Dandelion Fire

CHAPTER ONE

Kansas is not easily impressed. It has seen houses fly and cattle soar. When funnel clouds walk through the wheat, big hail falls behind. As the biggest stones melt, turtles and mice and fish and even men can be seen frozen inside. And Kansas is not surprised.

Henry York had seen things in Kansas, things he didn t think belonged in this world. Things that didn t. Kansas hadn t flinched.

The soles of Henry s shoes were twenty feet off the ground. He had managed to slide open the heavy door in the barn loft, and after brushing the rust and flakes of red paint off his hands, he d seated himself on the dust-covered planks and looked out over the ripening fields. Henry s feet dangled, but Kansas sprawled.

Henry had changed in the short weeks since he d stepped off the bus from Boston, been smothered by Aunt Dotty and taken to the old farmhouse, to the attic to a new existence. He looked different, too, and it wasn t just the cut across the backs of his fingers. That was scarring worse than it needed to only because he couldn t stop himself from picking at it. The burns on his jaw were a lot more noticeable and had begun scarring as well. He didn t like touching them. But he had to. Especially the one below his ear. It was turning into a divot as wide as his fingertip.

What had changed most about Henry York was inside his head. Things he had always known no longer seemed true. A world that had always felt like a slow and stable and even boring machine had suddenly come to life. And it was far from tame. He d uncovered a wall of doors in his attic room, and now he didn t know who he was. He didn t know who his real parents were or whether he was even in the right world. He didn t really know anything. Strangely, that was more comfortable than thinking that he did.

One month before, fresh off the bus from Boston, he would have been nervous sitting where he was, slowly bouncing his heels on the wall of the barn. One month before, he wouldn t

N. D. WILSON lives and writes in the top of a tall, skinny house only one block from where he was born. But his bestselling novels, including the highly acclaimed 100 Cupboards series, have traveled far and wide and have been translated into dozens of languages. He and his wife have five young storytellers of their own, along with an unreasonable number of pets. You can visit him online at ndwilson.com.