The Doors of Janus
Janice had a lump on the back of her head that grew larger over time, but hurt her less and less. She developed the habit of rubbing it with one finger while thinking, as though it were a pet or a beard. She thought of it as a secret she kept beneath her tawny hair, and whenever Rob would yammer at her, eyes on his game or his phone, she would cock her head and wiggle her fingers into her hair and rub the lump on the back of her head, and she’d feel fine. Which is why it upset her so terribly when Rob complained about the mayonnaise, and she reached back to stroke her lump, and it bit her.
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The Doors of Janus begins in linear time, as Janice discovers a face growing on the back of her head. But that face belongs to a person whose life can only be understood in reverse. The central portion of the novel exists outside of time, in 3-dimensional space. Design is an integral part of the storytelling, necessary to enter a mind where time moves forward and backward at once, a mind both young and old, a mind almost always at war.
