unsavable hair and wiped the look of exhaustion off his face. This nearly scared the socks off John.

She was a dark-haired woman who had the bluest eyes Mark had ever seen. A few folders were tucked underneath her arm, with the other gripping a camera bag that was slung over her shoulder. The clack of her heels announced herself.

Mark found his eyes dragging up her figure.

He was so dedicated to this library that he was already thinking about putting a team together for the journey. With no location yet or even a date of when he would fly to Peru, he knew he would be successful in finding it. He talked around the university in between his nights of being locked up in his office, looking for those who would assist. It was all slowly coming together in his head as well as in real life. He had asked for a photographer to document the journey. They would be coming in today. And this was her.

Just with one glance, Mark wanted her on the team.

“Hi. I’m Selene Bianco. The head of the visual arts department referred me. She said I could stop by today to speak with you about going to Peru.”

Her voice sounded so sweet it could have made his teeth ache.

“I’m sorry, I forgot that was today.” Mark stepped over crumped papers to walk over to her and shook her hand, “Selene? That’s a beautiful name. I’m Mark.”

“Yeah, I know,” her smile was bright, “I’m a bit of a fan. Your discoveries are amazing! It is just a dream to be here right now. To meet you.”

Mark held her hand a little longer than he should have. He tried to cover it up. His head tilted to the side a little, studying the cadence that hinted at the under layers of her voice. “Are you Italian?” Wait, he had told him her last name. He felt a little dumb but rolled with it.

“I am.”

The two were still shaking hands. He could not ignore the softness of her skin. Or the burning warmth that had formed when he had first touched her hand. It was like the feeling could shock him.

“You look tired.”

Her question caught him off guard.

“Me? Tired? No, I’m fine.”

“If you insist.” Selene let go to offer one of the folders, “Here’s my portfolio. I do a lot of nature and travel photos. I would be really honoured to join you.”

Mark gently took it from her and opened it. He only briefly looked at the high-quality photos before looking back at her face. She had freckles that beautifully decorated the bridge of her nose. And her eyes were even brighter up close. She was saying something. He had tuned out her words, only focusing on how her painted lips said the words.

It was only when John walked up to shake hands with her as well, Mark was snapped out of his thoughts and pushed himself between the two.

“These are beautiful,” he said in a smooth tone, referring to the colourful pictures in her portfolio. Almost as beautiful as you, he wanted to say. “Do you travel often for work then?”

“I do!” All her attention was on Mark again, “I’ve been around a lot.”

John gave Mark a side-eyed glare, knowing what he was up to.

Mark was the type of person to flirt with anyone and everyone in his close proximity. And he was usually good at it. This often led to the brief companions of his travels falling under the curse of his desirability. And he did toy around with some, mostly women but some men, one-night stands that fed his ego. No one could say no, too pretty and smart-tonged for his own good. But then they all left him to some new adventure, leaving no room for attachments in this life of fast-paced travel and discovery. But playing the game was just as fun to him as was digging through ancient ruins in a long-forgotten place.

Mark broke the brief second of tension, “You’ve ever been to Peru?”

“I haven’t.”

Mark grasped her hand and pulled her towards his wall of photos and strings, “Oh you’d love it.” The warm feeling of her holding her hand again was nice. But he had let it go in fear of being too bold. “Peru has a lot of different sceneries. Rainforests, mountains, beaches. It’s wonderful there.”

There were a lot of pictures of these things on his wall and he watched Selene look at them all. There was this glint in her eyes that he only recognized in people like archeologists and historians. But she was an artist, so it made sense. A passion for discovery. He could tell she wanted this job, wanted to be deep in those jungles and climbing those mountains. And just from recognizing that look, he knew she was the right one.

“We would be going around here,” Mark pointed at a large map of the country that had a big red circle in one general area. “Here there’s a forest that blends with a mountain range. It’s probably in here somewhere.”

“Probably?” Selene asked, suspicious.

“You see,” he chuckled nervously, “the thing is, I have no idea when we’re going. I haven’t exactly found the place yet.”

John chimed in and gestured around the room, “As you can see, Dr. Ladner is not exactly as organized as he says he is. He looks like he knows what he’s doing, but it’s often a façade. I’m sure he won’t have an exact location anytime soon.”

Mark shot John a glare that said so many things.

“I can tell. But maybe I can help with that.” Selene brought forward the second folder that she was holding. “I managed to find some documents that might interest you. I have friends who have studied in South America and asked for leads.”

Mark took the folder from her hands, opening it to see files that were in Spanish with handwritten notes in English. Even her handwriting was cute. He wondered what else she had up her sleeve, little things like this that told him about her.

“Spanish is similar to Italian, so I was able to navigate the databases. With a bit of help from Google Translate.”

“Thank you. But really, you didn’t have to do that. That’s sort of my-”

Selene watched him go through the pages. It was like a lightbulb was lit above his head, a smile spreading from his mouth to his cheeks to his eyes. He fell onto a page that had a lot of notes, staring at it before looking up at her again. The look on his face was ecstatic.

“These are exactly the type of thing I was looking for.”

“Are they helpful?”

“They’re location descriptions of the library, I could not find anything like this.” Mark looked at her with eyes filled with admiration, “Wow. Molto bene.” Well done.

Selene shrugged sheepishly.

“This is definitely it! Thank you so much. You’re absolutely going to be on the team.”

That glint was back in her eyes at even the thought, “Really?”

“Yes! We just need to finalize everything and start planning the trip.” Mark had walked back to his desk to set down the papers, not taking his eyes of Selene. He started scribbling on a notepad. John took Selene’s documents and his eyes widened. The sound of papers shuffling everywhere drowned out the excited silence.

“I’d be happy to help. Anything you need really.” Selene offered.

“That’s wonderful. Hey, could I get your number? For that, I mean. Helping us.”

John held in a laugh.

“Uh, it’s in my portfolio.”

“Oh, yes. Of course.”

John had rolled his eyes so hard that it looked like it hurt.

“This is all so wonderful, thank you for the opportunity, Dr. Ladner.”

“Please, call me Mark.” He replied and risked winking at her.

Her face flushed a little and she stuttered her next words, “Uh-I actually have to get going soon. I have a photoshoot on the other side of campus pretty soon with some management students. I can come back afterwards to help go through those documents with you. Let you know what else I found.”

“Oh, that would be great. We’ll see you later then, Selene. Don’t let us hold you up. Good luck with that photoshoot.”

When she had left, Mark did not take his eyes off the door. John had to snap in his face to bring his attention back to reality.

“I have never seen you such a mess before.” John sipped his coffee casually.

“Please tell me you mean the physical state of me and my office.”

“You know what I mean. You’re usually way smoother than that.”

“Don’t remind me.”

Mark ran his hands through his hair again and took a big breath.

“The name of a Goddess, huh?” John remarked.

“Shut up,” it came out like a frustrated huff.

“Oh, what’s the matter? Worried she’s too into her work to worry about a man? Cause something tells me she is. Looked almost as passionate as you.”

John was right. Those types were difficult to pick up, passionate about one thing and too focused to worry about something else. She was like him, married to his work and little time for attachments. He was that difficult type. He would see where it went.

Mark did not know at that moment that the papers Selene had given him were the final piece he needed for an exact location. That she would be by his side for the whole adventure down in Peru, being the reason they found the place. And he did not know that, unlike many of the others that followed him on his crazy expeditions, that Selene would stick by his side for a long time.