a jog.

7 blocks.

She was only 7 blocks from her house in perfect white suburbia where kids spend the evening hours screaming and chasing each other up the asphalt street.

7 blocks had her jogging down a street where the curbs were smoothed to the point of no definition, and the lawns are only grassy patches on dirt continents. The houses were silent, blinds drawn in front of windows made from dusty glass and screen doors that didn't quite fit the frame.

On one side of the street a YIELD sign was angled facing the ground; on the other side was the 50 feet of empty asphalt and sidewalk of a dead-end street.

She turned over the corner, only to find the eyes of seven kids all under the age of 8 watching her. As she jogged closer they quickly ran about the yard, shoving their scooters off the sidewalk but never leaving their gaze from her. They watched her till she was four houses away, before they started to scream and cheer again.

The driveways are cracked and crumbled in some parts, with trees taking over the main front lawn of some houses; encasing the silent neighborhood in long shadows.

On the other side of the street teenagers are talking. Their walk is measured with percise steps taken so their heels meet the ground with legs outstretched and spine curved backwards. Their hoodies are gray and covering their faces and she wonders if any of them will grow up to be victims.

Turning a corner a block away from her is a mother with a baby in a stroller. A minute pass and soon she's jogging past, nodding in greating to the mother who seems startled and nervous. The baby gurgles and claps its hands messily, the mother hushes it softly.

9 blocks later, and she's crossing the invisible line between the housing districts.

A block later and the houses are getting larger, the lawns are getting greener, and the sidewalks are perfect.

7 blocks later and she's stopping in front of her house in a white suburbia, listening to the children run up and down the asphalt street. Her breathe is caught in her lungs and she's struggling to regain it, and her adventure to the other side of the fence is done for the day.

7 blocks away is her secret entrance to to a different world hidden in plain site.

7 blocks.