They had agreed a longer holiday was in order but they argued for a quarter of an hour, under the beating sun, about whether it was prudent to go through the portal. Even the little green man, the guardian of the entrance, recommended against it.

"Magical offers that sound too good to be true usually do have some kind of a catch," he said shaking his head.

Helen tugged at Trisha's wrist trying to drag through the stone arch. "Come on," she moaned. "you spent the last three hours in the car complaining about your mid-career burn out. This is a no-brainer."

Trisha resisted like a stubborn bovine refusing to go through a gate. She dug her plastic sandals into the dusty gravel path.

"How can we just pass through an entry and be in a world where we never have to work again? Is someone going to give us money? Are we on one of those TV show set-ups?" She craned her neck looking for hidden cameras among the ruins.

Maybe someone had laced the wine at the last vineyard they had visited with some LSD-like substance or the grapes were radioactive from the nearby Hanover nuclear plant. The temperature gauge on the car had read nearly 100F when they had pulled off to visit this roadside tourist attraction. Maybe they had heatstroke.

"I assure you this is real," said the little green man. "You aren't dreaming."

"What do we have to lose?" asked Helen. "I sure as hell don't want to go back to work on Monday. Or ever."

Trisha wiped the sweat from her brow and glared at the little green man. "Tell us how there came to be a magical portal here?" She motioned to the life-size concrete replica of Stonehenge surrounding them. The archway under the little green man's supervision looked out onto a idyllic pastoral setting. Farmland lined a wide powerful river, swiftly running under a clear blue sky.

"Dunno." He said shrugging his small shoulders. "I just work here."

"Throw caution to the wind, Trish," pleaded Helen. "You are always too uptight about things. We aren't young anymore. Live a little."

Trisha scowled back. The little green man seemed to enjoy fueling their argument. "What do you have to lose, Trisha?" he asked innocently.

"What if we get transported to another planet or back in time to the Stone Age?" asked Trisha.

"That's ludicrous," replied Helen. "Look, we don't know how long this portal will last. Either come with me now or drive back to Seattle alone."

Trisha folded her arms and stood with her legs apart nodding her head 'no.'

"Fine," said Helen.

"Fine," said Trisha, "have fun without me."

"I will," said Helen and she spun on her heel and stepped through disappearing from sight.

Trisha shook her head and rubbed her eyes. 'She must just have stepped around the corner she thought.' She caught sight of Helen's phone lying in the dust under the arch.

"Helen, you dropped your..."Trisha began say as she picked up the phone but she stumbled propelling herself through the archway.

No one said the word 'phone' under the hot sun because no one was there. Not even the little green man.