. . .

Hindi

The three of them stand before me. Past, present, and future. I can choose what I want. First, I choose past.

Child of a mapmaker. My father moves around a lot, and I move with him. Floating down the river in a raft. Flying sometimes. Travelling, seeing the next shore and the next hill. Mapmaking sounds like such a dull profession. Not like he does it. Mapmaking isn't his job, it's his excuse. My mother leaves him, leaves me, after a while. She can't take it, the constant new sights. She wants to be still for a while. I visit her sometimes. My father never does. He never goes anyplace he's already been. He's been with her already. We travel. I learn the world.

It palls for me too, eventually. I stop, start going to school. I am behind on some things, but far ahead on others. I pick a job, an excuse, for myself as well. Anthropology. Study of ancient civilizations. I travel all over, seeing the world, like my father before me, but slowly, seeing the remains of the lost. I find an ancient artifact here, a scroll there. Clues scattered across the world in tombs and treasure chests. They lead me here.

The three of them stand before me. Past, present, and future. I can choose what I want. Second, I choose present.

I fight my way in, through the jungle that surrounds this place. I know much about the dangers, but I also know much about the rewards. I risk the dangers. I arrive at the center, the temple. The center of everything, the legends say, but I don't care about that. I care only for the three. With the three I can discover everything. Anthropology hasn't prepared me properly for the traps, but I manage to make it past them all. A wound in my side, clumsily bound, that's all. But, eventually, I arrive. At the center.

The three of them stand before me. Past, present, and future. I can choose what I want. Lastly, I choose future.

But there is nothing. Nothing at all.

The three of them stand before me. Past, present, and future. I can choose what I want. But that can't be all! I choose future again.

Still, nothing.

The three of them stand before me. Past, present, and future. I can choose what I want. There is nothing left to choose, however. Literally, nothing. Nothing stands before me now. Everything is hopeless. There is only one thing left.

I can give the three another sacrifice.