Follow the Road is the second collections of children’s short stories to be published by Short Story Day Africa. Collected from their 2014 children’s creative writing competition, here are twenty-seven refreshing takes on the science fiction and fantasy genres from minds wide open to possibility. From time travelling parents to sparkly dragons in the Drakensberg mountains, these are African stories from Africa’s children. This is science fiction that will challenge the perception of what children are capable of thinking and creating.

Set in the Cape, The Enumerations tells the story of Noah Groome, a seventeen year-old boy who suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and his family. Kate, his mother, bears the brunt of the parenting burden as his successful but emotionally blank father, Dominic, secretly deals with the demons lurking in his past. Noah’s sister Maddie is his ally and protector, but beneath the surface she too is profoundly affected by her brother’s condition.

As the story opens, we are tipped straight into Noah’s mania: the neurotic numbering of everything from breaths to steps to the tiles on the bathroom wall. The counting – everything in fives – is his way of managing his anxiety. Specifically, it is his way of managing the controlling voice in his head.

Unsurprisingly, Noah is an object of derision at school. When he rises to the bait and breaks the arm of a bully, a chain of events is set in motion that will see Noah sent to a treatment centre and his family forced to confront the dark secrets lurking beneath their seemingly perfect veneer.