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    InterWorld
    InterWorld
    InterWorld
    Ebook256 pages3 hours

    InterWorld

    By Neil Gaiman and Michael Reaves

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    When Newbery Medal winner Neil Gaiman and Emmy Award winner Michael Reaves teamed up, they created the bestselling YA novel InterWorld.
     
    InterWorld tells the story of Joey Harker, a very average kid who discovers that his world is only one of a trillion alternate earths. Some of these earths are ruled by magic. Some are ruled by science. All are at war.
     
    Joey teams up with alternate versions of himself from an array of these worlds. Together, the army of Joeys must battle evil magicians Lord Dogknife and Lady Indigo to keep the balance of power between all the earths stable. Teens—and tweens and adults—who obsessively read the His Dark Materials and Harry Potter series will be riveted by InterWorld and its sequel, The Silver Dream.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061756764
    Author

    Neil Gaiman

    Neil Gaiman is the celebrated author of books, graphic novels, short stories, films, and television for readers of all ages. Some of his most notable titles include the highly lauded #1 New York Times bestseller Norse Mythology; the groundbreaking and award-winning Sandman comic series; The Graveyard Book (the first book ever to win both the Newbery and Carnegie Medals); American Gods, winner of many awards and recently adapted into the Emmy-nominated Starz TV series (the second season slated to air in 2019); The Ocean at the End of the Lane, which was the UK’s National Book Award 2013 Book of the Year. Good Omens, which he wrote with Terry Pratchett a very long time ago (but not quite as long ago as Don’t Panic) and for which Gaiman wrote the screenplay, will air on Amazon and the BBC in 2019. Author photo by Beowulf Sheehan

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    Reviews for InterWorld

    3.5/5

    805 ratings71 reviews

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    • 4/5
      not Gaiman's best work; but a good read.
    • 4/5
      The readership population intended for this book is mostly the teenager/YA one, but, as an adult, I did enjoy reading this science fiction tale of alternate earths and alternate selves; Jo/e/y is a believable character and his other selves do lend a bigger personality to the original hero. Instead of the usual battle between Good and Evil, we see a struggle for the domination of all the alternate universes between Science and Magic. Multiple Jo/e/ys are used to fuel invading ships and it is up to the hero to save his alternate selves/friends. The supporting character of Hue is a welcome addition to the plot, as, otherwise, the plot would feel less sensitive and multilayered. Like 'The Graveyard Book', this book has found his place on my shelves.
    • 2/5
      Personal response: This started out really great. The concept itself is really interesting with the idea of the same character from many different parallel worlds. It would have been fun to explore the concept more. This book, however, comes off very rushed. The plot starts skipping along so fast that it lost my interest. I am actually only giving this a 2 based on the fact that the overall concept was interesting; otherwise, it would definitely be deserving of a solid 1. I really liked some of the villains, like the 'jelly man'. I would like to have seen the villains fleshed out a bit more. I didn't ever really get the feeling of danger and the potential for all existence to be in peril. The whole idea just seemed to be thrown at me. grades 5-8curricular connections:Genre reading: science fiction. Author study: Neil GaimanExcellent for a tie-in discussion of the concept of parallel worlds and the popular thoughts on the subject
