1 There was a city built upon concentric circles and enclosed in a high circular wall.


2 In that city, destination was recorded in portions of circumference and segments of diameter.


3 The inhabitants of the city rarely (if ever) left and only gypsies traveled in and out, shouldering vendibles in from the outlying unknown.


4 In the heart of the city lay its most attractive feature, a garden, enclosed by a ten-foot-high wall of brick and mortar: a park serene enough for Sunday afternoons of rest.


5 Children would play in the fountains and climb the trees, chase dangling shoelaces; parents would sit in the shade, drink coffee from thermoses, and read the morning paper.


6 Isaac lived in the outermost circle,


due west, and Leah directly across, at the eastern-most point: both on the same half-moon curve.


7 It was to this garden that neither Isaac nor Leah ever ventured.


8 As children, they were pulled there by corresponding parents (to opposite sides) and screamed and kicked till they were led away from the wall.


9 It was said that Isaac and Leah were the only citizens of the city ever to fear the garden: the garden aptly named Central Park.


10 To Isaac and Leah, the garden was the center of all that held shadows.