Sohalia
Are you Mateo's friend?
"Oh! You know Mateo?" Soh asked, immediately relaxing. A friend of a friend was good enough to earn her trust, and she joined the stranger on the bench without any further worry. "He's wonderful, isn't he?" she continued warmly. Then it occurred to her that Mateo knew perhaps a bit more about her than most people, and she swallowed hard. Desperately wishing she could ask what Mateo had said about her without being rude, she tried an airy laugh. "I can only hope that he was as complimentary about me. I'm Sohalia, by the way."
In any case, if she was to give an impromptu lesson on mapmaking, she'd do better to focus on the task at hand. She observed Everest's drawing with a critical eye, noting where he'd gotten a bit off track with his proportions. "What I like to do is use something as a ruler. My thumb, or my pencil, or anything with a set length." She held up a hand, thumb up, and eyed an island on the horizon. "You see, if that island is one thumb-length, then I can use that as a baseline for the rest. The next island, say, is half a thumb over, and so on. So -" and she lowered her hand to her paper, indicating the island that she meant. It was indeed drawn to be about the length of the first digit of her thumb, and the distance between it and the island next to it was half that. "You can get the basic distances down before moving on to detail work."
"Oh! You know Mateo?" Soh asked, immediately relaxing. A friend of a friend was good enough to earn her trust, and she joined the stranger on the bench without any further worry. "He's wonderful, isn't he?" she continued warmly. Then it occurred to her that Mateo knew perhaps a bit more about her than most people, and she swallowed hard. Desperately wishing she could ask what Mateo had said about her without being rude, she tried an airy laugh. "I can only hope that he was as complimentary about me. I'm Sohalia, by the way."
In any case, if she was to give an impromptu lesson on mapmaking, she'd do better to focus on the task at hand. She observed Everest's drawing with a critical eye, noting where he'd gotten a bit off track with his proportions. "What I like to do is use something as a ruler. My thumb, or my pencil, or anything with a set length." She held up a hand, thumb up, and eyed an island on the horizon. "You see, if that island is one thumb-length, then I can use that as a baseline for the rest. The next island, say, is half a thumb over, and so on. So -" and she lowered her hand to her paper, indicating the island that she meant. It was indeed drawn to be about the length of the first digit of her thumb, and the distance between it and the island next to it was half that. "You can get the basic distances down before moving on to detail work."
these aching memories still dance around me
