""I’ve been having the same dream now for a long time. It’s a recurring dream… or nightmare. I can never tell for sure because the emotion is different. The details are the always the same—the smells, the sounds of my shoes, etc—but I never know what’s on the other side of those doors. I do now. And, (and this was always strange to me), my attitude of what might be over there is often different. Sometimes I’m afraid of it, sometimes I want it. But I am always compelled towards them. There is never a backwards step. Now, I think, I know why." This short story was first published in the collection "Absent Thoughts Dress in Black""