Abe's father, Jonas, was a salesman, but he never so much as held a nexus chip or piloted a shuttle. What he had sold was much more precious.

What he once sold was life itself.

He sold it from his office – which was both infinitely huge and immeasurably small, on account of the fact that it existed in a place outside of both space and time – and dealt out "life" to the poor unfortunates, who came to him time and again.
Technically, this realm was not quite the beginning of existence – but it was so close that he had often fancied it could be seen on a clear day...