Novel & Cerita Where The Sidewalk Ends Poems By Shel Silverstein

“But don’t leave the sidewalk, alright? Stay on the hopscotch!” Before I’ve even finished speaking, she’s darting out the front door. I hear the light sound of the door closing behind her and her quick footsteps echoing on the pavement. A part of me wishes I could carry the same lightness she does, the same carefree joy. But my thoughts are abruptly interrupted by the still presence of Thorne at my side.

The sun over Lagos burned without mercy, turning every metal roof into a sheet of fire. At the bus stop, the air quivered with exhaust fumes, impatient honks, and voices raised in the daily battle of survival. Promise stood apart from the crowd, clutching her bag tightly against her body. Her red heels pressed into the cracked pavement, the straps biting her ankles, but her chin stayed level. The words she had written the night before pulsed through her veins: Broken shoes, unbroken steps.

“Do you know where Shelley lives?” “Lime Kiln Square.” Jade seems to know where that is. I didn’t even have an address. I hadn’t asked for one, just followed along when Shelley was leading us. “We need to find somewhere to ditch the van first. Somewhere without cameras.” “Pop goes the weasel,” says Ella, pointing out of the window.

Am I unbearable? I need to find my slippers, but it suddenly disappears in the area I left it. I walk in the silent street under the big bright moon, barefoot. I pass the street lights with the beeping sound of the rushing cars. I shiver in fear as I keep my pace. Where the hell am I?

THE INSTINCTS AWAKEN The Silver Spoon had run out of cherry syrup. It was a small tragedy, the kind that shouldn't have mattered, but Carly had set her heart on a cherry Coke and the denial sent her into a dramatic sulk that required an immediate walk to clear her palate. So they found themselves strolling down Main Street in the bronze light of late afternoon, the sidewalk radiating the day's stored heat up through the soles of Anna's sandals. "You're actually pouting," Anna said, bumping her shoulder against Carly's. "Over soda."

"By Friday, the ice will be all the way through the weeds. You won't be able to see the bottom even if you look." He watched her walk away, her footprints neat, dark rectangles that filled with white almost as fast as she made them. He stayed on the corner for five minutes after she had disappeared around the bend of the brick wall, his thumb moving rhythmically over the silver pendant in his pocket, his face turned upward into the cold, silent descent of the storm.

Outside, snow covered the road south—toward the border, toward the place where a black wolf had once stood in the moonlight and believed I was his. The snow erased the road. When morning came, the road would still be there. And so would I. THE END

the little girl says “Ugh Treasure you’re no fun” Saturn says as she swirls around causing her to lose her footing and start to fall towards the edge of the cliff “SATURN NO” Treasure yells and I don’t know what comes over me because I rush out of the trees and when I realize I won’t catch her in time I pull some of earths magic and I send a rush of wind coming from under the girl which throws her back onto the dirt

“Funeral’s tomorrow.” I drove around a while before going home to try and clear my head. It didn’t work. I pulled up to the curb on my street, cut the engine, and sat there for a few minutes in the dark. Most of the leaves had fallen off the trees and were skittering along the pavement like rats on ice. The streetlight caught one of the Styrofoam tombstones the kid across the street had put up on his lawn and it cast a shadow like a long thin bridge from their house to Mrs. Walshans’ place.

Sarah The concrete floor was ice beneath my bare feet, each cold press a stark reminder of where I was. I didn’t dare ask for shoes. Not here. Not now. I’d learned that asking meant drawing attention—attention that usually ended badly, quickly. So, I kept my eyes fixed on the cracked, stained floor, willing myself to disappear, to shrink into the shadows until I was nothing more than dust.