THE RIM OF THE GALAXY by Kevin Golden

She walked back home along the rim of the galaxy. Pebbles wedged into the soft skin on the bottom of her feet, hidden underneath the hem of her long white dress. By her waist she swung a pair of pointy high heels, which she had taken out of her mother's wardrobe. She had been dreaming of wearing these shoes since she was a little girl playing dress up. A cool salty breeze lifted her long brunette hair on the right side of her head. The waves, no more than a few inches tall, gently lapped at the glistening shore of the rocky beach. The moonlight shone across the ocean like a beacon pointed directly at her. “A beautiful ending to a beautiful night,” she thought. The sharp grey pavement, riddled with potholes, was in desperate need of replacement, but its rough sharp feeling on the bottom of her feet brought her back to warm summer days walking back from the beach with her mom, imitating her every move, placing one foot in front of the other and twisting her hips in the same manner. Her mom would turn around to watch her daughter, which always brought a smile to her face and made the little girl proud. The road had seen ten more years of use since those days, but she still knows it like the back of her hand. She moved slowly as she admired the beauty of the open sea and listened to the distant music from the high school auditorium, which carried itself nicely along the water. No matter how long she spends on the walk, it was never long enough. When she finally pushed open the rotting white wooden gate, she dodged empty bottles and cans on the walkway to the creaky front steps of the old cape house. The windows looked down upon her as if desperately asking for attention. It was on this very porch that she would sit with her mother and talk for hours with no interruption aside from the periodic crashing of waves on the rocky shore. When they sat on the porch watching the sun fade below the horizon, and the hospital would call, tears would roll uncontrolled down her cheeks, but when she felt her mother’s warm arms wrap around her tiny body, she felt as though nothing could go wrong. She pulled open the screen door whose handle, once gold, was now grey after