A Walk to School

“Thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty, forty-one…” He was counting the lines carved on the cement pathway on his way to school.

“…forty-six, forty-seven…” Barely looking at where he was going, a big bike whizzed past by the corner where he stood. He straightened his head, but his eyes were still trained on the ground. He slowly looked up, scanned both ways without tilting his head, and then proceeded to cross the street. He skipped up the curb and then resumed the count.

A block up ahead loomed the stately pillars of his school. One side of the left pillar was streaked in gray and white from all the pigeon droppings. There were no longer lines on the pathway but bricks, in dusty orange, promising a well kept school.....