    • 3/5
      As expected by Neil Gaiman, it is a story about someone who transports into parallel universes. In this case it is a boy who discovers he can "walk" between dimensions. Where he becomes a hero and saves the world...actually millions of worlds. A fine book, but it never really grabbed me. I kept on waiting to get to a point were I was really caught up with the story, the writing style...something, but then the book was over. I guess I was slightly disappointed because I loved "Coraline" so much.
    • 4/5
      The first third was desperately boring. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't "slow" to start or anything, it's just there was so much background knowledge required to understand the Interworld and multi-verse that at first it was like listening to gibberish with an uninteresting protagonist. It took Joey (the protagonist) quite a while to develop into a moderately compelling character (IMO). It ended very well and I wouldn't be adverse to a sequel - although it ended in such a way that a sequel might actually detract from the story.edit: Oh look, it's a trilogy. Hmmm...maybe next year :)
    • 3/5
      This wasn't bad. I thought it would be worse, mainly because I remember a review that was horrible for it. It's a teen book though, so it goes fast. I really wish there had been a bit more detail to it. There were so many characters, they really needed more pages to become those characters. That is what the cover image depicts - the team of six "Joey Harkers". So really the only bad thing was not enough detail! I love the Neverwhere characters more though.
    • 2/5
      The first book from Neil Gaiman that's been a disappointment. This could have been a great two part book if he would have spent the time to flesh it out more. It's not a total loss - it would make a good entry level scifi book for children.
    • 4/5
      I think Neil Gaiman is a genius. He is so incredibily imaginative and never ceases to amaze me with how his literary mind works. Very cleaver premise.
    • 5/5
      I was cautious about this book, but then noticed it was by Neil Gaiman, so I knew i would love it. This really was a good book- recommended for grades 6 -9, but it was a very good introduction to another world and well thought out dimensions.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed the concept of science and magic being opposite forces, with proponents on both sides, and I loved the alternate Joeys and how their different worlds determined how they looked and to an extent, who they were. Progression of time was a bit iffy, with sentences like "I've been here for 20 weeks," but overall I thought the plot was paced well. I will definitely read the sequel. The only thing I was not too pleased about was the large quantity of long words and higher mathematical and scientific concepts. I didn't have much of a problem with the long words, but the book seemed to be targeted to kids at least 5 years younger than me, and I think the vocabulary and mind-boggling science would put them off.
    • 4/5
      Quick Note: I read this on my brand-new Nook. I actually checked it out from our local library's e-reading program, which means I downloaded it from the library website onto my laptop, then loaded it into my Nook. I have to say, the Nook is freakin' awesome. The main thing I was concerned about was whether or not the electronic gadget would "disappear," so to speak, as I was reading -- like a paperback. I am happy to report that when reading on the Nook, I sink into the story just as easily as when I read a physical book. My eyes don't hurt after 20 minutes like when I read on a laptop. I surface hours later, head spinning and dizzy with the characters and completely unaware of the medium I was introduced to them through.

