Learning to Read
July:
Tim stretched his arms high above his head and was satisfied when his spine released a series of pops. Lowering his appendages, the teenager hunched himself back over the plethora of papers that sat before him.
Bruce had now begun to introduce Tim to Gotham as he had never seen it. Spread out before the young man sat stacks of maps covering various aspects of the city. Most of them he could figure out where they were mapping, but then there were others that looked like a foreign country to him.
For example, Bruce had maps that covered the underworld of Gotham. Tim never knew there were so many sewers, let alone that they all connected to one another. Does he really think I'm going to go traipsing around in the sludge, the teenager thought with a cringe.
There were also maps that indicated different routes for nighttime travel that Tim wasn't even certain how they worked. They all had a colored line on them, which seemed to wind itself randomly around the city.
The teenager sighed and looked at the maps again. He wasn't certain what he was supposed to do with these. He'd spent the last two hours tracking different paths, but not entirely certain if they were correct or even do-able and he certainly hadn't learned anything.
"Route two point three," Bruce said from the darkness causing Tim to jump slightly.
"What?"
"Tell me how route two point three goes. How you get from start to finish, what equipment you would need and what problems you foresee."
Tim was tempted to say that he foresaw the problem that he didn't know what Bruce was asking, but withheld that. Instead he closed his eyes and attempted to re-call the map of routes he'd seen.
"It starts uptown at north station, from there it head north…west to Memorial Hospital…"
"How would you get there?" Bruce interrupted.
Tim licked his lips as he thought. "Uh, grapples," he said uncertainly.
"What buildings would you use? Where would you go on foot?"
The teenager shook his head indicated his didn't know.
"You have to know all these answers at the drop of a hat. I don't need someone who has to stop and think about routes before we head out. You need to know every aspect of this city. Now, you're under 5th street how do you get yourself out to 10th?"
"Uh," Tim said as he thought about the sewer maps. He opened his mouth to make an attempt, but was interrupted again by Bruce.
"I'm going to be back in an hour and expect you to be able to answer any questions I have."
With that Bruce walked away. Tim watched him and then turned back to the maps. With a sigh the teenager placed his fingers on one of the maps and began to trace and path and talk to himself.
"Begin at Memorial, grapple to Lutheran South Church. Leap to and climb up the warehouse on Stark and 1st…"