She pulled up in his driveway, and looked at him.

“Do you think we’d get a glimpse of this gateway, if we went into the garden tonight?” she asked, “I’ll still come over and see you off tomorrow.”

“It stands out more at night actually. It glows in the dark, if you’re close enough to see it.”

He led her inside, collected a lantern, and then turned on the porch lights. They walked down to the edge of the garden, and then crawled through the undergrowth, until they came to a small glowing circular gateway. It was not as if they could actually see it, but he had remembered where his tiny earth-T girlfriend had come through it. Louise leaned down and tried to peek through it.

“You can’t see anything from this side. You have to go through,” he said.

She put her hand through a little way, but her palm was too wide to fit.

“Let’s hope nobody’s near the other side,” he said, “I think a giant lady’s hand might surprise them a lot.”

“I showed you my Girls Club hut all those years ago, and now you’ve shown me this. It’s amazing,” she said. He led her back to the porch, and offered her a cup of herbal tea. They went inside and drank together, and then she prepared to go. She stopped on his doorstep and looked at him.

“I’ve only just met up with my child friend again. You’re all grown up, and you’re going to another world.”

She put her arms around him and gave him a friendly hug.

If he hadn’t been chasing a girl from another world, his feelings would have been very much at risk, knowing that she had been dating Phil for a long time. As it was, there was something exciting about being in the company of a pretty lady who was years older than him, someone who had known him when he had been just a boy. He found himself imagining what might have happened, if she had not been dating Phil, if he had not met the tiny girl, if they had reunited this very day, and fallen in love. Then he realised something. He had fallen in love with her. There was no reason to go on thinking about it, but he could not deny the fact that he loved her that little bit more than he loved the tiny girl. However, she was engaged, and the tiny girl was the first pretty girl who had ever returned his affections. If he was that envious of the now adult former Girls Club member’s engagement, then his best option was to go ahead and get engaged himself.

He was so lost in these thoughts, that he had forgotten just how long they had been hugging each other.

“I’d best let you go to sleep,” she said, “What time are you going to leave in the morning?”

“Around the middle of the day if your shrinking idea works,” he said, “Why don’t you come over at noon for lunch, and then we’ll go down to the gateway?”

“Alright. I’ll see you just before 12.”