The Map That Leads to You

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The Map That Leads to You Page 30

by J. P. Monninger


  We had hardly established the fact of each other’s company when a group of dancers surrounded us and demanded we dance with them. You could not be in the common and fail to dance. That was the unspoken rule. The group grabbed us and forced us to spin, to dance, while their bells made a cacophonous racket. For an instant, just an instant, I felt the joy in my heart join with a thousand bells throughout the square. It made me dance harder, and I moved to Jack and put my arms around him, held him, told him I loved him in every part of my soul. He told me he loved me, too. He put his arms around me and kissed me. We danced apart from the world, our foreheads together, our breaths mingled, our bodies finding the charge from each to each. He told me that the people in Batak believed the souls of the dead could live in trees, and if that were true, he promised to live in the Esche, where I could find him when I needed him. He said he would be in Paris always, our Paris. We continued to dance, bracing ourselves against the fate that had offered us so much and removed it so easily, and we killed winter at last. We danced until I could not breathe, until whatever I was had somehow entered the alpine air, had pushed away the cold in my heart and kept my eyes on the mountains where spring waited, where hope started again each season.

  About the Author

  J. P. Monninger is an award-winning writer in New England and professor of English at Plymouth State University. You can sign up for email updates here.

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  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Epigraph

  Prologue

  Part One

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Part Two

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  About the Author

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  THE MAP THAT LEADS TO YOU. Copyright © 2017 by Temple Hill, LLC. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

  www.stmartins.com

  Map © Archive Photos/Getty Images

  Cover design by Michael Storrings

  Cover photographs: couple © Jim Franco/Getty Images; map © Archives Photos/Getty Images

  The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  ISBN 978-1-250-06076-1 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-250-15316-6 (international, sold outside the U.S., subject to rights availability)

  ISBN 978-1-4668-6656-0 (e-book)

  e-ISBN 9781466866560

  Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].

  First U.S. Edition: June 2017

  First International Edition: June 2017

 

 

 


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