Miriam had to keep her mind on moving, on getting home. She didn't have energy to waste worrying about a kidnapper. Even if the girl was only her age and couldn't even call out for help...

She said goodbye to the oblivious cat. It was clear that it wasn't going to follow her, so Miriam decided to leave a present. She pulled the dangling sting out from the end of her jeans and left it by the poll for the cat to play with. She pinched her arms, ignored the tight feeling in her throat and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her jeans.

She followed the road around the bend. There weren't any connecting roads, so Miriam kept walking along this one. This, she decided, was a good thing. It meant she couldn't be bypassed unknowingly by travelers.

She was happy to see that the next bend was the same, as was the next. She passed a traffic cone in the middle of the road. Before very long she spotted another light and couldn't help but remember the possibility of an emergency phone. This time she didn't rush forward, but walked. When it became clear that once again there was no phone, she was only a little disappointed. That was until she saw what was waiting for her under the light.

The cat twitched its tail as she approached.

"How did you beat me here?" Then she noticed the string tied to the pole and her eyes strung worse than when sand had gotten into them.

"What kind of road leads nowhere?" she asked the cat, before bursting into tears that washed the sand from her eyes and rolled down into her open, wailing mouth until she could taste nothing but salt and dusty earth.