Jake was a boy like any other. He lived in a small Connecticut town and had some friends, went to school, and grew up. In the process of growing up he fell, ran, got scars, laughed, sang, got his driver's license, cried, and learned. He forgot, too. Gradually he lost the sense of exhilaration he felt at being alive and replaced it with the daily drudgery of living. He went to [[college]].
In college, Jake found himself. Or at least, he told himself that he was found. He was doing work that he liked to do in his major (English, and fuck off about jobs) and he found some people who shared his passion for books and movies and music and conversation. He stopped living and was alive again. [[He graduated]].
After some months of failure, Jake found a job that would hire him with his unremarkable college record. He had spent too much time hanging out and not enough time beefing up his résumé with extracurricular activities which would land him a more exciting job. So now he was stuck again, back to living. He decided to [[get a dog]].
A dog would solve his living problem. They provide unending love and ask only to be fed and walked in return. Jake could do that. He was responsible enough, his apartment was large enough, and he had enough time on his hands now that his friends from college had all moved away to pursue their more exciting, more lucrative careers. He looked at some dogs at the local shelter but none of them seemed like the right one until he saw the one at the end of the second row of kennels. [[Yes, this was the one.]]
It was adorable, an almost-orange-furred half-Golden-Retriever, half-Akita mix. It had been there so long that everybody at the shelter had forgotten his name, so when Jake took him home he called him Calvin, after his favorite comic character. [[And Calvin lived up to his namesake.]]
He was a sneaky dog, far too intelligent for his own good. He would get into places in Jake's apartment that Jake didn't even know about. In order to tire Calvin out, Jake would take him on walks in the woods behind his apartment complex. They were woods like every other in New England, neither sparsely nor densely treed and with a permanent cover of leaves on the ground to provide a satisfying crunch, especially now, in early October. It was late in the day on a Saturday and Jake had been playing videogames all day. As the sunlight began to fade, Calvin whined and went to the door, asking Jake to get outside while they still could. Jake finally snapped out of his videogame trance and took Calvin outside saying, [["Come on, Calvin-o, let's see what there is to see."]]
What there was to see in this new section of the woods included some old logs, an abandoned rabbit warren which had captured Calvin's attention for a good fifteen minutes, and a red (set: $s to (color:red)+(text-style:"strike"))$s[string] which Calvin found just as Jake said it was time to go home, eyeing the almost setting sun. Jake tried to pull Calvin away but he wouldn't move, so Jake went over to where Calvin was and [[picked up the string]].
It was a normal $s[string], red and thinner than yarn that might be used for knitting or crocheting but not as thin as twine. When Jake pulled it up from the ground its length disturbed a bed of leaves that seemed as old as the forest itself. He pulled on it some more and even more leaves were jostled around. It had some tension in it, so Jake decided to follow it until he found its end. This decision pleased Calvin, who led the way, sniffing along the ground for the $s[string] just ahead of where [[Jake would dislodge it from its ancient bed]].
Jake followed the $s[string] for almost fifteen minutes. The sun had almost entirely set now, and the sky, what Jake could see of it through the dense dying leaves still on the trees, was as orange and red as he had ever seen it. He and Calvin were further in the forest than they had ever been and, had he stopped to consider it, Jake might have questioned if the forest could even possibly be as deep as it seemed to be. But he was too focused on the $s[string] to notice how far he had walked or that Calvin had gone from eagerly ferreting out the string in front of Jake to following some paces behind him. Calvin wouldn't try to stop Jake from his obvious mission, but he was ready to go back inside and be warm again. Jake didn't feel the cold, although he did realize that the wind had died down and that the sounds of the woods around him had quieted. It wasn't entirely silent, his feet still crunched the corpses of long-dead leaves as loudly as ever, but all other sounds of life had been muffled as if they knew that this was a different kind of place. And indeed, Jake had finally found the end of the $s[string]. It pulled taut in his hand and [[he looked up, snapping out of his trance]].
The $s[string] ended at the base of a tree. Actually, that's not quite right. It disappeared into the tree's roots, first twisting around inside the tangle and then delving further into the root system. Jake yanked as hard as he could and couldn't pull the $s[string] free, so he let it drop.
