Chapter 3

Sarah stood staring into the door which seem to lead to another world. “Sam! Sam come QUICKLY!!!!” she yelled excitedly in the direction of the other rooms. Trying to not get so excited as to leave she stood waiting for him to return.

Sam was in the middle of a book when Sarah yelled for him. He joined her soon as he could. “What Sarah? I was reading…Oh my gosh!” he freaked out when he saw the door and the world. “You found it! You found The Secret Door! It does exist I can not believe what I am seeing. What are we waiting for? Let’s go explore it!” He said with a smile.

When they began to walk through the door closed itself before popping out a key for them to get back through. “That was super strange. Look at it. Its like it was not there at all. The sky and the grass come together and you can not hardly see where it was located. Except notice this right here so we can see it later on. There is a crack if you look closely. I hope we can figure out how to get back here. What should we do to mark it so we can find it?” Sarah was looking around her for something to put there.

“We could put a stick? No. A stone? No. Um. This is not an easy thing to try to figure out. If we don’t put something we might not get back. If we do and it gets moved then the whole purpose of it will be gone too. Oh dear Sarah think think think!” Sam was freaking out looking at the spot that was barely there and where he was.

Suddenly Sarah had an idea. “Hey I have an idea Sam. It will not be easy but I was thinking about putting one of my empty notebooks right here! Right by the bush. It should not be hard to see and I do not think anyone will happen over here. But we really need a better way to find this so we can get back. Wish there was like an instruction manual for doors. Haha.” Sarah laughed out loud at her own idea and Sam just smiled at her. “Yeah, instruction manual that makes sense seeing we found a door to a world…hey what about those journals? We should keep reading them when we get home later of if we have issues maybe there is something in them about how to get in and how to mark the door so we can see it better?” Sam was thinking while Sarah looked through one of the journals the one on top from their dad.

“Okay Sam dad wrote in his about it. ‘I have noticed the door once in the secret planet…’ Planet?” Sarah stopped reading to look shocked at Sam. “I thought it was just a secret world. Another planet? This is just too crazy!” Sam looked upset “Keep reading Sarah!”

“Oh sorry. ‘the secret planet appears to shut on me and I can not find where to get back to my world. I noticed the crack in the sky and the crack in the grass. But I could not find a way back in. Even with my key nothing worked. It was not till I got home I realized I should have brought with me (had I known I was coming I could have in the first place) some food coloring. The red stains the grass and I can find it better. I do not put a lot down or some other creature will try to leave. But without the key no one can leave here. There should be an instruction manual for this place. I guess in way that is what I am writing here…’ Okay so food coloring. Do you think our Grandparents have any? We should look when we get back hope we can find it…” Sarah looked at the spot where she had laid her notebook.

“They should have some. Lets just get going. I do not want to be here too long and oh my look at that. There are three suns! Sarah. Is this the dream we kept having? I recalled how bizarre it was for three suns. I wonder if there is…” “Two moons?” Sarah concluded looking at him and smiling. “I was dreaming it too all the way. Who knows. We wont find out tonight we have to get back. I wonder what lives here if this is the dream. I dreamt of all kinds of creatures. Our adventures could never end here. We could just keep coming back. Should we be writing this down?” Sarah stared back at her notebook again. “Like for the next generation? This seems to be a generation passed down without telling thing…” She smiled at Sam.  “Sure Sarah. You like to write more than me. You must get that from our parents. You can do it.” Sam smiled patting her arm before starting to walk in the direction of a stream.

“I can not help but wanting to say earth. When we first got here I thought to say to you. ‘Look there is a line across the sky touching the EARTH.’ But that is not right. We are not on earth. What is this planet? See I knew there was life on other planets!” Sam was just too excited for words. “Who knew hiding in a creepy huge house was a door…well I guess our grandfather and dad did…this is so insane. I guess we can not tell anyone. They never did. Just letting everyone discover it for themselves. Wonderful family secret!” Sam pointed to the sky. “So three suns. Two moons. Strange creatures. Like a strange book come true.”

The kids walked for some time pointing out different things to each other. Some similar to earth some not. “What kind of tree is that?” Sarah asked Sam pointing to a tree she had never seen. The leaves where not shaped like leaves they were shaped more like well trees. “I have never seen a tree like that on earth! This is so great. We must keep a leaf for our notebook. Think I can pick one? They seem to hang low…hang on I got one!” Sam waved it triumph at his sister and placed it in the notebook she was holding. “We will press it later!” He smiled at her big. Sarah just smiled at him in agreement. “Yeah good idea genius. Hope it is not like that rule about not taking things from places. Wait I am thinking like an earthling again haha” Sarah laughed at her own joke.  “Well I want to name this tree. Let is us call it. ‘Tree Tree’. Haha. Now that IS funny!” Sam was laughing so hard he could hardly stop. Sarah just rolled her eyes. “Tree Tree?” Seriously? That makes no sense at all. That’s like calling this leaf ‘leaf leaf’. What if humans did that. ‘I am a human human.’ See? Makes no sense. I think we should call it. Twin Tree. I like that better. Kind of like us. A tree shaped like its leaves. Twin Tree!” Sarah smiled at her genius idea. “Okay Sarah Twin Tree it is. We need to find ‘Twin Tree’ in order to be back on the path to the door just recall that.” Sarah winked “Easy Peasy”

