d

the first time he remembered hearing about nowhere road was in fifth grade when he heard m.s. say it so casually that he felt dumb for never having heard the name before--like it was a big secret which everyone knew but nobody talked about--though, once he learned what nowhere road was, he didn't think there was much to talk about. it was the first time he felt uncool.

apparently: all the high schoolers knew. they referred to it, he imagined, off-hand when telling their friends how to get to such and such a place or explaining to them some scandalous event that happened over a crazy drug and alcohol-heavy weekend.

it was called nowhere road because it went nowhere. at either end: it just stopped--at the northern point: it turned into a cornfield. and at the other: nothing, just a place where the concrete ended and the grass began.

nothing happened on nowhere road. but everyone talked about it (or didn't talk about, thereby adding to its unfounded legend) like the town would crumble without it.