Jake looked up from the base of the tree to see where he was for the first time. There was a row of trees extending as far as Jake could see. It was a straight row, evenly spaced and, though Jake was no arborist, he could at least tell that each tree was the same as the others, even to the point of the branches splaying in the same way on every tree. The trunks were all 4 feet wide and the branches started two feet above eye level. Outlined in the trunk of each tree was a door, your standard, slightly whimsical round-top door. There was a knot of wood that stuck out from each door where the knob would usually be and a perfectly round piece of clearest (set: $ice to (color:gray+blue+gray)+(text-style:"condense")) $ice[ice] imbedded in each door at eye level. [[Jake walked up to the first tree to see what he could see]].
As Jake approached the first tree, Calvin whined, worried about the not-right-ness of this row of trees. He had known that something was weird with the string, but his curiosity had pulled him in more than his fear cautioned him against investigating. Now he could see Jake making the same mistake and tried to get his attention in order to warn him. Jake didn't pay him any mind, though, and Calvin knew when Jake was a lost cause. He had the same look in his eyes that he had when he was zoned out on the couch marathoning a Netflix show. There was nothing Calvin could do to pull Jake out of his intense concentration, so Calvin lied down a safe distance from the tree and watched as [[Jake looked into the cold, round piece of]] $ice[ice].
The ice radiated cold and chilled his eye as he peered through it into the room the door would presumably open on. Despite the discomfort, Jake was transfixed by what he saw on the other side. It was his living room in his apartment, the very same one. Well, almost the very same one. Here there was a record player where his Blu-Ray player usually was. "Strange," he muttered as he grabbed the knob and pulled the door open. Warmth replaced the late fall chill in the air as he stepped through the door into the slightly different living room.
Hmm. It even smelled like his apartment. Not an unpleasant smell, but there was the same lingering scent of day-old pizza emanating from the fridge. He went to investigate the record player. It looked like a nice one, made of real wood and he could tell that it was expensive based on the craftsmanship. Next to it was a carefully organized record collection. Jake leafed through the shelf and saw some of his favorite albums there, your Blonde on Blondes and your Charlie Brown Christmases, alongside some things he had never heard of before. As he was about to put on one of those weird albums, he heard the door start to creak. He had left it open, not wanting to abandon Calvin entirely on the other side, but now it looked like his time in this other-apartment was up. He didn't want the door to close because he didn't know if it would open back on the strange woods or if it would revert back into being a normal door that would open on the hallway it usually opened on.
Just as the door was about to close - exactly 3 minutes after he opened it - Jake slipped out back into the weird woods. Calvin lifted his head, tilted it to one side, and then put it back down over his folded paws. Jake turned and looked back at the door. The ice in the peephole was gone and only a shallow indent in the door remained. The knob-knot wouldn't turn again, and the line separating the door from the tree was just as shallow as the former peephole was. The door was closed forever. [[Jake went to the next tree to see what would be different there]].
(display: "doors visited")
(display: (either: "Door 2", "Door 3", "Door 4"))
The next door was the same as the last. Jake went to the icy peephole and looked inside. Nothing was the same as his real apartment, except for the dimensions. There was bright orange paint on the walls where his walls were boring and white. Posters from action movies covered most of the wall behind the TV, which wasn't as big as his TV back home was. He liked those movies well enough, but getting posters framed and hung was a bridge to far for Jake.
There were other differences too. Instead of a PS4 there was an XBox One hooked up to the tv. Various take-out food boxes were stacked almost as high as the ceiling in the far corner, and beer cans littered the floor. [[After Door 2<-Jake decided that he didn't need to investigate that tree any further, so he went on to the next one]].
(display: "doors visited")
The next tree held the same door, but when Jake looked into the peephole, he saw a room much bigger than the one he currently lived in. It was decorated beautifully and he could see down the hallway that usually led to his bedroom a number of doors leading to other, presumably even nicer rooms. Not that this living room wasn't nice. There was a chandelier and everything. Jake opened the door and went inside to see if it was as nice as it looked.
It was. He could hear somebody playing the piano from a distant room in the house, for it was a full house and not a rinky-dink apartment. On the shelves next to the (much nicer) TV were pictures of him in nicer clothes than he usually wore and a woman. She looked gorgeous but severe, like she knew how pretty she was, how the world treated her because of that, and how to survive when all anybody cared about was her attractiveness. And when Jake looked closer he could see that there didn't seem to be much of a connection between this other version of him and the woman. There was a space between them that wouldn't be there if they truly loved each other. Perhaps the house was so large so they could avoid each other as much as possible. He remembered the warmth from the first door and noticed that this living room, despite its apparent elegance, was just as chilly as the forest from which he had come. This was not the place for him, he realized, and he left before the door even started to creak closed. Again, [[After Door 3<-Jake went to the next tree to see what would be different there]].
