The paper tore along the same line from the parcel office to a small square. Archivist Bea assumed the fold followed the most frequently used road. When she unfolded the map fully, the line crossed gardens, walls and a steep drop.
The owner had folded it to keep two destinations visible at once, not to trace a walk between them. A note inside the cover listed delivery times at the parcel office and visiting hours at a care home near the square. The map helped him fit work around visits to his wife.
Bea found his actual route marked lightly on the reverse, taking the longer accessible path. The damaged fold documented how he used the map, while the pencil line documented where he traveled. Confusing them would have produced a journey nobody could safely walk.
She displayed the map partly folded with a photograph of its reverse beside it. The dead man's daily compromise became legible without being flattened into one line. Visitors could see the two places he kept in view and the patient, indirect path by which he managed to reach both.