“Oh good!” Dumas exclaimed, relieved to see that the portal hadn’t closed while he was away.  “It’s still here.”<br/><br/>Behind the bushes that Meryl had noticed shaking earlier, a large hole opened into the ground, like the burrow of a giant rabbit.  At first glance, it seemed completely dark.  But if someone was brave enough to stand on its rim and peer downwards, they’d catch glimpses of strange objects tumbling about in its depths.<br/><br/>“This is how I get home,” Dumas announced cheerfully, tugging Meryl closer and closer to the hole’s edge.  “It’s a portal between worlds.  We have lots of them in Wonderland, leading to all sorts of places.”  Dumas’s voice lowered a bit, as if he was confiding a great secret.  “I’ve actually never travelled through one before today.  It looks scary at first, but it’s actually fun.”<br/><br/>Unfortunately, the nice girl and her companion still seemed a bit unsure.  Dumas was worried that they might decide to remain behind.  But he really,<span style="font-style: italic">really </span>wanted to take them both to the tea party.  So he tried to remember what had finally given him the courage to go through a portal.  Oh, that was right -- Cheshire had pushed him.  Reaching out, Dumas caught Meryl’s other hand, holding both of them in his own.  Then he took a step backwards, toppling into the portal and pulling her along with him.<br/><br/>*****<br/><br/>As they walked, Andre seemed to slip away into his ‘sad place’ -- at least, that was how Deidre always thought of it.  She imagined it being a locked room hidden deep inside his heart.  What it contained, she couldn’t guess, since Andre had never even hinted.  Probably the ghost of a tragedy older than she was.  But whatever lived there, it still held a strong power over Andre.  Although she wasn’t afraid of the cars, Deidre clasped Andre’s hand in her own, giving it a gentle squeeze.<br/><br/>“It’s about Dumas,” Deidre began, hoping the topic would distract Andre from his own sorrow.  “You know that I’ve always tried to protect him.”  Perhaps, in retrospect, she’d protected him too much.  Perhaps the vulnerability which now worried her had been her own creation.  But she’d never wanted anything except what was best for him.  “The thing is, we’re not children anymore...not really.  And there comes a time when a brother and sister can no longer be everything to each other, if you know what I mean.”<br/><br/>Deidre paused, both physically and verbally.  They’d come to a gap in the stone path under their feet.  On the far side of the gap, a strange lantern was mounted on a post, periodically flashing the crude silhouette of someone frozen in mid-stride.  As Deidre watched, the color of the silhouette shifted from green, to yellow, to red.  But aside from being pretty, she had no idea if those changes signified anything at all.<br/><br/>“I’ve seen the way he shivers whenever that devious cat is around.  And don’t even get me started on the way he fawns over the Queen.  If he knew what that bitch did to our parents…”  Deidre shook her head.  She was proud of her manners and very rarely cursed.  But the Queen of Hearts brought out the worst in her.  “Anyway, the point is that I don’t want to him getting involved with someone who’s just going to chew him up and spit him out.  Not for his first romance.  I think someone’s first romance should be special, don’t you, Aybee?”  Looking up at her companion’s face, Deidre searched it for some sign of agreement.