4 Isaac and Leah celebrated their births on the same day on the city’s Euclidian calendar—day three hundred and sixty: the last day of the year.


2 Each birthday had a corresponding point on the ellipse.


3 And each birth point contained a shrine in dedication to a patron saint.


4 Altars obscured by household items and trinkets, each item in the shape of a circle.


5 Amongst the throngs of people who attended day three hundred and sixty’s celebrations (located at north point), Isaac and Leah never once noticed the other.


6 On these days both would slip away to hiding places, away from the crowd and far from the exterior wall.


7 To them the day held questions about creation and origins.


8 And it was on one of these birthdays that they found each other.


9 Leah escaped the congregation and headed straight south toward Central Park and leaned her back up against the wall, edging her shoulders into the vines that covered the brick: trying to conceal herself from the occasional pedestrian.


10 Isaac, in a state of disorientation, ran too, but stopped at the north gate of the park and stood staring into the landscape of the garden.


11 Isaac’s heart began to twist.


12 His soul withered at the thought of the city and his refusal to enter Eden.


13 He deliberated, placed his hands together in veneration, and took six steps forward through the break in the wall.


14 Inside, the hyssop was too fragrant. The water from the fountains too clear. The spores of the cedar too productive.


15 Isaac walked slowly, following paths and absorbing the elements of the garden and making up for lost revolutions of time.


16 He found himself at the wall.


17 But this time, and for the first time, he was on the interior.


18 Though Isaac once found the wall foreboding, he now found it simple and hushed.


19 Following the curve, Isaac returned to the north entrance.


20 Just a few degrees from the gate he found a small fissure in the wall: a void just large enough for a finger to investigate, or an eye to look through.


21 Isaac lowered his body and peered back out into the city.