It was Saturday and the rain was drawing crooked paths on the glass. Grandma's flat smelled of pancakes and the corridor was as long as a train. There was a hat rack at the end, a starburst carpet next to it and a mirror always smiling at passers-by. Zosia was seven and liked to keep everything in order. Franek was five and liked to ask: "And why?" about a hundred things at once. Donut, a fluffy cat with a round moustache, liked anything that rolled: balls of wool, grapes and his own tail. "Shall we play expedition?" suggested Zosia, placing a map drawn with crayons on the carpet. "Here's a sofa-mountain, here's a table-tree, and here's..." "And here is a taj-" Franek bit his lip until he was bitten. "And here's something weird!" On the wall, where there had always been only smooth paint, a small, narrow door had appeared. They weren't tall, more like for a teddy bear. They had a drop-shaped brass handle and three tiny hinges that whispered: tick, tick, tick. "They weren't there yesterday," Zosia said quietly. "For sure." Donut lifted his tail like an antenna and trotted over to the door. He touched the handle with his paw. The handle was cool, and a feeling ran through Zosia's fingers like the first drop of rain on her forehead. A sound fluttered from inside, as if someone was shaking a jar full of bells. "Mum!" cried Franek towards the kitchen. "We're in the hallway!" "Stay close, darling," replied Mum's voice. "And don't open... um... anything that isn't ours." Zosia looked at the door. "It's probably ours, because it's in our hallway," she whispered. "But we'll do it smart. Plan!" The plan was simple: Zosia took the dinosaur-shaped torch, Franek took the green peas umbrella, and Pod took... his tail. Zosia put a cup of water next to the door and wrote on the floor with chalk: "We were here - Z and F + P". She hung a red ribbon on the doorknob for reassurance. "Ready?" Zosia tried the doorknob. It didn't budge. "Maybe we should knock?" prompted Franek. He knocked three times: knock, knock, knock. The hinges responded: tick, tick, tick. The handle moved slightly, as if someone on the other side had just drawn in air. Suddenly something unusual: the door rose. First as much as a book, then as much as a cushion, until it was as tall as Zosia. The carpet sighed and lifted the edge, making room for them. "See that?" Franek made big eyes. "I see it. And I hear it." Zosia put her ear to the wood. "It's raining there. But... inside." The quiet rain rustled like paper confetti. Zosia pressed the door handle. The door gave way softly and swung open to the width of her nose. In this gap, instead of darkness, a bright sky flashed. Except that the sky was... horizontal and was roughly where the carpet should have been. "Wow," whispered Franek. The rusty colour of autumn blew from inside like a wardrobe in which someone had hidden a piece of woodland after a rainstorm. It smelled of wet moss, apples and... freshly baked pancake, only more so. Donut pressed his muzzle into the crack. "Mrr?" - sounded like a question. It was answered from inside by an echo that sounded like: "Mrrr.... rjo!". Zosia spread the door open a little more. The dinosaur torch shone its greenish belly and showed the cloud steps. Each step rippled softly and had drops on it that did not fall, but stood like shiny beads. To the left a ribbon of light flowed, as if a rainbow had learned to swim. On the right hung a plaque with a single word that changed letters as if tickled by the wind. "I don't understand what it says," Zosia remarked. "I don't think it has to write. Maybe it's a road she wants us to walk." Franek squeezed his umbrella. "What if we get lost?" "We'll leave footprints." Zosia took the chalk again and drew arrows on the doorframe: one inwards, one outwards. "And we'll hold hands. And we won't go far without talking. We'll just look in." "We'll just have a look," repeated Franek with relief. He took a step forward... and then the cloud steps moved, as if waiting for just that step. Beyond the rippling threshold something flashed past - a small blue fish, but not in the water, but in the air. It had a tail like a ribbon and left a trail of droplets that arranged themselves into notes. The notes rang out: ding, ding, ding. "Do you hear?" Zosia stuck out her hand. A shiny drop fell on her finger and it wasn't wet. It was warm, like a ray of sunshine. When she touched it with the tip of her nose, the droplet laughed softly. Pod tried to lick his own whiskers and sneezed: "Prr!" Another sound came from the depths of the portal: tick, tick, tick, but not like a clock. More like a laugh that counts to three. And then - a very soft cry. Without words, but clearly to them. Such: "Come..." Zosia looked at her brother. "What do we do?" Franek looked at the umbrella. Then at Pod. "We stick together." He held out his hand. They gripped each other tightly. "Hold on too, Donut," said Zosia. Donut wrapped his tail around Zosia's ankle like a string of candyfloss. Before they set off, Zosia pinned a red ribbon to the doorknob so that the end dangled inwards. "So that the door would remember us," she explained. "And so that we remember the way too." She took half a step, but then something shimmering shone over the first step. It was the size of a grain of sand, only it shone like a star. It fluttered and grew to the size of a button. And then to the size of a pebble. Finally it twinkled once more and stood right in front of their noses. It looked like a small blue seed of light. "Does it plant?" asked Franek in a whisper. "Like a pea?" The seed flashed, as if nodding. It touched the umbrella and left a glowing dot on it. At the same moment, a rustle like the rustling of many pages being turned at once came from inside the portal. The door vibrated. The hinges shook joyfully. Something on the other side answered their knocking: knock...knock...knock.... "Do you hear that?" Zosia held her breath until she did. "Someone there... is answering." The doughnut suddenly slipped out of their hands like a wisp of smoke. Pach! With one leap he crossed the threshold and disappeared behind the first step of the cloud. Only the tip of his tail flashed like a silver dash. "Pod!" cried Franek. It echoed back: "Donut!" Zosia squeezed her brother's hand tighter. "Take it easy. We're going to get him. Slowly." A quiet "mrrr!" sounded from inside. - farther away this time, as if from a large room they could not yet see. A luminous bead rolled to their feet - the same one that touched the umbrella - and stopped at the edge of the threshold, as if asking: "Come on." The door trembled like wings ready to fly. The corridor, their corridor, grew momentarily longer, as if it stretched together with the breath of the world on the other side. The torch-dino blinked. The pea-patterned umbrella slammed a button and opened itself with a quiet "fiuu", like a leaf unfurling in spring. "One..." counted Zosia. "Two..." whispered Franek. The air on that side thickened like a sugar haze. From the depths came the sound of footsteps, soft and quick, like someone descending through the clouds and carrying something fragile that cannot fall. A shadow flashed across the corridor wall, round as a balloon, and stopped exactly on the threshold, right in front of their toes. "Three..." Sophie drew in a breath, and then, just beyond the threshold, something sparked, moved and...