      Speaking of characters -- I really don't need to review this, if you're familiar with Gaiman's writing. Unlike other prolific writers (looking at you, Nicholas Sparks and Nora Roberts), Gaiman doesn't follow the same basic plotline over and over. He doesn't recycle characters, slapping a new face and name onto the same stock personalities.

      No, every Gaiman book is a fresh treat. A tour-de-force in writing that takes the reader to new planes of idea and fantasy. Every time I read a Gaiman book, I half-expect to run into an old, familiar character -- he writes so much, you can't help but expect he'll begin recycling plots and characters. But it hasn't, as yet, happened.

      As usual, his plot pacing is quick and fun, his characters are well-fleshed out, the motivations and actions understandable and relatable. As usual, he introduces fantastic new ways of looking at classic sci-fi and fantasy -- I swear, the man takes a funhouse mirror to every existing fantasy/ mythology stereotype and turns them completely on their head. And as usual, his writing style (turn of phrase, dialogue, etc) is evocative, lyrical, descriptive and fun.

      Gaiman is an unparalleled joy to read. I have favorites among his books, true, but I can say with complete honesty that Gaiman is the one author I've read where I like every book he's written.
    • 4/5
      Exciting foray into a world and its shadow worlds. Non-stop action first-person narrated by an unlikely hero.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this book even though it is written for young adult readers and has a very young protagonist. Voyaging with Joey Harker as he learns to "walk" through dimensions, meets his other selves, and battles powers of magic and of science that would harness the power of all the versions of himself in order to win the war they fight is a delightful experience.
    • 5/5
      This collaboration of Gaiman and Reaves is extremely satisfying and well done. Due to the fact that the bookstore shelved it in the Teen fiction section, I had a hard time finding the book, but I'm glad that I hunted it down as it was well worth it. The story is well written and developed, with interesting characters and some powerful ideas. It may be written for a young adult audience, but it applies to people of all ages. While not my favorite work of Gaiman, it is definitely highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      I very much enjoyed this. It's a simple story--it was conceived of first as an idea for a tv series and a brilliant series it would be. So, this book is like the pilot episode. But, I love the concept and as always his writing is brilliant.
    • 3/5
      first line: "Once I got lost in my own house."In some ways, this reminded me of Diana Wynne Jones's The Homeward Bounders. And Hue, the blobular "mudluff," called to mind Fred, the sidekick-star from So You Want to Be a Wizard? by Diane Duane. I didn't like this as much as some of Gaiman's other work...but then, I tend to prefer his adult writing to his children's/young adult work. (And this is my first exposure to Michael Reaves.)Throughout the book, I found myself thinking that the story would work better in a visual medium, so I wasn't surprised to read in the afterword that the authors had originally pitched it as a television show. In my opinion, it would work best as an animated series, or even a graphic novel.
    • 4/5
      Joey Harker is an average student who has never been praised for having a good sense of direction. He boasts that he could get lost in his own house so when a class assignment drops him in the middle of his town with the challenge to find his way back to school, trouble is sure to follow. But where Joey's orienteering skills falter, a hidden talent is uncovered. Though he frequently gets lost in familiar places, Joey is a Walker - a unique individual with a talent for walking between parallel dimensions. Joey soon finds himself in the Interworld, a strange world between worlds, surrounded by various versions of himself. Some of the other realities are ruled by magic and others by science while still others exist with a balance between the two and yet all are threatened by HEX and Binary, two sinister forces out to destroy universes and those that Walk between them.I admit that I was drawn to this book because Neil Gaiman co-authored it (with screen-writer Michael Reaves), but I also really enjoyed the story. The fast-paced action-oriented story make it a great introduction to science fiction for younger audiences; but Gaiman's signature wit and creative characters ensure that fans of his writing of any age will enjoy the novel.
    • 4/5
      A young adult novel based on an idea for a TV show Gaiman and Reaves could never get off the ground, this reads like the pilot for said TV show. It introduces a really fascinating world, one in which the main conflict is between the forces of magic and science, both of which have representatives who are trying to achieve dominance over the multiverse. Then from an Earth quite like ours comes Joey Harker, who discovers he is a Walker, with the power to move between universes and fight to keep those essential forces in check. The story is a lot of fun, and the potential Horrible Fate that could befall Joey and his friends is really, legitimately terrifying, but the first person narrative is much weaker than Gaiman's usual authorial voice, and ultimately, more questions are raised than answered. I want to know why Joey and all his infinite variations are special! Instead it's kind of frustrating that things leave off where they do. This would have made an even better show than a book, dammit.
    • 4/5
      I love all things Gaiman! Excellent book!
    • 3/5