(display: "doors visited")
The next tree's peephole showed a dirty mess of a room. It wasn't just messy, though. When Jake opened the door a rat tried to escape from the room into the woods. When the rat was about to cross over it disappeared. Nothing came through, not even a tuft of fur. Every bit of evidence that a rat had existed at all was wiped away, gone in an instant. It's not that Jake cared about the rat, but he had to be careful about letting Calvin into any of these rooms because he couldn't be sure that Calvin would be able to exit again. [[After Door 4<-The whole rat situation turned him off of exploring any more and he went to the next door, closing this one before ever entering it.]]
(display: "doors visited")
(display: (either: "Door 3.1", "Door 4.1"))
(display: (either: "Door 2.2", "Door 4.2"))
(display: (either: "Door 2.3", "Door 3.3"))
The next tree held the same door, but when Jake looked into the peephole, he saw a room much bigger than the one he currently lived in. It was decorated beautifully and he could see down the hallway that usually led to his bedroom a number of doors leading to other, presumably even nicer rooms. Not that this living room wasn't nice. There was a chandelier and everything. Jake opened the door and went inside to see if it was as nice as it looked.
It was. He could hear somebody playing the piano from a distant room in the house, for it was a full house and not a rinky-dink apartment. On the shelves next to the (much nicer) TV were pictures of him in nicer clothes than he usually wore and a woman. She looked gorgeous but severe, like she knew how pretty she was, how the world treated her because of that, and how to survive when all anybody cared about was her attractiveness. And when Jake looked closer he could see that there didn't seem to be much of a connection between this other version of him and the woman. There was a space between them that wouldn't be there if they truly loved each other. Perhaps the house was so large so they could avoid each other as much as possible. He remembered the warmth from the first door and noticed that this living room, despite its apparent elegance, was just as chilly as the forest from which he had come. This was not the place for him, he realized, and he left before the door even started to creak closed. Again, [[After Door 3.1<-Jake went to the next tree to see what would be different there]].
(display: "doors visited")
The next tree's peephole showed a dirty mess of a room. It wasn't just messy, though. When Jake opened the door a rat tried to escape from the room into the woods. When the rat was about to cross over it disappeared. Nothing came through, not even a tuft of fur. Every bit of evidence that a rat had existed at all was wiped away, gone in an instant. It's not that Jake cared about the rat, but he had to be careful about letting Calvin into any of these rooms because he couldn't be sure that Calvin would be able to exit again. [[Door 5<-The whole rat situation turned him off of exploring any more and he went to the next door, closing this one before ever entering it.]]
(display: "doors visited")
{
(if: $doors is 15)[
(display: "Introspection")
](else-if: $doors is 25)[
(display: "Forever")
](else-if: $doors is 30)[
(display: "Calvin")
](else:)[(display: (either: "Door 6", "Door 7", "Door 8", "Door 9", "Door 10", "Door 11", "Door 12", "Door 13", "Door 14"))
]}
(display: "doors visited")
The next tree's peephole showed a dirty mess of a room. It wasn't just messy, though. When Jake opened the door a rat tried to escape from the room into the woods. When the rat was about to cross over it disappeared. Nothing came through, not even a tuft of fur. Every bit of evidence that a rat had existed at all was wiped away, gone in an instant. It's not that Jake cared about the rat, but he had to be careful about letting Calvin into any of these rooms because he couldn't be sure that Calvin would be able to exit again. [[After Door 4.1<-The whole rat situation turned him off of exploring any more and he went to the next door, closing this one before ever entering it.]]
(display: "doors visited")
The next tree held the same door, but when Jake looked into the peephole, he saw a room much bigger than the one he currently lived in. It was decorated beautifully and he could see down the hallway that usually led to his bedroom a number of doors leading to other, presumably even nicer rooms. Not that this living room wasn't nice. There was a chandelier and everything. Jake opened the door and went inside to see if it was as nice as it looked.