Suddenly a strange creature darted towards them. At first they thought it was a rabbit but it looked almost human… “What was that? It just ran past and kept going. But it stopped for a minute. It looked like a little person. Very freaky Sarah! We need to read those journals better later so we know what is coming up when we see it. Kind of an ID for animals and stuff!” Sam looked upset at Sarah. Sarah on the other hand smiled at her brother. “I could be wrong but I think it was a brownie. That or a fairy. But it did not have wings. Don’t you read any kind of fantasy books? What kind do you read? You are a boy and I always thought fantasy was more for boys!” Sarah looked disguised at the fact she was reading boy books. Sam looked at the spot it had been again as if hoping it would reappear. “I have read a few fantasy books of course I have. I like all kinds of boy books I am a boy after all! Just cause you are a tom boy does not mean I am not a boy!” Sam looked upset. “I am NOT a tom boy. I dress like a girl. I dress like. Oh for crying out loud. I am a tom boy. I dress like you. Sometimes I hate being twins with a BOY!” Sarah stormed off in a huff.

“Oh Sarah I was joking. Come on. Sarah?” Sam ran after his sister forgetting to keep an eye on the path where he had been. When he turned around he felt lost. Sarah was sitting by the river crying a little. *Sniff* “It is just how I was raised you know. Boy and Girl all alike named similar. Why could I not be more girly and you more girly too? It is always a tom boy it is never a tom girl!” Sarah looked away wiping her tears with a tissue. “It is okay to be a tom boy. I bet when we get older you will grow out of it. We CAN dress different there is no rule now that we are getting older…” Sam said with a smile. “By the way did you keep an eye on the path. I barely did. Maybe we should turn around soon?” Sarah looked around trying to recall which way she had ran. “I think we came from that direction! Lets just walk back and see if it where we came from. It has been at least an hour and it was getting so late…” Sam shook his head and the two of them started walking the path back towards where they had come from.

“There is the Twin Tree. We must be going the right way. I hope…” Sam said looking nervous. “Unless there are more than one twin tree. Lets hope not…oh there is your notebook. Thank god I feel better. I thought we was lost for sure. It is not like being lost in our world. I really did not know where I was going…” Sam fetched the key from his pocket grabbing Sarahs notebook at the same time. “Here Sar is your notebook.” He handed it to her. She put it back in the backpack. Putting the key in the spot they had come the door formed and they stepped through.

“Grandma and Grandpa have to be wondering where we have been. Should we tell him? I mean he did come here. We need to study those books more.” She placed them on her bed just as Grandma yelled for them to come to dinner.

Sam and Sarah walked down the stairs pretending nothing had happened. Both hot from running, and looking a bit dirty they had tried to clean up in one of the other bathrooms hoping to slip by unnoticed. “We can shower later then we should look alright…” Sarah said to Sam before they entered the dinning room. Dinner smelled wonderful after all that.

After dinner while Grandma and Grandpa were relaxing by the television the kids talked things over in the other room.

“So when do you want to go back? Tomorrow? I do not think that they will notice if we spend another day here and not do anything. We start school in just 3 days so there is not a lot of time to explore there like I wish we had. But I am SO going to go back even while we have school. Even for an hour a day can you imagine? Time stands still there. We could go there for hours and not even be noticed to be gone. So it really is a great place to be at!” Sam was very excited about his plans.

Sarah was thinking. “We can actually do whatever we want. As you pointed out they do not notice us being there because of the time thing so we could go there tomorrow morning and hang out all day there. Come back here and go to the library or something else look normal. It will be exhausting almost like living oh my…two lives! I can not wait to go back and explore. I think we should spend tonight pouring over those two notebooks we found and the other two as well who wrote those? Oh that’s right it was them they each wrote two okay so you can take one set I will take the other. I advise we write down in our own notebooks the things that were of interest to us and keep it with us. I do not want to leave them there by accident. And do not forget the food coloring tomorrow!” Sarah stood to go and get the notebooks from her bag.

“So who you want? Dad or Grandpa?” She whispered to Sam. Sam thought about it for a minute. “Well I spent some time with Grandpa I can take dad for the studying we can switch too if we get bored each do one of each.” Sam smiled. “Yeah I like that. Switching. Okay here is yours and here is mine. We will do the second ones together too…” Sarah handed them each a notebook and a second one to write in along with two pens.

The next few hours the kids read quietly taking notes on the side. They had agreed to share their notes before switching so they knew which way they were going. And then to switch the note taking notebooks as well just making sure to divide them up so they knew who had written who. “I think we should use to different colored inks okay. Do you want black or blue?” Sam held up the pens. “Um. I like black for some reason if you do not mind?” Grabbing the two black pens Sarah settled down while Sam took the blue ones.