      Neil Gaiman's name, along with the superhero-looking cover, brought me to InterWorld. I didn't know much about it, and I don't think I'd even heard of it the first time I checked it out of the library, though I didn't actually get around to reading it that time, since I'm pretty notorious for checking out an impossible pile of books. As has been the case with my prior experiences with Gaiman, InterWorld proved an imperfect read for me, being primarily focused on world building rather than character.In an ideal world, all books would be heavily into both world building and character, but accomplishing even one is a feat. The world building in InterWorld is well done, and will appeal to those who enjoy So You Want to Be a Wizard and A Wrinkle in Time. Gaiman and Reaves put their own twist on the multiverse, adding the fascinating concept that some earths are magic-based and some science-based, and then running the gamut between those two. Also awesome are the scenes in the InBetween, which is sort of like Flatland but more fiction, less math.Joey Harker, the novel's protagonist, does not start out as a particularly impressive specimen. He gets lost easily, so much so that he's gotten lost in his own house. His grades are unexceptional. In no way does he seem like a hero. One day, though, he walks through some mist and into a whole new world, one where his mother doesn't recognize him and he meets the female version of himself. Soon, he finds himself instrumental in a war between the different factions in the multiverse.Readers who really love world building and science fiction will eat this up like I eat chips, but, for more character-focused readers InterWorld is a bit challenging. For one thing, in some ways, there is almost just one character. In a sort of twist I saw coming from the beginning, most of the characters in the book are alternate universe versions of Joey, which is cool, but a bit limiting at the same time.Joey does grow a bit as a character, receiving better education, developing a skill (Walking between universes), and becoming braver generally. Still, there's not much of an arc to his development. Reave and Gaiman skip some time, like most of Joey's training. He goes from untrained to more trained without any transition, so it's hard to feel convinced or proud of his development. In fact, I never really had a sense of who Joey was, or of any of his alternate universe incarnations. The character I bonded with most, Hue, never said a word, mostly because he/she/it is a bubble of color. Hue had much more vibrancy and personality than I ever felt from the other characters.Science fiction fans a bit more hardcore than I am will want to check this out. If you like the concept but want more characterization, try E.C. Myers' Fair Coin.
    • 3/5
      The little explanation at the back sums it up: this was really meant to be the two-hour pilot to a TV show that they could never convince anyone to make. It reads like the novelization of the two-hour pilot to a TV show. I think I'd enjoy the show; the book is a little odd.
    • 5/5
      I adored this book. I demand a sequel! But I doubt that's likely seeing as how Gaiman and Reaves wrote it in the 90s.
    • 3/5
      I was pleasantly surprised by this fast-paced science fiction novel for teens.
    • 3/5
      Based on the multi-world idea that every decision creates a new, parallel universe for each possible outcome of that decision, the IntraWorld is an organization that sort-of polices those world. Except that not every decision creates a new universe/world, just the important ones, and IntraWorld only concerns itself with those that contain an Earth. Those worlds exist along a spectrum where magic reigns supreme at one extreme and science at the other, conveniently ignoring the changing laws of physics along the way.The IntraWorld organization itself is made up exclusively of Joe Harkers from some, but not all of those worlds. Apparently Joe or Joey or Jerzy or J/O or other variations on the name are the only people in all of the millions on those infinity of worlds that can travel between them. Except for the evil magicians and technologists from either extreme that capture and kill Joe Harkers to power their cross-continuum conquests.If you ignore all of the holes in the world building and story telling it's not a bad young adult adventure story. But it is also clearly not a Neil Gaiman story, or even something he was a 50% contributor to. But his name is going to sell a lot more copies than Michael Reaves, so he's got top billing.
    • 4/5
      fun book with unique world building.
    • 4/5
      I will start by iterating that I love Gaiman. So I am a little biased toward expecting this to be a good book; and it was a good book. The concepts were amazing, the plot packed full and fast-paced. The writing was not as amazing as it could have been though. I expect some level of elegance in a Gaiman book and this elegance was intermittent in this book.Joey is wandering town for a school project when he ends up somewhere else. He knows the people but they don't recognize him and somehow all of the people are a bit different from how they should be. Then a man in a silver mask shows up to rescue Joey from this other place, that is until Joey is taken captive by an evil Sorceress. Soon Joey finds out he a Walker and can Walk between different versions of Earth. He finds himself in the organization of Interworld; and organization dedicated to keeping balance between the Hex (magic world) and the Binary (science world).This book is a very creative concept. I loved the idea of Science Fiction and Fantasy lying on opposite ends of the spectrum and the idea of a multitude of Earth's being at different points of the spectrum. There were a lot of great ideas in here and great characters. Unfortunately the novel is very short, and while an amazing amount of plot is efficiently covered in this small space, not enough time was given to some of Joey's more interesting counterparts.I agree with other reviewers that this book was not in the typical Gaiman style of writing. There is a lot of techno-babble thrown in the book, and while some of the quantum theory explanations are interesting, mostly they seem contrived and they take away from the elegance of the story. Gaiman is a top-notch story teller and while his creativity was present in this book, his polish was not.Still I really enjoyed the story and would love to read more about these characters and about Joey's adventures Walking between alternate realities.
    • 3/5
      Joey Harker strays from an exam assignment to end up very lost and discovers he has the ability to travel between worlds. Adventure ensues.This book wasn't like most Gaiman material. It was very fluffy, but I still enjoyed it quite a lot. As a quick adventure story, it was a lot of fun and easy to digest. It also gave me a lot of neat sci-fi ideas to consider as someone who hasn't spent a ton of time in the genre.
    • 3/5
      Decent young adult novel. I read it because I crave simplistic uncomplicated stories right now. Felt a little like Ender's Game from what I've actually read of Ender's Game.

