Elsewhere

by Gabrielle Zevin

“My advice to you is to stop being lonely and to stop hating it here. That always works for me,” says the dog. “Oh, and be happy! It’s easier to be happy than to be sad. Being sad takes a lot of work. It’s exhausting.”

Esther smiles. “I think of it like a tree, because every tree is really two trees. There’s the tree with the branches that everyone sees, and then there’s the upside-down root tree, growing the opposite way. So Earth is the branches, growing up to the sky, and Elsewhere is the roots, growing down in opposing but perfect symmetry.