Chapter 1

Zoe looked at Cynthia. Cynthia looked at the portal. Fifteen minutes turned into 16... 17... 20... 25 ... half an hour ... a whole hour.

“Umh ... what’s going on?” Zoe asked.

“I have no idea,” Cynthia said.

“Why not?”

“Well ... we weren’t even born when daddy didn’t come back,” Cynthia dithered. “Mom used to sit in the portal and wait. Then she started going in and out.”

“Try it,” Zoe said.

“Ah ... you try it,” Cynthia countered.

“He’s your brother,” Zoe countered back.

“He’s your husband. You do it.”

“It’s your family party trick ... you do it.”

“Well ... if you guys are going to sit there and argue about it.” Krys stepped up to the portal ... and bounced back. Nothing. Well ... not nothing ... she bumped her nose on the mirror. “Ow!” She rubbed it.

“When the three of them went in they didn’t have a problem.” She rubbed it again and looked it her hand ... no blood. Just snot. “So ... how does this thing work?”

“I don’t know,” Zoe said. “Ask the sister.”

“I don’t know ... I just had the watch ... JW had the portal manual. I never read it.”

“Ah ... a manual ... where is it?” Krys asked. She was checking the straightness and perfection of her nose in the mirror ... but listening.

“Umh ... it’s not really a manual ... it’s a journal ... Dad wrote it ... and mom wrote some of them.” Cynthia said, “And several handbooks.”

“Handbooks?”

“From the package.”

Krys crossed her arms and started tapping her foot ... for quite a while. Finally, both Zoe and Cynthia stopped glaring at each other and looked at Krys.

“What?”

“You have a manual ... and you’re still sitting here?”

“Oh.” Like twins.

Zoe lived in one stateroom in the starboard hull. Cynthia lived in the port side hull. They scattered.

Zoe scrounged up the booklets and Cynthia found the journals ... and the original packaging. They ALMOST saluted Krys when they presented her with the paperwork.

“Disinterested party here. You do it.”

Tyke looked at mom ... and then Krys.

“Mom ... Mom? Mommy!” She kicked Zoe in the shin.

“What?” Then Zo rubbed her shin. “I’m busy.”

“Mommy ... I’m hungry,” She didn’t look at her mother ... she looked at Krys.

“Brownies in the galley,” Krys said. “Let’s go look.”

“Don’t spoil your lunch!” Zoe said.

Krys looked at her watch. “What lunch? It’s 2 in the afternoon. We missed it.”

Zoe just waved her hand. “Go, Kris ... would you please fetch some coffee?”

“And some brownies,” said Cynthia. “And a glass of sweet tea.”