It was. He could hear somebody playing the piano from a distant room in the house, for it was a full house and not a rinky-dink apartment. On the shelves next to the (much nicer) TV were pictures of him in nicer clothes than he usually wore and a woman. She looked gorgeous but severe, like she knew how pretty she was, how the world treated her because of that, and how to survive when all anybody cared about was her attractiveness. And when Jake looked closer he could see that there didn't seem to be much of a connection between this other version of him and the woman. There was a space between them that wouldn't be there if they truly loved each other. Perhaps the house was so large so they could avoid each other as much as possible. He remembered the warmth from the first door and noticed that this living room, despite its apparent elegance, was just as chilly as the forest from which he had come. This was not the place for him, he realized, and he left before the door even started to creak closed. Again, [[Door 5<-Jake went to the next tree to see what would be different there]].
(display: "doors visited")
The next door was the same as the last. Jake went to the icy peephole and looked inside. Nothing was the same as his real apartment, except for the dimensions. There was bright orange paint on the walls where his walls were boring and white. Posters from action movies covered most of the wall behind the TV, which wasn't as big as his TV back home was. He liked those movies well enough, but getting posters framed and hung was a bridge to far for Jake.
There were other differences too. Instead of a PS4 there was an XBox One hooked up to the tv. Various take-out food boxes were stacked almost as high as the ceiling in the far corner, and beer cans littered the floor. [[After Door 2.2<-Jake decided that he didn't need to investigate that tree any further, so he went on to the next one]].
(display: "doors visited")
The next tree's peephole showed a dirty mess of a room. It wasn't just messy, though. When Jake opened the door a rat tried to escape from the room into the woods. When the rat was about to cross over it disappeared. Nothing came through, not even a tuft of fur. Every bit of evidence that a rat had existed at all was wiped away, gone in an instant. It's not that Jake cared about the rat, but he had to be careful about letting Calvin into any of these rooms because he couldn't be sure that Calvin would be able to exit again. [[Door 5<-The whole rat situation turned him off of exploring any more and he went to the next door, closing this one before ever entering it.]]
(display: "doors visited")
The next tree's peephole showed a dirty mess of a room. It wasn't just messy, though. When Jake opened the door a rat tried to escape from the room into the woods. When the rat was about to cross over it disappeared. Nothing came through, not even a tuft of fur. Every bit of evidence that a rat had existed at all was wiped away, gone in an instant. It's not that Jake cared about the rat, but he had to be careful about letting Calvin into any of these rooms because he couldn't be sure that Calvin would be able to exit again. [[After Door 4.2<-The whole rat situation turned him off of exploring any more and he went to the next door, closing this one before ever entering it.]]
(display: "doors visited")
The next door was the same as the last. Jake went to the icy peephole and looked inside. Nothing was the same as his real apartment, except for the dimensions. There was bright orange paint on the walls where his walls were boring and white. Posters from action movies covered most of the wall behind the TV, which wasn't as big as his TV back home was. He liked those movies well enough, but getting posters framed and hung was a bridge to far for Jake.
There were other differences too. Instead of a PS4 there was an XBox One hooked up to the tv. Various take-out food boxes were stacked almost as high as the ceiling in the far corner, and beer cans littered the floor. [[Door 5<-Jake decided that he didn't need to investigate that tree any further, so he went on to the next one]].
(display: "doors visited")
The next door was the same as the last. Jake went to the icy peephole and looked inside. Nothing was the same as his real apartment, except for the dimensions. There was bright orange paint on the walls where his walls were boring and white. Posters from action movies covered most of the wall behind the TV, which wasn't as big as his TV back home was. He liked those movies well enough, but getting posters framed and hung was a bridge to far for Jake.
There were other differences too. Instead of a PS4 there was an XBox One hooked up to the tv. Various take-out food boxes were stacked almost as high as the ceiling in the far corner, and beer cans littered the floor. [[After Door 2.3<-Jake decided that he didn't need to investigate that tree any further, so he went on to the next one]].
(display: "doors visited")
The next tree held the same door, but when Jake looked into the peephole, he saw a room much bigger than the one he currently lived in. It was decorated beautifully and he could see down the hallway that usually led to his bedroom a number of doors leading to other, presumably even nicer rooms. Not that this living room wasn't nice. There was a chandelier and everything. Jake opened the door and went inside to see if it was as nice as it looked.
