CHAPTER 1: The Crossing That Was Already Complete

The ferry moved before Caleb expected it to.

He had stepped onto the dock just after dawn, the lake stretched wide and still before him, its surface barely disturbed by the faint morning breeze. The ferry was tied loosely to the post, lantern unlit, deck empty.

Caleb checked his watch.

The schedule posted nearby listed no times.

Only a single line beneath the heading:

Crosses when needed.

Caleb stepped aboard.

The wooden deck creaked softly under his weight, not in protest, but acknowledgment. He set his bag down near the bench and looked out across the water. The opposite shore was visible but distant—close enough to imagine reaching, far enough to feel separate.

The ferry drifted free.

No engine started.

No signal sounded.

It simply began to move.

Caleb turned, startled.

The rope had loosened on its own, sliding free of the post as though guided by familiarity rather than force. The ferry glided forward, water parting gently at its bow.

Caleb did not touch anything.

He stood still.

The lake carried the ferry forward without urgency.

Halfway across, Caleb noticed something strange.

The shoreline behind him did not feel farther away.

Nor did the one ahead feel closer.

The ferry occupied a space that felt detached from progress.

Balanced.

When the ferry reached the opposite dock, it slowed naturally and came to rest.

Caleb waited.

Nothing instructed him to disembark.

He stayed seated.

After a long moment, the ferry drifted back in the direction it had come.

By the time it returned to the original dock, the sun had lifted fully above the hills.

Caleb stepped off.

The ferry tied itself once more, rope settling neatly around the post.

The lantern remained unlit.

Later that morning, a man approached the dock and glanced at Caleb.

“You took the crossing,” the man said.

“Yes.”

“Did you get where you were going?”

Caleb considered the question carefully.

“I think so,” he replied.

The man nodded. “Then it worked.”

Caleb looked back at the ferry.

It waited quietly, as though nothing unusual had happened.

But Caleb understood now.

The ferry did not exist to move people across the lake.

It existed to give them time where movement did not matter.