Slowly, Natalie nodded. Chess wanted more time to think through everything.
When they’d been in the other world the last time, they’d seen the other-world version of Natalie’s mom, but not Natalie or her dad. But they knew those other-world versions existed, and it had helped a lot to have Natalie pretend to be the other Natalie.
But what if it’s extra dangerous to be in a place where this world’s Natalie could easily run into that world’s Natalie? Chess wondered. At her mom’s house, wouldn’t it also be more likely that she’d run into the other world’s version of her mom? And wouldn’t the other world’s version of Ms. Morales see right away that our Natalie is different from the Natalie there?
Would the other world’s Natalie really be that different from this world’s? Or would she be someone else who could help them?
But what if the other world’s Ms. Morales saw Finn, Emma, and me? Chess wondered, panic rising in his chest. What if she figured out we’re connected to Mom? That world’s Ms. Morales was a judge! The judge who tried to make Mom seem guilty!
Chess’s brain hurt thinking of all the things that could go wrong. But he couldn’t tell the others it was a terrible idea to cross over at Ms. Morales’s house.
Because wasn’t it actually just a terrible idea to cross over, period?
“Wait, go back a little,” Finn said. “Did you really say, ‘skip school’? We get to skip school?”
“Do you want to wait a moment longer than you have to, to go rescue Mom?” Emma asked.
“No,” Finn said, shaking his head so emphatically his hair flopped around. “So why don’t we go right now?”
Chess thought about what it would be like to sneak out in the dark. He thought about arriving in the strange, awful other world at nighttime, when they couldn’t even see the dangers around them.
“We need time to prepare,” he said. To his surprise, his voice came out sounding firm and certain. “We need to take supplies—like, food, even—in case we have to hide out for a while. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have some of the tools and electronic gadgets Joe carried with him. Last time we went to the other world, we didn’t know what we were getting into, and we were lucky we managed to escape. This time we need to be ready.”
Emma and Natalie nodded, backing him up.
“And I want to solve the rest of Mom’s coded message before we go,” Emma said. “I’m sure it’ll tell us more about what went wrong in the other world, and how it became such an awful place. Maybe if I stay up all night working on it, by morning I’ll know . . .”
“That you’re too tired to think straight?” Chess finished for her. “Emma, we’ve been working on that message for two weeks! An extra twelve hours isn’t going to make a difference!”
“Nine hours,” Natalie said, checking the time on her phone. “We leave in nine hours. We should leave when I’d normally catch the bus—I’ll come up with some excuse for Dad about why you three have to leave with me.”
Chess could tell Natalie was figuring out logistics. Emma stuck out her lower lip, like she was mad that Chess didn’t think she could solve Mom’s code in the next twelve hours. Or nine.
“Emma . . . ,” Chess said.
“I know, I know—sleep is important!” Emma said. This was something their mother said all the time; hearing Emma say it made Chess’s eyes tear up. He had to turn his head to the side so Emma and Finn wouldn’t see. “But doesn’t it seem dangerous to go back without knowing everything we possibly can?”
“Yeah,” Chess muttered. “But what else can we do?”
The next few hours passed in a blur. Chess, Emma, and Natalie stayed up past midnight making lists and packing backpacks, then double-checking lists and backpacks and cramming in “just one more thing that could save our lives.” Finn tried to stay up, too, but early on Chess turned to ask Finn a question and discovered his brother curled up and snoring on the floor beside the lever. Chess crouched down beside him, planning to pick him up and carry him to his own bed. Then he felt Natalie’s hair tickle his arm. She leaned close.
“Would it be so terrible,” she began, peering down at Finn, “if we left him here tomorrow morning? Just let him keep sleeping? He’d stay safe that way. And he could keep Dad company if . . . if . . . He could explain everything if . . .”
Chess knew exactly what Natalie wasn’t saying: . . . if we never make it back from the other world.
Watching the smile play over Finn’s face—leave it to Finn to smile even in his sleep, even the night before heading into danger—Chess understood exactly why Natalie wanted to keep Finn safe. Chess wanted that, too. But as he slid his arms under Finn’s neck and knees, Chess made his voice gruff, almost scolding, as he told Natalie, “We promised Finn we’d take him with us. I’m not breaking any promises to Finn.”
And then somehow, though Chess could have sworn he got no sleep himself, it was Friday morning, and Emma was cramming their mother’s computer with the coded message into her backpack; Chess was helping Finn button his shirt as Finn excitedly chattered, “Mom always said this is her favorite shirt of mine—she’ll like that I’m wearing her favorite shirt, won’t she?” And then all three Greystones clustered around Natalie at the top of the stairs. Natalie took a deep breath.
“Let me handle Dad when we go down to the kitchen, okay?” she muttered.
All four kids descended the stairs, maybe for the last time.
Natalie sped into the kitchen, grabbed a box of Pop-Tarts, and made a big show of tossing it to Chess. He added it to his backpack.
“You remember Megan’s mom is taking me to school this morning, right?” she asked her dad, who was sitting at the kitchen table, hunched over a cup of coffee. “And then, because she works close by, she’ll drop off the Greystone kids at the elementary, too. ’Kay?”
Mr. Mayhew blinked groggily. He wasn’t a morning person.
“So . . . you all need a ride to Megan’s?” he asked.
“No, Dad,” Natalie said, with an exasperated eye roll. “Megan’s the one who lives in this neighborhood. Like, a block away. I don’t need a ride.”
“Oh,” Mr. Mayhew said. “I thought . . . You know I have to work late this afternoon, so . . .”
“Yeah, yeah, we’ll be fine. We’ll order pizza or Chinese for dinner. See you later!”
Natalie brushed a kiss past the top of her father’s head, on the spot where his hair was a little thin.
“Bye, Mr. Mayhew!” Finn chirped. Chess and Emma waved, but Chess could tell that Mr. Mayhew barely noticed, because he was watching Natalie vanish around the corner.
The kids made it out to the garage, and Natalie sagged against the handles of her bike.
“He’ll know I forgave him for last night, right?” she muttered to Chess. “Because I kissed him on his bald spot? He’ll remember that if . . . if . . .”
Once again, Chess knew what Natalie wasn’t saying.
“Helmets,” he reminded Finn and Emma, even though it seemed crazy to worry about bike helmets when they would be riding toward so much danger.