“Booooring,” Bucko said. “Let’s see some boobies.”

“That’s my mother you’re talking about,” Sasha said. “Show some respect.”

“Bio mom,” Bucko said dismissively.

Sasha flipped the mirror to show the other guest room. Lyda Rose lay in the bed, the covers up to her neck, staring at the ceiling. The room was dark except for a bedside lamp that turned half her face to shadow. On her stomach was a page of white paper. Something was written on it in big block letters.

“Ooh, zoom in!” Bucko said.

The wall’s cameras were pretty clumsy, and the light was not good, but she got a view of the page. On it were written the words, “WHERE ARE THE PAINTINGS FROM GILBERT KAPERNICKE?”

“What the fuck?” Bucko said.

Sasha quickly wiped away the mirror. “She knows we’re spying! That message was to me!”

The bear burst into laughter. “Serves you right.”

Sasha opened the mirror again, but only a few inches. Lyda Rose still lay on the bed, and the page hadn’t moved. Could she see Sasha, too? No, if she’d hacked the house network, she wouldn’t have needed a paper; she would have just sent the message to Sasha’s room.

“She’s talking about the paintings in Eduard’s office,” Sasha said.

“I figured that out, yeah,” Bucko said. “I suppose this means…”

“That’s right,” Sasha said. “Emergency council meeting!”

*   *   *

A little bit after three in the morning, the wall in the guest bedroom began to glow. When that failed to wake the woman in the bed, the house sounded a gentle boop boop boop. Too loud and others would hear; too soft and she’d sleep right through it.

Lyda Rose sat up suddenly. She looked first at a spot beside the bed and said, “What?” Then she noticed the wall and the flashing neon-green arrow pointing at the door. She laughed, a low chuckle.

“All righty then,” she said, and moved to the door.

Back in her room, Sasha and Bucko exchanged a high five.

The rest of the IFs murmured or cheered or dinged according to their nature. Sasha had allowed nearly everyone out for the occasion: Mother Maybelle, Tinker, and Zebo, HalfnHalf and Elk Heart, the Snoring Man and MothCatcher and the rest, all of them huddled around the bed, while Squidly floated above them all, bobbing against the ceiling like a balloon. Only the Wander Man remained in the deck. He was buffered top and bottom by mundane cards, but Sasha could still feel his lean black presence, monitoring the proceedings, waiting for her to mess up.

“She’s into the hallway,” Bucko said.

Sasha lit up the next arrow, about five feet down the corridor. This way, this way! Lyda Rose shook her head in what looked like amusement or exasperation, but she followed the flashing symbols down the hallway, then to the great room. It was surprisingly well lit there. Moonlight poured through the big two-story windows, with extra illumination provided by the neon arrow prompting her to continue up the stairs. Lyda Rose looked down the hallway that led to Sasha’s room, and for a tense moment Sasha thought she was going to march down that way … but then Lyda turned toward the arrow and went up the steps to the second-floor balcony.

At the top of the stairs Lyda stopped. There were two doors to her left and two to her right. The next arrow pointed left, but Lyda seemed unsure. Sasha flashed it more brightly. There were fewer wall screens up there, just a few patches here and there to host photographs and a virtual intercom. The doors couldn’t display anything at all. All she could do was keep strobing that one arrow, which Lyda seemed to ignore.

“What’s Bio Mom doing now?” Bucko said.

Lyda went right. The first door was the guest bathroom, used by no one. She peeked inside and moved on. Then she came to the double doors that led to Eduard and Suzette’s bedroom. She put her hand on the doorknob, but it was locked.

Lyda looked up at the ceiling, palms out: Well?

Sasha was not about to unlock the door. Lyda tried the door again.

“There’s nothing in there,” Bucko said. “Get her to turn around.”

“How?” Sasha asked.

Fortunately, Lyda changed her mind. She spun about and walked back to the left … and passed the office door. She was headed straight for Grandpop’s bedroom!

“Oh my stars and garters!” Mother Maybelle exclaimed.

Sasha quickly opened a new set of controls and typed STOP! The word appeared on the wall between the office door and Grandpop’s room.

Lyda looked straight at the wall—which gave the illusion that she could see Sasha and was looking into her eyes. The woman’s eyebrows were raised, and she wore a slight smile. Sasha suddenly realized that Lyda knew exactly what was happening and who was doing what.

“She’s jerking you around!” Bucko said.

“Ah think it’s Miss Rose who does not appreciate being ‘jerked around,’” Zebo said in his deep alligator voice.

Sasha typed: The office is open. She’d unlocked it before she woke up Lyda for this treasure hunt. I won’t be able to see or hear you in there. Sasha cleared the screen and typed a new line. The paintings are leaning against the wall.

Lyda saluted. Then she slipped into the office and closed the door.

“I hope I’m doing the right thing,” Sasha said.

“It wasn’t the most straightforward way to proceed,” Zebo said. “But ah approve of any tactic which keeps you at arm’s length from Eduard.”

None of the Imaginary Friends were fans of her parents, though a few of them pitied Suzette. Their opinion on this newly discovered bio parent was divided. Could Lyda Rose be trusted? If she cared for Sasha, why hadn’t she shown up before now?

One fact trumped everything: Lyda had her own IF. She was like Sasha, and Grandpop. That meant she already understood her in a way that Eduard and Suzette never could. Lyda would get to the bottom of what Eduard was up to, and Sasha would stay safely on the sidelines.

Ever since she’d discovered who Lyda Rose was, Sasha had nurtured a secret wish, a daydream really, which she so far had managed to keep from the IFs. That was no easy trick; they were an intuitive bunch, and Mother Maybelle especially was attuned to what Sasha was feeling. But Sasha held the dream inside her, and when no one was looking she lifted the lid to check on it:

Tomorrow, or the day after, Lyda moved into the big house in the desert, and there she lived with Sasha and Grandpop and Esperanza. Eduard and Suzette vanished off to London or New York or wherever it was that they really wanted to live, and Sasha was finally able to bring the IF Deck out into the open and talk to her friends whenever she wanted. Because Lyda wasn’t just her birth mother, she was like Sasha and Grandpop, what he called “God-blessed.” The three of them understood each other in a way that outsiders, alone in their heads with only their own voice to keep them company, never ever would. Oh, Esperanza said she knew exactly what was going on in Sasha’s head, but she didn’t, not really. Everything would finally be—

“Motherfucker!”

The shout came from the wall, which was still tuned in to the hallway outside Eduard’s office, but it also traveled through real space and down the hallway to Sasha’s room. In the magic mirror, Lyda Rose had stepped onto the balcony, holding a big beige cube. It was the thing from the package Sasha had found a few days ago in Eduard’s office, the one that had been too heavy for her to lift. It looked like a printer/copier.

“Edo!” Lyda yelled. “Get the fuck out here!”

She threw the cube off the balcony. A moment later Sasha heard the crash. Sasha quickly flicked through the various screens until she got a shot of the great room. The cube had hit the big granite coffee table and exploded. Pieces were everywhere.

“That,” Bucko said, “was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”