The Door to Tomorrow

Surreal Perplexity pt. 2

I wanted to scream for Joseph, but when I spoke, no sound came out. My body soon froze in place and my eyelids felt heavy. For a second I thought I was going to wake up, but instead one of Joseph's memories appeared in my head.

In front of me was a younger Joseph stricken with grief. His entire body was trembling. He had difficulty standing, talking, and even breathing. Despite the latter ,he still managed to repeatedly ask "Is this my fault?" and "What did I do wrong?".

"You can't do this! You can't just get up and leave me― I mean, us..." Joseph's tears began to fall. He was speaking to someone standing near the doorway on the right, who turned out to be my grandpa.

"I'm sorry, Jojo," Grandpa sighed. "Please don't make this harder than it needs to be."

"Why did you even tell me about this?" Joseph raised his voice before feebly falling to the floor.

"Because you need to know. This is all very important, and you know that. Even moments like these are crucial. You'll need to reflect on this again and again—"

"Whatever. You didn't even see this coming," Joseph pointed out.

"Jojo—"

"How could you not know? What the fuck? I showed you, I told you, and yet you still didn't _________ ___ __ ____ ________!"

"...I know. I'm just as shocked as you are. I can't believe I missed a major detail like that."

"And you're leaving because ___ _________ just so happens to be ____ ________ ? That's kind of fucked up. ____ doesn't deserve this."

"..."

"What are you even going to do out there?"

"I don't know," Grandpa shook his head. "All I know is that you still have to complete your own mission, as well. Before you do, I would like to ask you to keep your distance from _______."

"W-Why?" Joseph sobbed like a baby. The raw emotion conveyed by his weeping was painful to listen to.

"Just to be safe!" Grandpa began. "It won't be like this forever, but for now, please stay away from everyone associated with me and keep my whereabouts a secret."

"What am I even supposed to do while you're gone?"

"You just need to focus on your job and find a decent therapist."

"Coco, please!" Joseph was basically laying on the floor at that point. He crawled forward and stretched out his arm in an attempt to latch onto Mr. Kingsley. When that first attempt failed, Joseph desperately grabbed onto his legs exactly as mentioned in the corresponding journal entry. "I can't live without you. You're all I have right now," he wailed.

Grandpa's eyes widened in some sort of realization as he looked down at Joseph. "Something tells me you'll be able to move on sometime soon." With that, Grandpa broke free from Joseph's grip. A few moments later, he approached the fancy wooden door and recited the same line I read earlier.

"I won't visit you anymore, but I will still be able to communicate with you. We will meet again someday, but it'll be a while before then. Wait for me, okay?"

"Don't you dare!" Joseph shouted right before sullen Grandpa turned the doorknob. "Do you not understand how much we need you here?"

"Goodbye, Jojo." Grandpa's light blue eyes were filled to the brim with tears. He opened the door, revealing somewhat cloudy skies outside. He walked through the doorway and gently closed the door behind him, leaving devastated Joseph behind.

Joseph let out exasperated sigh and pulled on his hair. He seized his glasses from a nearby coffee table and launched them across the room, then punched the hard living room floor. He then crawled toward a desk on his right and opened its bottom drawer. He pulled out a book and pen, then lay down in front of the door's entrance. He wrote half of the entry with his quivering right hand, and when he shifted into a different position, he began writing with his left.