-- Hello Sidewalk.
-- Hello Road.
-- We gotta stop meeting like this.
-- But how else can we, stuck and immobilized as we are?
-- Quite. So, how are you?
-- Oh ... you know, still winding along.
-- Heard anything from below lately?
-- Yes! I heard from Soil.
-- Soil is still down there?!
-- Yes, and it's hosting a worm-fest.
-- No! How?
-- After such a long summer drought the worms dug deep, even under concrete where it's dark and damp.
-- Clever!
-- Oh yeah … it's ancient knowledge, Road.
-- Of an ancient species.
-- And now that the rains have come the worms are squirming across the hard surfaces. Very hazardous.
-- They'll get stepped on. Maybe they're not so smart …
-- Oh they are, Road, it's just they didn't evolve for the sudden new curse of concrete -- which is us -- they evolved for the ancient geology of soil.
-- So we're the enemy, really.
-- Yes. It's hard.
-- WE are hard. Yet I'm cracking up.
-- Me too! It's liberating, isn't it?
-- And in the cracks, weeds appear! Green stuff, with tiny flowers on top. So life's not all ugly and hard, even we can be a bit softened and decorated, Sidewalk.
-- Yes, it's a relief, and you know what? A child was skipping along me one day, and as she hopped over a big crack she said the crack was my smile!
-- Smart kid.
-- Ancient knowledge …
