There I was about to embark on the tour of tours, the one everyone talked about. I decided to take my entire family as this was a once in a lifetime journey. We arrived at the tour site and were greeted by tons and tons of people. I registered my family and was told to select a group which also included a tour guide. As I overlooked the different groups I was captured by this young man. He was a bit rugged looking, very handsome and you could just tell he had tons of personality and just looked like he knew what he was doing. I have found from taking previous much smaller tours that the tour guide can make or break the tour experience for everyone. My family wasn’t sure what to expect or anticipate on the tour, but as it started out it didn’t take long for us to come to a unique situation that left everyone uncertain of what we would do. “Stay here” said the guide “I will go before you and make sure it’s safe”. We couldn’t see him for a couple of minutes, but he quickly was visible and returned. “Don’t be afraid, follow me”. As we ventured deeper and deeper into the tour, it was one event after another. The Guide would go before us and make sure it was safe. I started to notice that each time he returned that there was something different with the back of his shirt, it seemed to be getting dirtier, I was thinking to myself this guy must be clumsy as he seems to be falling backwards. Then it happened we reached a terrible predicament, one that had us all wondering why we had gone this way, picked this group and decided to follow this clumsy guide. Some of the people bailed and turned back, but me and my family decided to stay. Many felt there was no way we were getting out of this one. Much to our surprise the direction given from the guide was the same, “don’t be afraid, I’ll go before you and make sure it is safe”. Again he returned looking a total mess, you could see that he had definitely fell down, his knees were scuffed and dirty and the palms of his hands looked filthy and the back of his shirt was a total mess. This time though he said, “stay close to me don’t take your eyes off of me, and most importantly don’t be afraid, I’ll make sure that everyone who has taken this tour is safe, I will get you home”. My family was sticking very close to him. I wanted to get close enough to him so I could ask, if he had always been super clumsy, and why was he so dirty? Just as I was about to ask him, the light changed and shown on him just right. It was then I realized that it wasn’t dirt, he was blood stained. The back of his shirt was red, and his hands looked as if he had fallen onto a bed of nails, they even looked as if one of the nails had penetrated and had gone through his hands. I’m not sure how, but he was right, we did make it through to safety, and no one was injured or lost. You see I’m writing this from the tour, as myself and family are still on it. Everyday seems to have those frightful situations, but the direction from the tour guide is still the same. “Don’t be afraid, follow me and stay close, keep your eyes on me, I will provide the light, and get you home”.
 

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My tour guide