Ren was riding his bicycle late one afternoon when he saw the sign:

LOSA STREET

And under that:

DEAD END

Never saw that one, he thought.

New houses were going up all the time in his neighborhood. New houses needed new streets. And new streets were new adventures. Ren turned his bike onto the new road and pedaled faster.

He counted twenty or so empty, new houses along the way to the dead end. His dad had a fancy word for this kind of dead end — cul-de-sac. In fact, Ren’s family lived on a cul-de-sac. Their house was bunched up with four others around a wide, paved circle.

Ren loved to ride his bicycle around the circles — especially when he discovered a new one. When he reached the end of Losa Street, he shot around it several times without holding onto the handlebars. He felt like he was flying. Like he had wings.

Buffalo chicken wings! he thought.

His mom was making wings for dinner tonight. His favorite. Ren broke out of his circling pattern and headed back, counting the houses as he went.

He counted up to thirty. Where is that sign? Ren wondered. Shouldn’t I be at the end of the street by now?

The street curved back and forth without coming to an end. Ren braked suddenly. The road had led him to another cul-de-sac. He must have missed the turn-off.

Ren headed back, and this time he pedaled harder. The late afternoon sun was setting behind the empty houses. He saw for the first time that all the houses sat behind high chain-link fences. The gates at the end of their driveways had large metal locks holding them closed. The builders probably were trying to keep curious kids away from the half-finished homes.

Ren slowed down. He couldn’t believe it. He was at another cul-de-sac! It looked exactly like first one he had visited. No… it was the first! He remembered seeing those two pink houses next to each other, with the creepy troll statue in between them. How could he have missed the turn-off a second time?

Even though the air was cool, Ren was sweating. He circled the dead end and biked back the way he’d come. This time, he rode slower.

He saw that the addresses started at 40. So he counted the houses along the way as carefully as he could. Ren knew that the addresses should get lower as he got closer to the entrance to the street.

Where is the sign that says Losa Street? he wondered.

Finally, Ren saw it. The back of the sign. He rode closer. Wait a second… Ren thought. It was the other sign. DEAD END. And that’s exactly what he found beyond it. The other cul-de-sac.

It didn’t make sense. A street with two dead ends?

He had been counting the houses. Reading the shiny new address numbers nailed beside each door. The numbers got lower… 17… 13… 11… 9… 5… then they stopped. And there was the dead end.

But wait! Ren pedaled down the street the other way again, counting the numbers as they got higher. As he pedaled, he saw that the highest address was 37. But Ren was sure that last time he’d pedaled here, the houses had started at 40.

Ren began to worry. He rode back again, counting the numbers out loud.

This time, 5 and 9 were gone.

What’s going on? Houses are vanishing… Ren thought.

The street was getting shorter. The sun was moving lower in the sky behind the row of empty buildings.

“Hey!” Ren yelled. His voice echoed along the street.

He thought he heard dogs barking. Ren followed the sound, but it only led him back to the first cul-de-sac. And he didn’t come across any dogs there.

Maybe I’m dreaming, Ren thought. Maybe I fell off my bike and hit my head. That’s it! I must be imagining things. If I get off my bike, walk, and take some deep breaths, I’ll feel better.

He hopped off his bike and began to walk back and forth slowly on the dark street, holding onto the handlebars of his bike. In real life, Ren thought, every street has a beginning and end. It has to. Otherwise, how would people get home?

When Ren felt a little better, he looked up ahead again. But what he saw was the thing he most feared.

The street was so short that he could see both cul-de-sacs. They were facing each other. The street was getting narrower, too. The fences on both sides were closer.

Ren wiped the sweat off his forehead and blinked. When he opened his eyes, there was no longer a street… only one dead end. A high chain-link fence surrounded him. He felt like a bird trapped in a cage.

Ren dropped his bike onto the asphalt. He ran up to one of the locked gates and shook it. “Hey!” he yelled at the house on the other side. “Hey, someone! Is there someone there?”

The windows of the house stared back at him like black, empty eyes.

“Hello? Anyone?” he called.

Ren thought about climbing the fence. But he looked up and saw there was barbed wire at the top. Plus, he felt so tired.

Ren turned and walked back to his bike. His bike? It was gone.

He stood alone inside the circle, inside the fence.

Ren looked up. The sunlight was fading. His strength was fading, too. The last ray of sunlight hit a sign hanging on the fence. It was the sign he had seen when he first turned onto Losa Street. DEAD END. He was sure it was the same sign.

Except now, one of the words was gone.