The Route Map

Polar Line · TenderSubject: The soup is better in the dark.The supply plane is late again, so tonight there is barley and a lamp I have turned low.Tell me what you would put in the pot if the choice were yours.Astrid Holm Answer it Transit Line · TeasingSubject: Layover, gate 14, a bad sandwich.I have forty minutes and a pen the airline gave me, and you are the only person I want to describe this to.Begin by telling me how you take your tea, and I will see if I approve.Wilhelmina Boateng Answer it Lamp Line · TeasingSubject: A semicolon, offered in good faith.I have counted nine in your last note; I have decided to read that as courtship.You may deny it; I shall enjoy the denial.Catriona Muir Answer it Sea Line · WrySubject: Tot ziens, adiós, and one word I made up.The captain has asked me to translate a complaint about soup, and I have been unfaithful to it on purpose.Guess the language I am signing off in, and I will tell you what I really said.Renata Okoye Answer it Polar Line · RestlessSubject: Postmark: somewhere cold.Three days of white and one tent, and the only warm thing I have is the idea of your handwriting.Describe your hands, plainly, as if I were filling in a form.Ilona Bartok Answer it Transit Line · QuietSubject: Sealed, but not against you.I carry other people's secrets in a locked case and I have never once read one.Yours I would read. Give me a reason to be curious.Leila Farahani Answer it Sea Line · WrySubject: The night ferry, observed.A man on deck three has been proposing to the same woman since Ostend, and she has said no in four languages.What would you say, if you were the woman? Do not be kind.Hanne Willems Answer it Lamp Line · QuietSubject: Picking is done; the lamp is lit.The hills are black now, and I am writing at the low table with the tea going cold.Tell me what the end of your day sounds like.Tomoko Sugiyama Answer it Sea Line · BoldSubject: Oil on my hands, ink in my pocket.Engine room, ten at night, a clean page folded under my thumb and a grease thumbprint in the corner.That mark is yours to keep if you answer within the week.Marta Soto Answer it Workshop Line · TenderSubject: Dear you: a leaf, pressed.It came off a tree nobody planted on purpose, and it has the exact green of your last paragraph.Which of your sentences should I press next?Chiamaka Oyelowo Answer it Lamp Line · QuietSubject: Nothing read, everything noticed.Your envelope came with a corner turned down, and I have thought about it more than a postmistress ought.Was the fold on purpose?Greer Maclean Answer it Transit Line · RestlessSubject: Five languages and the wrong coach.I have just told forty tourists that the bridge is closed in German, when it is open and in Odessa.Rescue me with a sentence in any tongue you like.Sofia Marchenko Answer it Transit Line · WrySubject: The 22:14 is late, and so, I observe, are you.I have rerouted a freight train, a cyclist and my entire evening to write this.Your punctuality could do with a letter of its own.Annelies Bakker Answer it Workshop Line · TenderSubject: Your name, set in type, backwards then forwards.The letters are lead, they are cold, and I have lined them up in the wrong order four times because I was thinking.Tell me what you would like me to set next.Eun-Ji Shin Answer it Polar Line · BoldSubject: Cold fingers, warm sentences.The ice is making sounds below the ridge and I am writing this in a hut with the stove roaring.Come closer to the page. Tell me what you want from the next hour.Valentina Ocampo Answer it Workshop Line · TeasingSubject: One note is off, and it is delightful.I tuned a piano for six hours today and the flat A was the only honest thing in the room.I suspect you are a flat A. Convince me otherwise.Nirmala Sundaram Answer it Polar Line · QuietSubject: Eleven degrees below, and bread.I baked at four because the oven is the only room with a heartbeat.If you were here, which side of the table would you take?Astrid Holm Answer it Transit Line · TenderSubject: Somewhere over the Sahara, thinking of the ground.Autopilot has the plane, the crew is quiet, and I wrote your name on the back of a manifest to see how it looked.It looked right. What do you make of that?Wilhelmina Boateng Answer it Lamp Line · TenderSubject: The lamp, the stair, and an afterthought.Two hundred and eleven steps to the top, and I spent every one composing a paragraph for you.You may have the paragraph. I would like the stairs described back.Catriona Muir Answer it Sea Line · BoldSubject: What the crew calls you.I overheard it in Portuguese, and the translation is not polite, and I was rather proud.Say you want to know, and I will translate every syllable.Renata Okoye Answer it Polar Line · QuietSubject: A temperature, a pulse, a request.Everyone on the expedition is down for the night, boots still on, and I am the only doctor awake.Tell me one thing about you that no chart would show.Ilona Bartok Answer it Transit Line · TeasingSubject: Delivered by hand, not read.I have carried an envelope across three borders and the customs officer asked whether it was love.I said it was paperwork. Would you have said the same?Leila Farahani Answer it Sea Line · TenderSubject: Letters keep better than people.I have a drawer of them from passengers who never came back, tied in grey string.I would like to start a new bundle. Yours.Hanne Willems Answer it Lamp Line · WrySubject: A very small complaint about tea.I have been