Max had had a problem with the idea of free will ever since she heard about it at Sunday School.

It seemed like an immense burden to be fully responsible for every little mistake. She liked the story of how God and the Devil made a bet that the latter could break one of the former’s devotees. This meant it was not all us. Some forces acted upon us.

When she was a teenager she had a very vivid dream that she can somehow still remember. She was learning at school about mythology and she dreamt she was faced with the fearsome Sphinx. But instead of asking her to solve a riddle, it offered a choice instead:
1) The Sphinx would tell her if this was a dream or reality
2) It would tell her the purpose of HER life
Scared of the implications of choice no 2 she requested 1, instead.
“Fine, the Sphinx nodded. The answer is: it is both”.
She remembers waking up confused and coming down with a fever later that evening. She didn’t know what to make of it.

When she was in her twenties a young man courted her and eventually asked her to marry him. Scared of making the wrong choice she ran away.
She contended later that since free will was just an illusion(she decided it was), there was no choice to make.
Later on she met someone very persistent and she married him and they had a daughter.

When she was in her fifties, her daughter, now a grown woman, asked her why she chose to have her.
“It was never a choice, my darling. The Universe wanted you to be born”.
“Strange but somehow reassuring.”

A few years later she fell terribly ill and went into a coma. During her long sleep she dreamt of the Sphinx again.
“Are you happy with your choice” it asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Years ago you chose to be free to make your own way, instead of having a preset fate.”
“Now I offer another one: would you like to keep down this path or start again?”
“I am giving you a choice rarely offered to humans, the choice to be born.”

Max never woke up again.