The four ghosts took a look around the East Room before beginning their monthly card game. Invisible to all but themselves, they left no trace on the White House motion detectors. It was complete privacy, of a sort that each might have wished for when president.

“Well, you know, there is a new family residing in the White House. The election has been held, and the results tallied, and they have just moved in. You remember, eight years ago, the same thing happened. And surely you remember what we did then?”

“Yes,” John Adams replied. “We left something for the children. When you put the idea forward then, you mentioned your adopted son, what a comfort he had been. It’s a wonderful tribute to him. I wonder if the last White House children ever figured out who our little mystery.”