Chapter 15 Home Again
SIX MONTHS LATER …
THE BASEMENT WAS EMPTY when the door appeared on the wall.
As soon as it was there, it looked as if it had been there forever, as solid as any other piece of the house.
The door swung open, framing a girl with black-and-white hair.
She was dressed in a white peplos, and her feet were bare.
She began to step over the threshold and stopped, putting a hand on the doorframe as she momentarily closed her eyes.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “For everything, thank you. You will always be my home.”
The door didn’t answer her in any way. After a moment she took her hand away, opened her eyes, and stepped fully out of the doorway.
The door closed behind her, disappearing.
She didn’t look back, only started for the stairs, moving with the smooth, unhurried steps of someone who had seen the beauty in stillness, and was now trying to remember the good grace of motion, the virtue of being an active participant in her own life.
Grasping the bannister tightly, Nancy Whitman began her progress toward the future, looking forward all the way.