Free The Wizard's Dilemma, New Millennium Edition by Diane Duane

on the stairs down the hall and glanced up in time to see Ponch hit his door, push it open, and wander in, waving his tail. The dog turned around a few times in the middle of the floor, then lay down with a thump.
    Kit looked at him thoughtfully. Ponch banged his tail on the floor a few times, then yawned.
    “You tired, big guy?” Kit said, and then yawned as well. “Guess I am, too.”
    “It’s like chasing squirrels when I do what we did,” Ponch said. “I want to sleep afterward.”
    “I understand that, all right,” Kit said. “Got a little while to talk?”
    “Okay.”
    “Good boy. Ponch, just where exactly were we?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “But that wasn’t the first time you did that, was it?”
    “Uh…” Ponch looked as if he thought he was about to confess to something that would get him in trouble.
    “It’s okay,” Kit said, “I’m not mad. How long have you been doing that?”
    “You went away,” Ponch said. “I went looking for you.”
    Kit sighed. When Nita had been in Ireland over the summer, he’d “beamed over” there several times to help her out. Once or twice he’d been there long enough to come down with a mild case of gatelag, and he remembered Ponch’s ecstatic and relieved greetings when he came back. “So … when? End of July, beginning of August?”
    “I guess. Right after you went the first time.”
    “Okay. But where did you go? Since you didn’t find me.”
    “I tried, I really tried!” Ponch whimpered. “I missed you. You were gone too much.”
    “It’s okay; I’m not mad that you didn’t find me! It was just an observation.”
    “Oh.” Ponch licked his nose in relief.
    “So where did you go?”
    “It was dark.”
    “You’re right there,” Kit said. “The same place we were together?”
    “We weren’t there together all the time,” Ponch said. “You’re not there until you do something.”
    Kit wasn’t terribly clear what Ponch meant. He was tempted to push for more information, but Ponch yawned at him again. “Can we go there another time?”
    “Sure.” Ponch put his head down on his paws. “Whenever you want. Can I go to sleep now?”
    “Yeah, go ahead,” Kit said. “I wish I could.”
    Shortly, Ponch had rolled over on his side and was emitting the tiny little snore that always sounded so funny coming from such a big dog. Kit stood up, yawning again. He couldn’t put off the reaction to the evening’s wizardry much longer, but first he wanted to look into a couple of things. Fortunately, tomorrow was Saturday, and he could sleep late. Kit sat down again, opened the manual once more, and soon found the section he wanted. Tracking and location protocols… isodimensional… exodimensional…
    Kit found a pen and a pad and started making notes.
    ***
    The mall was crowded that evening, but not so much so that Nita and her mother had any trouble getting their shopping done. The clothes came first, for Nita’s mother was concerned that Nita didn’t have anything decent to wear to school; and privately Nita agreed with her. At the first shop they went into, though, some differences emerged between their definitions of decent.
    Nita’s mom walked among the racks, shaking her head and trying to avoid looking at the two tops and three skirts Nita was carrying. “They’re all so expensive,” her mother said under her breath. “And they’re not terribly well made, either. Such a rip-off…”
    Nita knew this wasn’t the problem. She trailed along behind, not saying anything. As she finished looking at the racks, her mother stopped and looked at Nita. “Honey, tell me the truth. Are the other girls really wearing stuff like this?” From the nearest rack, she picked up a black skirt identical to one of the ones Nita was carrying, holding it up with a critical expression.
    “Stuff exactly like this, Mom. Some of them are shorter. This one’s a little conservative.” Because I chickened out on the really short one.
    “And the