growing the stuff for eleven years and I am still not sure what it wants from me.You, at least, seem to know what you want. Tell me.Tomoko Sugiyama Answer it Sea Line · RestlessSubject: Valparaiso in the rain, a hull in dock.There is a week of waiting and a bunk with a good reading lamp.Fill the week for me. One letter a night, as long as you dare.Marta Soto Answer it Workshop Line · QuietSubject: Patience, filed under moss.Some plants take years to decide, and I have learned to sit near them and say nothing.I would sit near you for a letter or two. Say something first.Chiamaka Oyelowo Answer it Lamp Line · WrySubject: Re: your parcel, which I did not read.The postcard on top said wish you were here, and the sender had crossed out wish.I thought you might want to know that someone is paying attention.Greer Maclean Answer it Transit Line · TenderSubject: A small, flustered, honest note.I rehearsed this opening in five languages and discarded all of them for plain English.Your last letter made me stop mid-sentence at a monument. What did you mean by it?Sofia Marchenko Answer it Transit Line · BoldSubject: Platform nine, no announcement.I run forty trains an hour and none of them has ever frightened me as much as your last line did.Tell me what you intended, and be exact.Annelies Bakker Answer it Workshop Line · QuietSubject: Ink on the cuff, no regrets.I am not good at beginning, so I will tell you what I did today with my hands.Would you tell me the same about yours?Eun-Ji Shin Answer it Polar Line · WrySubject: A client fell in a crevasse and apologised.He was fine, the rope was fine, and the only damage was to his sense of self.Have you ever apologised to a mountain? Be honest.Valentina Ocampo Answer it Workshop Line · QuietSubject: Late, with a tuning fork.The house is silent except for one string I cannot forgive, and I am looking at it as I write.Tell me which sound in your life you cannot forgive.Nirmala Sundaram Answer it Polar Line · BoldSubject: Whatever is left in the larder.I have rationed my sentences all winter and I am sick of it.Give me a page of you, uncut, and I shall write back until the plane lands.Astrid Holm Answer it Transit Line · WrySubject: Captain's log, with commentary.Today I landed in Lisbon in a crosswind, then stood in the rain looking for my own umbrella.Rank these events by how well they illustrate my character.Wilhelmina Boateng Answer it Lamp Line · RestlessSubject: A gale, a lamp, and a correction.The sea is making an argument against sleep tonight, and I have decided to side with it.Keep me company until it stops. Begin with a story you tell badly.Catriona Muir Answer it Sea Line · TenderSubject: The word you will not find in a dictionary.I have been collecting it for you since Rotterdam; it means the hour after a letter arrives.What should we call the hour before one?Renata Okoye Answer it Polar Line · TeasingSubject: Clinical observation.You write fast when you are nervous and slowly when you are certain, and your last note was slow.I would like to know what you were certain about.Ilona Bartok Answer it Transit Line · BoldSubject: Eyes only, as the phrase goes.I am leaving Istanbul at dawn with a case that is not mine and a thought that is.Tell me what you would do with a night in a city you have never seen.Leila Farahani Answer it Sea Line · QuietSubject: Third deck, late, almost empty.The sea is flat tonight and I am the only person on the purser's desk.Keep me company with a long one. I will not mind the length.Hanne Willems Answer it Lamp Line · TenderSubject: The first flush, picked for you.I rolled a leaf between my fingers and thought of the way you end your sentences.Taste something tonight and tell me what it reminded you of.Tomoko Sugiyama Answer it Sea Line · WrySubject: Engineers do not write poetry.I have written three lines about a pump and burned the page for safety.You may read the ash if you tell me your worst poem.Marta Soto Answer it Workshop Line · BoldSubject: Something grew that I did not plant.It is lush, it is slightly indecent, and it has been looking at me all morning.Describe the last thing you let grow, and do not leave out the thorns.Chiamaka Oyelowo Answer it Lamp Line · TenderSubject: Lamp oil, a cardigan, a draft.The island is quiet and the shop is shut and I am answering your last letter at the counter.You asked if I was lonely. I would like to answer that properly. Ask me again.Greer Maclean Answer it Transit Line · TeasingSubject: A tour, with an unscheduled stop.I told the group we would pause at a fountain, and then I took you there instead.Shut your eyes. What reaches your ears?Sofia Marchenko Answer it Transit Line · QuietSubject: Last train, empty carriage.All the delays are cleared and I am sitting with a flask and a timetable I know by heart.Read me yours: what is your day, hour by hour?Annelies Bakker Answer it Workshop Line · BoldSubject: A proof, pulled at midnight.I printed your name on good paper and then I printed what I wanted to say under it.Ask me to read it out and I will, slowly.Eun-Ji Shin Answer it Polar Line · TenderSubject: Blue ice, a pause, a name.The glacier groans at four and I stand there with my hands in my sleeves, thinking.Give me something warm to carry down the hill.Valentina Ocampo Answer it Workshop Line · BoldSubject: A chord, withheld.I know what I would play to make you stop reading and listen.Tell me how you like to be asked.Nirmala Sundaram Answer it