The girl ran through the streets. She rushed past a hot dog cart, she ran sideways and twisted through a crowd of people. She ran across the street, jumping onto the bumpy mat on the other side as the bright red hand stopped blinking. She kept running, through the streets of Manhattan. She ran across another street pushing through a crowd of people. A cab honked and she whirled, missing the front of the car by a few inches. As she turned again a delivery bike almost ran over her. But there wasn't time to get rattled, she had a mission. She kept running through the crowds of people. She stepped on peoples high-heeled feet. People swung purses and briefcases at her, but she didn't care. A guy shouted a string of curse words at her as his coffee(that smelled mysteriously of hot chocolate) was spilled down the front of his suit. A guy with a cat on his head quickly stepped out of her path, clutching his calico. She tripped on a crack in the chopped up sidewalk and went sprawling, taking down a lady in a cheetah print work out suit. The girl quickly jumped up and kept running. She ignored the stinging bit in her palms as she entered Central Park, scattering a flock of pigeons. She ran into the middle of the paved running path. She jumped in front of a runner and ran, barely missing a biker. She heard a small smoosh and glanced down, discovering she had stepped in dog poop. As she ran across the grass she she tried to wipe it off. But soon that wouldn't matter, because as she emerged at the other side of the park, running across the path, a horse with a sea foam green plume pranced in front of her. She skidded to a halt and took a step back. She felt something slightly sticky and definitely lumpy. She looked down and saw her foot embedded in a pile of horse poop. She glared at the maple colored horse with the sea foam plume and kept running. She had to get there on time. Slowly her heavy breathing turned to ragged gasps, but she kept tripping through uptown Manhattan. She dodged cars and angry pedestrians, jumping over hot dog dogs and darting behind hot dog carts. She used the city as if it was an obstacle course with no end. And as far as the girl could tell, that was the cold hard truth. She ran down the subway steps, her feet flying. She rushed after a man and squeezed through the turnstile with him, pressing her stomach and chest against his back. The man grunted and reached out a hand to grab her, but she was fast, and danced around him. She threw a slightly sweaty dollar bill at him and ran faster than before. As she flew down the metal stairs, banging along, she bumped into someone reading a book. The lady scowled at her, but went back to reading Pride and Prejudice. The old lady huffed and muttered something about young girls these days, but the girl was already jumping onto a subway, leaving a wake of disruption in her path. As a guy helped A young women to her feet who was a victim of the girl's destruction, the guy said, " Welcome to New York," then rushed onto a subway  at the other side of the platform. As the young woman was pushed into a subway by an insistent crowd, she wondered if she would ever see the man or the young girl again. Probably not, after all, it was called the Big Apple. But only a true New Yorker would know how small a world the city actually was.