A woodpecker had never been there, however, and even in his dream, Tick knew something was wrong. When it kept knocking and pecking and tapping, he somehow pulled himself out of sleep. With groggy eyes and cottonmouth, he got out of bed and stumbled to the door, sad that the dream had been interrupted.

Phillip wore the exact same clothes as he had yesterday, still rocking back and forth on his feet. He handed over a yellow envelope—one that looked very familiar to Tick, who snatched it without meaning to.

“Sorry,” he said. “Just eager to read it.”

“Are you finding your stay pleasant?” Phillip asked, no emotion or sincerity in his voice whatsoever.

“Yes, we really appreciate it,” Tick said, unable to take his eyes off the envelope, which bore no marking or writing. When he finally looked up, Phillip had already begun walking down the hall toward the stairs.

Thoughts of the odd man quickly evaporated as Tick hurried to knock on Paul’s door. It took three tries, but Paul finally answered, rubbing his eyes.

“Come on,” Tick urged, heading next door to Sofia’s room.

He’d just held up his hand to knock when the door flew open, Sofia waiting there—fully dressed in her newly provided clothes and looking surprisingly pretty. “Did you get the note?”

Tick held up the envelope.

“Then get in here and let’s open it,” she said, stepping aside and almost comically jerking her head toward the inside.

Tick entered and sat in the desk chair, with Paul looking over his right shoulder, Sofia his left. With slightly trembling hands, Tick opened the envelope and pulled out a piece of white cardstock paper. With the others following along, he read the typed words out loud:

This place is nice, but not quite heaven.

You must start on the hour of seven

Add six hours then take away three,

Then add ten more and do it with glee.

Let one week of time go by,

Sit and rest and eat and sigh.

Then twenty-two hours less three plus two,

At that time decide what to do.

It does not matter; I do not care.

Just make sure your feet find air.

“It’s easy,” Sofia said.

“Yeah, too easy,” Paul agreed. “Which means we’re in deep trouble.”

Tick shook his head. “It’ll be easy to figure out the time, but there’s nothing that tells us what to do at that time.”

“Yowza,” Paul said, then whistled. “You’re dead on. What are we supposed to do at five in the afternoon one week from tomorrow?”

Tick jerked his head around to look up at Paul. “You already figured it out?”

“I told you it was easy.” He slapped Tick on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, little dude, not everyone can be as brilliant as the Paulmeister.”

Sofia snorted. “I figured it out, too, Einstein.”