Right before bed the twins had gone to their room to get ready then settled in the notebooks to share before bed. “Okay I am done for the night and wanted to share. How about you? Sam you done?” Sarah was staring at her brother who was still writing in his notebook. He looked up. “Sure. Um. Nothing that will help us just basically he list the creatures he saw without names just looked like described them, things he did, how to get in and out of the planet, and something about the evil one there was not a lot of details just lightly mentioned it. Maybe the next notebook will tell more…” Sam set his down and waited for Sarah.

“Well mine are much the same as yours. At the end he started to mention the second door and I think there is more in the second notebook. But no mention of the evil one. I am starting to think that this planet is huge and maybe Grandpa did not spend as much time with it as our father did so they do not know have the same information after all. This is good. I am sure we will come across our own stuff so I do not want to use these are the only thing to describe stuff. It will be a lot more fun exploring. I think we should just go ahead and return tomorrow and then read the others after. Sound good to you?” Sarah had just gotten done speaking with Grandma and Grandpa came in to say good night.

“Wanted to tell you good night kids.” Grandpa said and went back out. “Sorry about that. He’s in a hurry something is coming on television now he wanted to see. I made him come in.” She laughed to herself. “Okay kids, bed time story or just going to go to sleep? You have been busy all day today do you want to stay in tomorrow or do you not know yet?” She smiled at them both.

“Stay in for the morning. I thought in the afternoon we could go to the library again? Maybe get some lunch and go skating or something?” Sarah replied with a big smile. “Yeah that sounds good.” Sam agreed. “Okay sounds like a plan. I am so glad to see you two smiling and busy instead of being so sad. It can not be easy what happened to you. I was thinking you might benefit from a grief group I located in down town for kids who lost someone close to them. Would you like more information on this? It meets once a week and I can go with you so you do not have to go alone. Talking about it should help you heal…” She looked at them sad. “We will let you know next week then. I might be okay with it. How about you, Sam?” Sarah turned to her brother. Sam shrugged looking away for a minute. “Yeah I think that might be a good idea…” He agreed.

Turning off the light the kids both fell into deep sleeps. Dreaming of planets, and things they might see the next day. They both knew they would wake up early again just from being so excited.

The next morning it was not the sun that woke them but their grandparents. “Kids? Are you up yet? Its nearly noon!” Grandma looked worried. Whispering to Grandpa “They never get up this late! Are they alive?” She really was serious. Grandpa chuckled to himself. “I am sure they are fine” he whispered back. Sam and Sarah both sat up at the same time and looked at other. Hair sticking up, eyes all sleepy. “Sorry we over slept. I think we are exhausted! I do feel better” Sam said with a smile. Sarah smiled too. “Yeah I believe we got like 12hrs of sleep. I have not slept that long since the last time I got sick!”

“So do you want breakfast still or do you want lunch? I did not make anything when you were not both waiting for me when I got up so it is up to you… Or we could go out to eat get some brunch if you want?” Grandma was smiling as the kids got ready for the day. “Um. We could go out and come back that would be fine.” Sarah said, Sam just agreed.

Grandma took the twins first to go get ‘brunch’ which was really just a restaurant they knew well that served breakfast and lunch. “Dennys!” the twins got excited going to eat their favorite place to go. Next they hit up some shops. The kids had to buy some more stuff for school including a list of supplies they had been sent in the mail. Finally the library where the kids had spent a good half hour browsing for books for their adventures and then a few books to read. Returning the books they had read before leaving they finally got ready to go home.

“You kids sure love to read! I am so glad. Children who enjoy reading will do better in life. That is a fact. I know because I was a very smart child and so was your grandpa. We both loved to read and still do. I also do crossword puzzles. Keeps the brain healthy!” She said smiling and pointing to her head. The kids laughed. Grandma had picked up ice cream on the way to the car for the kids. “You know its never too cold for this stuff is it?” She said with a wink as they ate their cones on the way to the car. The snow had stopped finally and was soft to walk on the fresh layers hardly sticking to their shoes at all.

 Coming home right before dinner with shopping bags and books treasures to them. “Guess we can go explore later…” Sam said to Sarah when Grandma was not paying attention.

After dinner while their grandparents relaxed Grandma knitting, Grandpa reading a book. The kids slipped upstairs to do some exploring again. It was then that they realized they could not recall which room had the door in it. “Uh it was one of the two on the left I am sure of it. I found the door!” Sarah was looking frustrated. But after several minutes and neither room working she looked at Sam for help. Together they searched in his rooms too and finally found it.

“Well that is SO going in my notebook. The door moves and does not stay where it was the last time. So odd. Really freaked me out.” Sarah looked upset but gathered together her stuff in the backpack to prepare to go. “Hang on I forgot the food coloring. Be right back!” Sam ran down stairs returning few minutes later with red & blue coloring, and to water bottles. “Okay lets begin our second journey.” He said with a smile.