It was. He could hear somebody playing the piano from a distant room in the house, for it was a full house and not a rinky-dink apartment. On the shelves next to the (much nicer) TV were pictures of him in nicer clothes than he usually wore and a woman. She looked gorgeous but severe, like she knew how pretty she was, how the world treated her because of that, and how to survive when all anybody cared about was her attractiveness. And when Jake looked closer he could see that there didn't seem to be much of a connection between this other version of him and the woman. There was a space between them that wouldn't be there if they truly loved each other. Perhaps the house was so large so they could avoid each other as much as possible. He remembered the warmth from the first door and noticed that this living room, despite its apparent elegance, was just as chilly as the forest from which he had come. This was not the place for him, he realized, and he left before the door even started to creak closed. Again, [[Door 5<-Jake went to the next tree to see what would be different there]].
(display: "doors visited")
The next tree held the same door, but when Jake looked into the peephole, he saw a room much bigger than the one he currently lived in. It was decorated beautifully and he could see down the hallway that usually led to his bedroom a number of doors leading to other, presumably even nicer rooms. Not that this living room wasn't nice. There was a chandelier and everything. Jake opened the door and went inside to see if it was as nice as it looked.
It was. He could hear somebody playing the piano from a distant room in the house, for it was a full house and not a rinky-dink apartment. On the shelves next to the (much nicer) TV were pictures of him in nicer clothes than he usually wore and a woman. She looked gorgeous but severe, like she knew how pretty she was, how the world treated her because of that, and how to survive when all anybody cared about was her attractiveness. And when Jake looked closer he could see that there didn't seem to be much of a connection between this other version of him and the woman. There was a space between them that wouldn't be there if they truly loved each other. Perhaps the house was so large so they could avoid each other as much as possible. He remembered the warmth from the first door and noticed that this living room, despite its apparent elegance, was just as chilly as the forest from which he had come. This was not the place for him, he realized, and he left before the door even started to creak closed. Again, [[After Door 3.3<-Jake went to the next tree to see what would be different there]].
(display: "doors visited")
The next door was the same as the last. Jake went to the icy peephole and looked inside. Nothing was the same as his real apartment, except for the dimensions. There was bright orange paint on the walls where his walls were boring and white. Posters from action movies covered most of the wall behind the TV, which wasn't as big as his TV back home was. He liked those movies well enough, but getting posters framed and hung was a bridge to far for Jake.
There were other differences too. Instead of a PS4 there was an XBox One hooked up to the tv. Various take-out food boxes were stacked almost as high as the ceiling in the far corner, and beer cans littered the floor. [[Door 5<-Jake decided that he didn't need to investigate that tree any further, so he went on to the next one]].
(display: "doors visited")
This door was the most unsettling Jake had seen so far. Looking back through the icy peephole was another eye, dark brown like his and searching with a mirrored intensity for something in Jake's own eye. He pulled away from the peephole, suddenly short of breath and with a racing pulse, and went on to the next door, [[Door 5<-hoping to find something better]].
The next door was heartstopping. On the other side of the peephole was not a living room but rather nothing. Blackness. Or an absence of light. It was as if the room was gone and with it the planet, the galaxy, the universe. Perhaps there really was nothing there. Or maybe the imperfect lens of ice was hiding some hint of existence on the other side. Jake didn't want to find out, [[Door 5<-so he moved on to the next tree]].
The next tree didn't have a door at all. He could see a faint indentation where the line that separated the door from the tree usually was, but the knob-knot was gone or had never been there in the first place and the peephole was gone too, just a tiny crater remained. Jake was not a fan of this door, so [[Door 5<-he moved on to the next one]].
Doors Visited: (set: $doors to it + 1)$doors
This tree's peephole showed a room almost the same as his at home. It was a little more decorated than his sparse apartment and the coats hanging on the rack beside the door were of a different shape than the ones on his at home. He decided that there was nothing to fear from this door so he opened it to try it out. As he stepped through the door he felt different, oddly shorter and lighter, with different weights pulling on his body from directions he wasn't used to.
He looked down and saw that he was now a woman. Ha! He always wondered what it might feel like to have lady parts. Now he knew. It wasn't that different, he thought, though the three minute allowance wouldn't give him enough time to fully test everything out. He recognized now why the coats had changed, they were made for a woman instead of a man. And he thought that maybe this wouldn't be so bad a place to live from now on, he might just stay after the door closed. He could get used to a pronoun change, or was that "she could"?
But as he heard the door begin to creak he chickened out and ran back through it, afraid to commit to such a change. As he ran out, Calvin looked up from his position near the first tree and saw how far away Jake had gone. Calvin whined and got up to come see Jake, but Jake had already started towards the next door, [[Door 5<-desperate to find the perfect new life to inhabit]].
