It All Began With Wally - Part 2

The story opens with an earnest young mapmaker feeding a thin barley soup to his bedridden mum. “Isn’t today your very important meeting with Thomas Jefferson who is the third president of the United States, Edwin?” she inquires.

“Yes, I believe that you are correct, Mother. When I am finished here, I will let my stepfather William and my two younger brothers - James, aged 7, and Frederick, aged 4 - know that I am leaving on my trusted chestnut-colored steed, Freedom, which you gave me on my 17th birthday 3 years ago.”

“And what is the purpose of this important meeting, Edwin?”

“Well, Mother, I understand that there is going to be a great expedition led by two men named Lewis and Clark and they will be in need of a good mapmaker such as I am.”

NOTE TO FILE: Work with Wally on crafting less doofy dialogue.

“Excuse me,” I said to Wally before I reached the end of the first act (and nary an appearance yet by L or C), “but who, exactly, is this Edwin guy?”

Wally enthusiastically explained that Edwin’s role would be to fill the audience in on what transpired once the expedition got underway (somewhere around the middle of Act 2). I reminded him of his objective to tell The True Story. How would this be possible, I queried, if he was throwing in characters like Edwin who didn’t exist?
He was quick to tell me that movies did that all the time. “Look at ‘Titanic’,” he said. “Everybody knows that Jack and Rose were just made up.”

Yes, but the difference, I responded, was that it’s easier to throw in a couple of fictional personas against a backdrop of 2,000 than it is to let fictional mapmakers tag along on one of history’s best documented treks that had less than 50 participants plus a dog.

“Oh,” said Wally. “Then you’re probably not going to like Edwin’s Indian princess love interest and the riverboat gamblers they play cards with that ends in a duel…”