The Doors Of Fate

She stood in front of the doors. They were both white, without any markings or scuffs on them. The metal handle of each shone in the flickering light overhead. 

She gulped. This decision would change her life forever. 

Just choose a door, Josephine, she could hear her mother saying. They’re both the right choice. You can’t pick the wrong door.

She looked back at the one-way mirror. She imagined her mother glaring at her, willing her to open a door. Any door. 

She imagined her father on his tablet, checking his emails and refreshing the page when there were none left. Her father always had work emails. He always had work.

But today, today was about her. Jo. And her father was sitting there, wanting to be at work, while she stood in front of the doors not doing anything. Just staring at them.

Jo wondered if she stared at the doors long enough, would she find something different about them? Maybe the left door would have a speck of light gray paint on the handle. Maybe the right one would have a sliver of light underneath.

“You have one hour remaining.”

The voice startled her out of her imagination. One hour. She had been in here for thirty minutes?

She looked at the mirror again. Her mother was probably napping. Jo could almost hear her mother’s peaceful snore. The way her nostrils flared out when she let out a breath. 

She pushed herself out of mind and turned back around. The doors. The doors that would supposedly seal her fate. 

Is the same thing behind both of them, she wondered. Have they already decided my fate?

She moved towards the left door. Maybe, Jo thought, something good is behind it because everyone picks the right door. Maybe they want to know if we can make choices different from everyone else.

She stopped. Did she really want to open the left door? Or the right one? Maybe she shouldn’t. Maybe she should go out the one that said “exit”. 

Or, maybe I shouldn’t, Jo thought. Would it be smart to give up?

No, she decided. No, that wouldn’t be smart.

So she turned away from the door that said “exit” and faced the two doors again. Left or right. Right or left. 

This shouldn’t be hard, Jo told herself. They’re just doors. I open doors every day. 

But it was hard, and Jo knew it. If she picked the wrong door, maybe she would get sucked into lava. Or maybe crocodiles would eat her. But if she picked the right door, she had a life of happiness ahead of her. Or maybe she didn’t. Maybe they didn’t like her and there was lava behind both doors. 

They, she thought. Who are they?

No one knew. They were in charge. They weren’t the government. They were some different organization that did this. Decided fate.

We should get to choose our fate, Jo’s brother had said once. Jo had immediately shushed him. Someone might hear. They might hear. But her brother had thrown a pillow at her and ran away, like nothing happened.

The right door, she thought. The right door has to be the one. The right door is the one on the right. Only someone smart enough to have a good fate would figure that out. Right?

But she knew that this play on words was said in playgrounds, schools, and just about everywhere else. It was expected to go through the right door. 

Jo decided she’d had enough standing around. She looked at the right door. Then the left. The right. She finally decided and opened the door that led to her fate.

“Josephine?” the person on the other side of the door asked. She could barely make out the shape of the person talking to her in the dark, and their voice could be male or female.

“That’s me,” Jo said. “But I prefer Jo.”

The person ignored her and asked, “Which door did you go through?”

Jo looked behind her. She had been right. The two doors led to the exact same spot.

“Left,” she said.

The person clicked their pen and wrote something down on a tablet Jo didn’t know was there.

“Your time is one hour and twenty-six minutes,” the person said. 

“Um, thanks, I guess?” Jo said. The person nodded. 

“Follow me,” the person said. They flicked a switch, and the room instantly lit up. 

Jo could now see that the person was a woman. Her bright red hair was pulled up in a high ponytail, and her face had a startling lack of makeup. She was wearing an emerald green sweater with heels that were covered by her jeans.

The woman led Jo down a hallway. She noticed that there were two different hallways; one for the left door and one for the right. So maybe the two doors didn’t lead to the same fate.

“My name is Rebecca,” the woman said. “I’ll be your guide through the Hall of Fate.”

“The Hall of Fate?” Jo asked out loud.

“Yes,” Rebecca said. 

“What’s the Hall of Fate?” Jo tried again.

“It is where all of the people who choose the correct door go,” Rebecca said. “Have you heard of a memorial?”

When Jo nodded her head, Rebecca continued.

“This is where we honor the people who have died, but chosen the correct door. Come along to the first person.” Rebecca stopped at an urn covered with intricate designs. 

“This urn contains Greta,” Rebecca said. “She was the first Destiner.”

“What’s a Destiner?” Jo asked. 

“A Destiner,” Rebecca said, “is what I am. A Destiner leads one to their fate.”

Jo examined the urn. She realized that if she looked close enough, she could see a person holding someone else’s hand. They were walking down a hallway, and at the end was someone celebrating.

It’s the story of what Destiners do, Jo realized. They lead people to happiness.

“Let’s go to the next one,” Rebecca said. She walked to another urn, this one just black. 

“This is Xander’s ashes,” Rebecca said. “He created this.”

“The Hall of Fate?” Jo asked.

“No,” Rebecca answered. “All of it. The doors, the mirror, the exit.”

“So exit was an option, then?” Jo asked.

“Yes,” Rebecca said, “and no. Anyone who goes through the exit is someone not willing to meet fate.”

Jo wanted to say that maybe they were someone who thought outside the box, but she sensed that Rebecca was someone you wanted on your good side. 

“Who created the Hall of Fate, then?” Jo asked instead.

“Ah,” Rebecca said. She walked over to another urn, this one off-white with drawings of urns on it. “Penn. She was married to Xander for a little while, and when she divorced him, she created this place.”

“Why am I here?” Jo asked suddenly. “Is this place really important? Does it impact my fate?”

Rebecca smiled, like she had expected Jo to say that.

“You’re here to learn,” Rebecca said.

“But I’ve spent ten years in school!” Jo said. “My learning is done.”

“That is where you are wrong, Josephine,” Rebecca said, smiling. “One’s learning is never over.

“As I was saying,” Rebecca continued, “you are here to learn about your ancestors. The people whose footsteps you will follow in.

“To answer your second question, this place is really important. This is where us Destiners come each Day of Destiny.”

Jo opened her mouth to speak, but Rebecca shushed her. “Questions after.”

“The answer to your third question,” Rebecca said, “is no. No, this place does not affect your fate. I brought you here as a test. To see how you would react. To see if you are fit to be a Destiner.”

“And am I?” Jo asked. 

“That,” Rebecca said, “is to be determined.”

Rebecca led Jo to a door. 

“Open it,” she said.

“Why?” Jo asked. 

Rebecca clicked her pen and wrote something down on her tablet. Once she was satisfied with her note, she opened the door, and Jo stared at what was in front of her.

It was a whole room. Of people. They were packed in so tight that Jo couldn’t believe they were breathing. 

But maybe they weren’t.

Jo walked up to one and touched them. Her finger went right through. She walked through the people and found the source of the hologram. Once she pushed the right button, the people disappeared and an empty room took their place, with cold concrete floors and perfect white walls.

Rebecca came in after taking a note of what Jo had done, then said, “Choose a door.” Then Rebecca vanished. Jo jumped.

“Rebecca?” she asked. “Rebecca, where are you?” Then she realized what Rebecca was. A hologram, just like the people.

Jo grabbed the pen that had fallen to the floor and found the button for the hologram on the side. She pushed it. Rebecca didn’t come back.

She looked around her surroundings. This time, there were five. Five choices. 

She decided she wouldn’t think this through. She would go with her gut. Jo swallowed and opened the leftmost door.