Chapter 23: The Other Door

*You may go home.*

I lay still on the sofa with Audrey asleep on my chest, and I did not answer.

*Origin world: available. Departure: at dawn.*

"Show me," I said, in my head.

The room did not change.

But behind my eyes the world opened, small and plain.

A rented apartment on the sixth floor of a brick building, with a window onto a river.

A kitchen with one chair pulled to the table.

A single plate, washed and drying in a rack.

It was my own place, in the life I had before this one.

I had not thought about it in three years.

I had a good job there.

I had a sister in another city who called on Sundays.

I had a decent run of days, with nobody in them.

*You were content,* the voice said.

"I was alone."

*You may return as you were. The debt of this world is cleared. You will not be missed.*

I thought about that.

You will not be missed.

I thought about a pair of green eyes, and a bench built to face a window.

I thought about a notebook in a drawer with its last page turned down.

I thought about a table set for two in a bare brick house, with paper flowers on it.

A woman had waited two winters at that table.

"No," I said.

*The offer closes at dawn. There is no second offer.*

"I heard you."

*You will remain without the system. You will have no mission. You will have no protection. You will be an ordinary man in an ordinary life.*

I looked down at the head of dark blond hair on my chest.

"That's all I wanted," I said.

The voice was quiet for a long time.

Then it said, almost gently, *Understood.*

*Residency confirmed. Goodbye, Ethan.*

I felt it go.

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