By Jessy Wallach, TIWP Student

Fact One: She was walking home along the Rim.

Fact Two: She almost always walked home along the Rim, sometimes with friends, but mostly alone. That day she’d been alone. It was illegal to walk along the Rim, but almost daringly easy to hoist herself over a bent spot in the chain-link fence and carefully drop down on the other side.

Fact Three: There was a sign attached to the fence. It read in large capital letters, ‘DANGER’ and ‘NO TRESPASSING’ and, in slightly smaller letters, ‘END OF GALAXY,’ and then the message repeated in Spanish, in equally large, official letters. Someone had sloppily spray-painted stars and planets over the sign, which didn’t make it any less legible but did, perhaps, make it seem less intimidating. It was one of those signs no one listened to, like the ‘NO DOGS ALLOWED’ sign at the elementary school or the ABSOLUTELY NO RUNNING’ sign at the public pool. And so she disregarded it every day.

Fact Four: She was wearing an orange tank top and blue jeans and a gray sweatshirt. Her backpack was blue with a tan bottom covered in grass stains. Her shoes were gray Converse and they were falling apart and she knew the Rim was dangerous, but it was the quickest way home.

Fact Five: She would never make it home.