Exhausted, I slept fitfully, dreaming that I sat before Brian and Amy and Marci and poured out my heart, confessing all the wrongs I’d done. I opened a TravelGuide and told them what had happened to me. In my dream, first Amy, then Brian, then finally Marci forgave and embraced me. As the dream started to fade, I reached out to hold on to it, to reel it in, but it vanished like smoke from a fire.

My eyes popped open and I lay there, arms stretched upward, biting my lip, robbed of my dream and believing that a dream was all it was and ever would be. The darkness of the night seemed indistinguishable now from the darkness within me.

The next morning I awoke, my head pressed against a warm pillow with black spots. The pillow licked my ear. I got up and rebandaged my aching right hand, pushing away Frodo who kept trying to lick it.

When we set out on the road, I was startled to see the City of Light appear so close. I saw it, heard it, smelled it, tasted it, felt it.

“It looks like it can’t be more than a week away,” I said to Shad. “How could we lose two days’ journey on the road but be closer to our destination?”

“Sometimes you travel farthest when you’re not aware you’re traveling,” Shad said, “when your thoughts and efforts are on the King’s business, not your own. Because you were willing to delay your journey to help Cliff, the King has accelerated your journey. Tell me, Nick. What did you learn the last few days?”

I thought a long time before answering, looking at my feet walking the red road.

“When I first started out in business, I was an investment counselor. I always told people not to be shortsighted. I told them not to look just three months ahead, but thirty years, to their retirement. I advised them to consider how their investments would be paying off in another thirty years. I see now I was shortsighted. I should have asked them how their investments would be paying off in thirty million years. I believe our investment in Cliff will pay off like that, I mean for the long run, in the world beyond.”

Shad smiled. “And you’ve learned the answer to your question.”

“What question?”

“How do you help a billion needy people?”

I thought about it, then nodded. “One at a time.”

Feeling on top of the world, I picked up my pace and came alongside Victoria, Frodo nipping playfully at my heels.

“It was wonderful how you cared for Cliff,” she said. The glow in her eyes warmed me.

I thought about all I’d done for Cliff and how I’d played such a critical role with Gordy. It felt great. I couldn’t help but wonder why most people were unwilling to serve the King.