~Where the Sidewalk Ends~ "There is a place where the sidewalk ends And before the street begins, And there the grass grows soft and white, And there the sun burns crimson bright, And there the moon-bird rests from his flight To cool in the peppermint wind." ~Shel Silverstein She woke up in a bed that was not hers; in a room that was not hers; on a world that was not hers. There was a moment where dreams refused to slide into reality. The universe was liquid, aquiline; the meaning and form of everything could change along with her mood. Which, at the moment, was a very grouchy one. She pushed herself up off the bed the walked over towards the balcony to clear her head. The sound of her feet padding against the cold floor beneath her was picked up by the wind, and carried outside with a sigh; to drift among the stars shining in the endlessness of the sky. She'd had a dream where she was walking, walking. Beneath her was a sidewalk, rough and warn with flowers to be picked and cracks to be avoided. Barefoot; but the concrete was as silk. The wind was calm. A warm light bathed her; radiated from her and the world around her. In the background, she could hear the sound of a radio talk show host, laughing. The morning news, and then evening's. The sound of a paper rustling. The water lapping against the sides of the koi pond in their front yard. Behind her, the sounds began to crumble. The world unraveled. She took no notice..walking, walking. The voices were silent. Nowhere in this world could she hear the sound of a radio; of a cooperate worker rushing home late after a meeting to rejoin his family. Of disobedient children loitering in the dark, or the crack of a bat in a well-lit but abandoned ball field. Quiet. Quiet forever. The nights were so dark here, except for sparkle of the stars and the glow of the moon. It fell to earth like a spurned angel, and lit upon the small stone building where Makoto had taken up residence. Wrapping itself around the wire antenna that sprung from the roof; the only ones in existence. She used to look towards the building where he lived, too, back in that other life. Sometimes, he would wave to her; tap at her across the space separating them. She would press her nose and her fingers up against the window; squint her eyes. Force him closer. Sometimes, when she woke up in the darkness, she could hear Katsuhiko through the right wall of her room; in the one next to hers. Reading his comics and humming to himself, and studying late into the night. Somewhere, beyond the Eastern horizon, the River of God stretched itself towards the heavens; an uncrossable barrier. She clenched her fingers around the railing, staring. She had studied, as well..but not as obsessively. The night before the entrance exam, her chance to get into Shinnanome High School..the chance of a lifetime. And what was expected of her. No option to fail. The nights spent staring into the whiteness of blurred text.dozens, millions of nights.faded into meaningless. Uselesses. The nights she had spent praying to escape this family, this home. Her treasured financial records book still sat on the dresser beside the bed, well worn from lavished attention. Each total, each sum, lovingly scratched into the pages..her life's work. Her chance out. Her opportunity to escape, and make something of herself; but on her own terms. A feeling inside her told her it would be nearly Christmas, now. Stretching towards a new millenium. She had hoped to spend it with him. She remembered the way they used to stand outside his house, and how the snowflakes would cling to their hair. Nanami sunk down into a puddle on the edge of the balcony, hand still gripping the railing. Memories, sounds, smiles of friends from school.a memory of a hallucination of a dream. Her consciousness began to drift. A few stray, puffy flower seeds floated by, and clung to her hair. She dreamt of walking, walking. Followed the arrows beneath her, white and chalked by the ghosts of children gone before. The edge was there before her, where the wind blew cold and lovely against ankles. She stepped off... Author's Notes: This is a pretty simple bit, though I'm not sure why it ended up quite so dark. I really do like Nanami alot, and I feel like she tends to get shortchanged by everyone in favor of other characters. So here we go.;) My tribute to her. ..yeah, so she's just a fictional character..;) But..one thing that never gets focused on in "other dimension" stories often is what it would be like to lose your entire reality. I'm sure some things would be neat, but otherwise, it'd be pretty scary. And sad. I tried to work that all in. As for the bit about Nanami and her family; Japan is notorious for driving its students literally to their psychological breaking points, and I think the culture over there helps make sense of both Nanami and Jinnai's characters a lot more then ours does. (Just read a disturbing articile about that, actually..) And they both seem to want so desperately to be independent (actually, Nanami especially) that I have to wonder how happy their home life was. It's obvious why you wonder that about Jinnai :), but Nanami's behaviour isn't quite normal for her age, either. Welp, that's it. G'night. ;) -Erin