The following text is from Annie Dillard’s 1987 autobiographical novel An American Childhood. The narrator is a young girl living in Pittsburgh.

I walked. My mother had given me the freedom of the streets as soon as I could say our telephone number. I walked and memorized the neighborhood. I made a mental map and located myself upon it. At night in bed I rehearsed the small world’s scheme and set challenges: Find the store using backyards only. Imagine a route from the school to my friend’s house.

©1987 by Annie Dillard