The next tree's door opened into a nicer, bigger version of his room at home. He went inside and looked around. Same movies on the shelf, plus more Criterions and box sets. The TV was bigger, 4K and curved! Ah, here was the place he could live forever. He looked down the hall and saw only his twin bed in the bedroom. Hmm. Now that he knew how the system worked he wondered if he could find a door which opened onto a universe where he was already happily married and in a good situation. Wouldn't that take all the stress out of his life? Couldn't he just live happily ever after and get the most out of his opportunity here? He couldn't justify not trying to find the ideal universe, [[Door 5<-so he left and went to the next door, now driven by more than just curiosity]].
Jake didn't know how many doors he had visited but he looked down the line at the doors he had seen so far and couldn't see the end. He knew that after every few doors Calvin would get up and follow him to the next door to rest a bit more. He seemed disinterested in going on without Jake or going back home himself. Jake reasoned that it couldn't be too long since he had found this weird stand of trees or else Calvin would be whining about his dinner, and the light hadn't changed since they arrived here. After this brief introspection, [[Door 5<-Jake went on to next door, hoping it would contain his perfect universe so he could be done with the search]].
In this door's peephole Jake saw a woman and three children, all under the age of 5. He knew that he wanted kids but he didn't know if he wanted that many, nor did he know if he wanted them to be so close together. He considered how difficult it would be to jump straight into the scenario he saw through the $ice[icy] window. It seemed like a lot of responsibility to take on all at once. One kid, the smallest one, a boy, started crying and Jake shook his head as [[Door 5<-he walked to the next tree]].
In the next tree's $ice[ice-hole], Jake saw a man who looked like his old friend from college, Andrew, sitting on the couch reading a book. They had grown apart in their senior year and by now their only interactions with each other were a like here or there on Facebook. It was sad, something that Jake regretted every time he thought about it, so he opened the door immediately and went in to see why his friend would be in his living room in this alternate universe. Perhaps they were still friends here! That wouldn't be a bad start to a new universe.
As Jake entered the room, Andrew didn't look up from his book. It was only when Jake quietly said, "Hello," that Andrew looked up. He smiled and apologized for not hearing Jake come in. He closed his book, got up from the couch, and came up to Jake. By the time Jake realized what was happening they were already kissing. Jake pulled back sharply, disoriented and unsure of what to do next. Andrew looked at Jake with real concern and asked if everything was ok. Jake nodded and took a step back towards the door. "I'm fine, I just forgot something in my car."
Jake escaped through the door before it closed and took a moment before moving on to the next door. He hadn't thought about something like that happening. He was gay in that other version of his life. Did that mean that he was gay in this version, or that there was the possibility that he might have been had something or other happened differently earlier in his life? His head spun. It's not that he didn't like it, in fact he was now missing Andy (Andrew, it was Andrew) and his warmth. But it was not something he would ever have to think about. The chilled air brought him out of his spell and as he remembered his mission, [[Door 5<-he got up and went to the next tree]].
In the next door Jake saw an entirely empty room. Well, almost entirely empty. The walls, floor, and ceiling contained the only features, a perfect grid of lines which extended onto all surfaces of the box room. There wasn't even a hallway to the bedroom, nor any furniture in the room. Jake couldn't see a reason to stay out, though, and he could always leave in a few seconds if it really was as empty as it seemed to be.
When he stepped in he saw the room transform instantly. In place of the grid (either: "a jungle scene surrounded him. A cacophony filled the room where silence had recently reigned, and the humidity increased to the point where Jake found himself struggling to breathe. He could no longer see the walls for all of the trees and vines, the ceiling wasn't there either, as the jungle extended much taller than seemed possible, and the ground was covered with a dense undergrowth. When he looked down he saw his late-autumn clothes had changed to a sweaty brown t-shirt and long khaki pants while his hiking shoes had turned into scuffed and muddy boots. He held a machete and could sense something else in the room. The brief jungle sounds had died out and now he could only hear his own breathing. Everything was still.
