“Once I thought I was going to be an explorer. I would see something new every day. I wanted to go to the bottom of the ocean, I wanted to go to Mars, I wanted to go places people had never even conceived were places to go, I wanted . . .” She trailed off. There was something about him that made her keep talking when normally her guard would be up.

He gave her a look she couldn’t read. Felix gestured toward her. “Let me show you something.”

They walked deeper into the park, past a couple leaning against a large oak tree and kissing. Imagine being so into someone else, Ayanna thought. Their kissing was a duet in two-four time. A small part of the park was fenced off. An unruly patch of woods. Felix helped her hop it, then pulled himself over it. It was darker and quieter.

“Do you remember the doors?” Felix said. “You know the ones.”

She froze, but he wasn’t watching her. His eyes were on the fallen branches and the roots he was navigating over.

“Well, they were real. They let people go to other places. Woods. Meadows. Mountains. All kind of like here but wrong. Beautiful, but wrong. Not a hoax, though. There was even a church upstate.”

Ayanna couldn’t speak. Her mouth was dry. She rubbed the top of her right hand. Was it possible he was leading her toward a door? The desperate rush of wanting to run ahead and see if really, truly, there was another. The nauseated feeling of wanting to stay absolutely put until her heart calmed.

“Anyway, one of the professors here is studying the doors. I mean it’s harder for her to do it than it was a few years ago. If you like adventure, let me show you something cool.”

Felix walked and walked, keeping his hands on the tree trunks to stay balanced. Branches reached for him and still he persisted. Ayanna followed, trying to keep her eyes on his back. The white T-shirt was a little tight and she could see how sharp his shoulder blades were.

In a hollow, there was a little drop of the golden path. Short and twisty, about eight feet long and three feet wide. There was the moss. Some ferns grew next to it. Bright somehow still, despite it being the gloaming time. And on the other side, the high navy grass of the plains. Felix was explaining something, but even though he was close, she couldn’t hear him. Her eyes were on the blue, the gold, the ferns.

“How did this happen?” she finally asked, her voice small and squeaky with confusion.

He didn’t answer. She walked and stood on the path. For a moment, her brain told her she could smell Olivia’s apple shampoo, feel her short fingers against her arm. Ayanna was crying. A voice she didn’t recognize said, “I knew you would come.”