“Maybe you just gotta be more specific when you talk to it. You should practice!” Doug’s suggestion was a good one. What had Miss Gertrude’s letter said?

I know that you have the power to control it . . .

Loopy jumped up into my lap and tried to lick the phone. “Loop! What are you doing? Now there’s slobber in the cracks of the screen.”

“Hey, Loopy! How ya doin’, boy?” Doug waved and held up the plastic flamingo. “This is all I got for animals down here in Florida. I really miss you all, Arcade.”

“We miss you too, Doug. Even Bailey—”

“Bailey Martin? I thought I stressed her out.”

“Well, you do. But you also don’t. Who knows with Bailey? And I could really use your help with Wiley.”

Doug rubbed his eye. “You need me to take a punch for you?”

“Nah. But I think he has my flamingo backpack. I saw it poking out of his huge, brown one.”

“Why would he want to keep your backpack? He doesn’t seem like the flamingo type. Now a backpack with French fries on it . . . I could see that.”

“That’s why I’m suspicious! He also broke the lock on the top drawer of Mr. Dooley’s desk. The one where he keeps all his tests and answer keys.”

“Now that’s sketchy. Hey, maybe you could use your token to find out information about Wiley.”

“How would I do that?”

“Easy. You just say to it, ‘Show me what’s up with Wiley Overton!’ Then you rub it in between your hands, like this . . .”

The token jumped on my chest and sizzled.

“Zoe would never go for it. And I promised a long time ago that I would never go anywhere with the token without her.”

“She was there when he ran you over in the subway, right? I bet she’d wanna find out what that big guy is up to.”

Loopy barked, jumped, and bumped the phone out of my hands. “Loop! You have no phone manners!” I dropped down on my hands and knees to pick it up. The screen was black.

“Doug?” I tapped the screen and poked a few buttons. “Doug? Aww, Loopy, did you kill the battery?”

I tossed the phone on Doug’s blow-up mattress, which was still inflated next to my bed. I sat down on it and bounced.

Where would we put Doug if he came to live here permanently?

A knock sounded at my door. “Arcade?” It was Zoe.

“Yeah, come on in.”

Zoe opened the door and poked her head in. “Dinner’s ready in fifteen.” Then she looked at me funny. “You okay?”

“I’m okay.” I was about to ask her if she wanted to test the token by spying on Wiley Overton when she flung an envelope at me.