To his left, a rustle. He looked towards the sound and brief movement, saw yellow eyes staring back at him and immediately turned around to leave. Just as he slipped out of the room and closed the door he heard a sharp yowl and felt the hot breath of a large animal on his face. He took a moment to gather his breath, noticing that his clothes had gone back to his regular getup, and", "darkness spread around the room. Not full darkness, Jake noticed. There were points of light all around the room and he could see some were bigger than others. He was in space. Realizing this, he quickly gasped for breath, but it came easily. He tried to look down and found his range of motion severely limited. Jake brought his hands in front of his face and saw the familiar space-gloves that astronauts wore. He was in space! Awesome! But what was he doing here? Where was his ship? He maneuvered his jetpack (he had a jetpack!) to turn himself around. There was only the door he came though, standing oddly in the middle of the void and still open onto the weird woods he came from.
Why was there no ship here? Where was he, really? Space was huge. Was he stranded? Had he been flung out into the great nothing, left abandoned by his crew? The thought was too awful to bear. Instead of the brief excitement he felt at his new surroundings, a cold fear crept into his veins. He heard the door start to close (He shouldn't be able to hear that, he thought to himself, not in space) so he used his jetpack to get back to the door and pulled himself through it using the frame as anchor points. As he exited the door back into the woods, he saw the empty space on the other side of the door suddenly explode into a thousand million points of light. The door closed and the bright intensity emanated even through the wood for a moment before the tree turned into a more normal version of itself. Jake shook his head and let out a brief, adrenaline come-down woo as he" ) [[Door 5<-moved on to the next door]].
The next tree was chopped down. There was only a stump remaining to indicate that there had been anything there at all. Jake thought about sitting down on the stump. He was getting tired and it was the perfect height for sitting. But something about it scared him and [[Door 5<-he went on to the next tree before he could think too much about what the stump meant for his alternate-self in that universe]].
Jake stopped between trees and looked back at where he had come from. He could no longer tell how far he had come nor could he see the other end of the line of trees. He thought about going back home, settling for what he had and moving on with his life. It'd be easier, certainly, and less tiring. He was so tired. He felt less enthused about each tree, but he also couldn't wait to see the next one after he investigated the last. He was in a weird trance of sorts, just going through the motions and finding a reason to reject each possible universe. Yes, that was it. His mission filled his chest with breath, kept his feet moving and his eyes open. His mission would soon be over. Or it would go on forever. He knew that he would not stop until he found the right place, the perfect place. It was out there. It had to be, mathematically speaking. If everything existed behind one of these doors, his ultimate life would be behind one of the doors, and he knew he would find it. The sun had set no further, even though it certainly should have by now. And, though tired, he had enough energy to [[Door 5<-go to the next tree and see what it held for him]].
As Jake walked to the next door, Calvin looked up at him. Calvin was scared. Jake had stopped a few times between doors and each time Calvin had hoped that Jake would turn around, pet him on the head a few times, and take him home for some delicious dinner, but he kept walking to the next tree. Calvin had followed, reluctantly, but now it was time to act. He had to pull Jake out of his slow march towards nothing. Calvin could see that the line of trees would never end and that Jake would never stop searching for whatever it was he was seeking. So Calvin stood up and went to stand in front of Jake. Jake didn't even look down at him and just walked around Calvin, somehow sensing that he was there without actually seeing him. Calvin went to the next door and sat down in front of it. When Jake arrived a moment later he went to reach for the knot-knob and just as he was about to touch it, [[Home<-Calvin barked]].
Jake crouched down and asked Calvin what the problem was. Calvin whined again and looked back towards the beginning of the line of trees. Jake looked down there too, and after a moment said, "Just a few more doors, Calvin-o, then I promise we'll go home." As Jake stood up again and reached towards the knot-knob, Calvin barked again and ran back to the first tree. Jake ran after him, instincts taking over and reenacting dozens of chases the two had participated in over their relationship. Calvin ran and Jake ran and Calvin barked and Jake smiled.
They reached the first tree, both out of breath but exhilarated by their almost-complete escape. Jake picked up the twine and said, "Let's go home." Calvin barked again -- the last time he ever did in his long, happy life -- and put his nose down to the sniff out where the string had been re-covered by leaves and sticks. Jake looked back at the strange line of trees but they had disappeared and were replaced with a totally normal section of woods. He heard the birds chirping again, the wind bit at his face and the sun was almost gone behind the mountain in the far west. He and Calvin jogged back to their apartment and as Jake went to grab the door handle to go back into his living room, he breathed a final sigh of relief. Maybe this wasn't his perfect life, but it was the one he had lived so far, and he could keep going to see where it would end. He opened the door and Calvin rushed in before he could even open it more than a quarter of the way. [[The End<-Jake followed]].
(display: "doors visited")
The End