22 La Porte

22 La Porte So, let me get this straight,' said Rockwell, 'You are planning to go back to this "land"—' he made quotation marks with his fingers as he said the last word—'find this "dog"—' again, quotation marks—'and then return him to his owners, whose whereabouts are currently totally and utterly unknown to you?' 'Yes.' And then you are going to ask them if they have seen your father running around somewhere in this land of make- believe?' 'Yes.' And even if this takes you an entire day, that doesn't matter cos time moves much more slowly in this new

world, and so you won't be late for school whatever happens?' 'Yes.' And all the time that you are on this quest, you are going to be wearing your homemade utility belt and looking like a cross between Vincent Van Gogh and Chewbacca the Wookiee. 'You know, the famous artist who cut off his own ear and the tall, hairy character from Star Wars.' Of course I know! And yes, I am going to be wearing my bandolier. Oh, well that's fine then. A perfectly normal thing to do on a Thursday morning before school. 'You don't fancy coming with me then?' She was surprised to discover that the thought of Rockwell helping her on the search was not an entirely unpleasant one. ' Look,' said Rockwell. 'I admit that what happened in the lab yesterday was kind of amazing. Peanut arched an eyebrow. 'OK, it was incredible!' He loosened his tie. But if you expect me to believe that there is an entire illustrated world that exists in parallel to ours, then I'm afraid you are going to be severely disappointed. 'So do you think I'm making it up?' 'I think that lots of very strange things happened

yesterday, and it's only natural that you should have lots of very strange dreams as a result.' He stood up and placed his thumbs under his lapels as if he were holding a pair of invisible braces. 'I think it was Freud that put forward the notion that the motivation behind all dreams is wish-fulfilment, and that the vast majority of dreams occur because of something that happened during the preceding day. "Day Residue" he called it. And I think it was Jung who said that All right, all right. Give it a rest, Google boy.' Peanut stood up and pulled the yellow pencil from the bandolier. 'I think it's time for another one of your controlled experiments.' She walked over to the large roll of paper Blu-Tacked to the wardrobe and drew a picture of a door on it, exactly as she had done the night before. She glanced over at Rockwell, before reaching into the drawing and grabbing the handle. He had a nervous expression. As she turned it, there was a clicking sound and the door opened. Immediately, a strong blast of cold air blew into the room, sending pieces of paper flying in all directions. Rockwell looked stunned. ' Peanut. I will never doubt you again. 'Sure you won't,' she scoffed. 'Come on then, before my room gets even more trashed than it already is.' And with that, they walked through the door and closed it behind them.

As the last piece of paper gently floated to the carpet, Little-Bit Jones tiptoed into the bedroom. She walked over to the drawing of the door, reached in and opened it.