The Way Forward

elementary fiction

The task is simple.

Choose one item from behind each of the three doors in front of you.

Choose wisely.

Remember your training.

Or choose impulsively and throw the rulebook out the window.

There is no right way. Only the way forward.  

This is important.

It is possibly the most important thing you’ve ever done. Or ever will do. From this moment on, your life will be forever changed.

Take your place.

Ready your medium.

Set your intention.

Begin.  

Door number one is a standard, wood-framed, run-of-the mill interior door. Like something you’d see on a former child’s bedroom, complete with a KEEP OUT sign and a splintered dent in the shape of a hand-me-down high-top sneaker. Or a mud-caked work boot. The doorknob is cheap brass, pitted from overuse and repeated reinstallations. The lock has been disabled because there’s no need for locks if everyone knocks. There are no voices inside. Just a deep pulsing vibration in the floorboards that rattles the door in its hinges on the two and the four. The ai…