Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

Wallace was leaning on. Wallace didn’t flinch when Nelson reached up and
cupped his face. His hands were warm. “Be proud of what you’ve
accomplished, Wallace. You’ve earned that right.”
“I’m scared,” Wallace whispered. “I don’t mean to be, but I am.”
“I know you are,” Nelson said. “I am too. But as long as we’re together,
we can help each other until the end. Our strength will be your strength. We
won’t carry you because you don’t need us to. But we’ll be by your side.”
Then, “Can I ask you something?”
Wallace nodded as Nelson dropped his hands.
“If things were different, and you were still … here. I don’t know how.
Say you took a trip on your own, and you ended up in our little town. You
found your way to this tea shop, and Hugo was as he was, and you were as
you were. What would you do?”
Wallace laughed wetly. “I’d probably make a mess of things.”
“Of course you would. But that’s the beauty of it, don’t you think? Life is
messy and terrible and wonderful, all at the same time. What would you do if
Hugo was before you and there was nothing stopping you? Life or death or
anything else. What would you do?”
Wallace closed his eyes. “Everything.”
Depression hit on the second morning, brief though it was. Wallace allowed
himself the sadness that stirred within him, remembering how Hugo had told
him grief wasn’t only for the living. He stood on the back deck, watching the
sunrise. He could hear Hugo and Mei moving around in the kitchen. Hugo had
wanted to close the shop for the day, but Wallace told him to go on as he
always did. He had Mei on his side, and Hugo finally relented, though he
wasn’t happy about it.
The sunlight filtered through the trees, melting the thin layer of frost on the
ground. He gripped the railing as the light stretched toward him. It touched
his hands first. And then his wrists, and arms, and finally his face. It warmed
him. It calmed him. He hoped wherever he was going that there’d still be the
sun and the moon and the stars. He’d spent a majority of his life with his head
turned down. It seemed only fair that eternity would allow him to raise his
face toward the sky.