A sun-bleached wooden dock stretching over a dazzling turquoise ocean, shot from a low angle as Estephen leaps off the end mid-jump, boots pointed down toward the sparkling water below. The sky is huge and bright blue behind him. In the foreground, a half-eaten sandwich sits abandoned on the dock planks beside a soggy map with a dramatic red X. Seagulls scatter in all directions from the splash zone. The ocean below is crystal clear, fading from turquoise at the surface to deep cobalt blue, with the faint dark shape of something enormous just barely visible far below. Sunlight glints off the silver tips of his boots as he falls.
Our Path

Estephen and the Ship at the Bottom of Everything

The map washes up on a Tuesday. Estephen is eating a sandwich when it happens. One moment: sandwich. The next moment: a soggy, barnacle-crusted, extremely mysterious map at his boots. He picks it up. It shows a stretch of ocean, an X, and the words BEWARE THE SHIP THAT STOPPED. Estephen takes one more bite of his sandwich. Then he tucks the map into his daisy dukes, walks to the end of the dock, and jumps. The water closes over his cowboy boots. His scales flash the color of someone who has absolutely no doubts and also maybe one or two doubts.