The Backyard Portal

The Thompson family has something yours doesn't: A portal to an alternate Earth

In the quiet suburb of Willow Creek, the Thompson family—Mark, Lisa, and their teenage kids, Emma and Jake—lived in a modest two-story home with a sprawling backyard. One humid July evening in 2025, a low hum vibrated through the ground, and a shimmering oval of light, ten feet tall, tore open near their old oak tree. The portal glowed with an eerie blue, and a steady wind howled from it, rustling the grass and rattling the patio furniture.


Mark, a pragmatic mechanic, approached cautiously with a flashlight. The wind was relentless, carrying an earthy scent unlike anything on Earth. Lisa, a high school biology teacher, peered through and saw a lush, green landscape—rolling hills, dense forests, and no trace of human civilization. The air was breathable but heavier, later measured at 3 millibars above Earth’s atmospheric pressure, enough to create a constant breeze flowing from the portal to their backyard.


Curiosity got the better of them. The Thompsons stepped through, becoming the first humans on this alternate Earth, a world where humanity had never evolved. The temperature mirrored their hometown’s, but the ecosystem was a prehistoric wonderland. Massive creatures roamed—woolly mammoths grazed in herds, saber-toothed cats prowled, and dodo-like birds waddled through underbrush. The Thompsons, awestruck, claimed the land as their own, staking a homestead near the portal. They built a sturdy shed around the portal’s entrance to shield it from prying eyes, using salvaged wood and metal.


For weeks, they kept their discovery secret, venturing through to explore and document this untouched world. Jake, tech-savvy, recorded videos of glyptodons lumbering by, while Emma sketched plants unseen on Earth. They hauled supplies through, setting up a small camp with solar panels and a generator, dreaming of a new life.


But the constant wind betrayed them. Scientists detected the airflow anomaly, tracing it to the Thompsons’ property. Drones buzzed overhead, and soon government agents arrived, claiming the portal as a matter of national security. The feds offered a buyout—$10 million for the house and all rights to the portal. The Thompsons refused, but under eminent domain, the government seized the property, relocating them to a condo downtown.


Furious, the Thompsons hired a lawyer, Sarah Nguyen, a tenacious property rights advocate. She argued the seizure violated their constitutional rights, as the portal and the alternate Earth were uniquely tied to their homestead claim. The case escalated through federal courts, drawing global attention. Media dubbed the alternate world “Thompson’s Earth.” Scientists, desperate to study its megafauna, pressured the government to settle, but the Thompsons held firm, demanding their land and planet back.


The case reached the Supreme Court in 2027. Nguyen’s argument hinged on the Homestead Act’s principles and the unprecedented nature of interdimensional property rights. In a 6-3 ruling, the Court sided with the Thompsons, declaring the seizure unconstitutional. The government was ordered to return the property and recognize the family’s claim to Thompson’s Earth, citing their pioneering act of homesteading before any other entity.


The Thompsons returned triumphantly, rebuilding their home around the shed-encased portal. The alternate Earth teemed with life—megatherium sloths, dire wolves, and giant moas roamed its plains. The family, now wary of outsiders, allowed only select scientists through, charging steep fees for research access. Lisa collaborated with paleontologists, ensuring studies respected the ecosystem. Mark and the kids patrolled their land, now a fortified compound, guarding the portal against trespassers.


Thompson’s Earth became a scientific marvel, its megafauna rewriting evolutionary theories. The family, once ordinary, now controlled a world, their backyard portal a gateway to a lost epoch. The wind still blew, a reminder of the boundary between two Earths, and the Thompsons stood as its gatekeepers, their legacy etched in a land where humans never were.