      Like I said, decent, but it's no Harry Potter.
    • 2/5
      I think I probably read this at the wrong age. :)
    • 4/5
      Great book that was coauthored by Neil Gaiman. Basically, it's about a boy who can Walk - he can travel through different worlds/planes. He ends up being rescued a few times and ends up joining this group where there are many forms of himself and they make sure the universe is secure, protecting it from various bad people. It could have been better, but it was pretty darn good. I sort of want more though...

    Book preview

    InterWorld - Neil Gaiman

    PART I

    CHAPTER ONE

    ONCE I GOT LOST in my own house.

    I guess it wasn’t quite as bad as it sounds. We had just built a new annex—added a hallway and a bedroom for the squid, aka Kevin, my really little brother—but still, the carpenters had left and the dust had settled over a month ago. Mom had just sounded the dinner call and I was on my way downstairs. I took a wrong turn on the second floor and found myself in a room wallpapered with clouds and bunnies. I realized I’d turned right instead of left, so I promptly made the same mistake again and blundered into the closet.

    By the time I got downstairs Jenny and Dad were already there and Mom was giving me the Look. I knew trying to explain would sound lame, so I just clammed up and dug in to my mac and cheese.

    But you see the problem. I don’t have what my aunt Maude used to call a bump of direction. If anything, I’ve got a hollow where the bump should be. Forget knowing north from south or east from west—I have a hard enough time telling right from left. Which is all pretty ironic, considering how things turned out . . .

    But I’m getting ahead of myself. Okay. I’m going to write this like Mr. Dimas taught us. He said it doesn’t matter where you start, as long as you start somewhere. So I’m going to start with him.

    It was the end of the October term of my sophomore year, and everything was pretty normal, except for Social Studies, which was no big surprise. Mr. Dimas, who taught the class, had a reputation for unconventional teaching methods. For midterms he had blindfolded us, then had us each stick a pin in a map of the world and we got to write essays on wherever the pin stuck. I got Decatur, Illinois. Some of the guys complained because they drew places like Ulan Bator or Zimbabwe. They were lucky. You try writing ten thousand words on Decatur, Illinois.

    But Mr. Dimas was always doing stuff like that. He made the front page of the local paper last year and nearly got fired when he turned two classes into warring fiefdoms that tried to negotiate peace for an entire semester. The peace talks eventually broke down and the two classes went to war on the quad during free period. Things got a little carried away and a few bloody noses resulted. Mr. Dimas was quoted on the local news as saying, Sometimes war is necessary to teach us the value of peace. Sometimes you need to learn the real value of diplomacy in avoiding war. And I’d rather my students learned those lessons on the playground than on the battlefield.

    Rumor at school was that he was going to be canned for that one. Even Mayor Haenkle was pretty annoyed, seeing as how his son’s nose was one of the ones bloodied. Mom and Jenny—my younger sister—and I sat up late, drinking Ovaltine and waiting for Dad to come home from the city council meeting. The squid was fast asleep in Mom’s lap—she was still breast-feeding him back then. It was after midnight when Dad came in the back door, tossed his hat on the table and said, The vote was seven to six, in favor. Dimas keeps his job. My throat’s sore.

    Mom got up to fix Dad some tea, and Jenny asked Dad why he’d gone to bat for Mr. Dimas. My teacher says he’s a troublemaker.

    He is, Dad said. —Thanks, hon. He sipped the tea, then went on. He’s also one of the few teachers around who actually cares about what he’s doing, and who has more than a spoonful of brains to do it with. He pointed his pipe at Jenny and said, Past the witching hour, sprite. You belong in bed.

    That was how Dad was. Even though he’s just a city councilman, he has more sway among some people than the mayor does. Dad used to be a Wall Street broker, and he still handles stocks for a few of Greenville’s more prominent citizens, including several on the school board. The councilman job takes only a few days a month most of the year, so Dad drives a cab most days. I asked him once why he did it, since his investments keep the wolf from the door even without Mom’s home jewelry business, and he said he liked meeting new people.

    You’d think that nearly getting fired might’ve thrown a scare into Mr. Dimas and gotten him to back off a little, but no such luck. His idea for this year’s Social Studies final was pretty extreme even for him. He divided our class into ten teams of three each, blindfolded us again—he was big on blindfolds—and had a school bus drop us off at random places in the city. We were supposed to find our way to various checkpoints within a certain time without maps. One of the other teachers asked what this had to do with Social Studies, and Mr. Dimas said that everything was Social Studies. He confiscated all cell phones, phone cards, credit cards and cash so we couldn’t call for rides or take buses or cabs. We were on our own.

    And that was where it all began.

    It’s not like we were in any real danger—downtown Greenville isn’t downtown LA or New York or even downtown Decatur, Illinois. The worst that might happen would be an old lady clobbering us with her purse if one of us was foolish enough to try to help her across 42nd Avenue. Still, I was partnered with Rowena Danvers and Ted Russell, which meant that this was going to be interesting.

    The school bus pulled away in a cloud of diesel smoke and we took our blindfolds off. We were downtown—that much was obvious. It was the middle of the day, a chilly October afternoon. Traffic, both foot and car, was pretty light. I immediately looked for the street sign, which said we were on the corner of Sheckley Boulevard and Simak Street.

    And I knew where we were.

    This was such a surprise that I was tongue-tied for a moment. I was the kid who could get lost going to the corner mailbox, but I knew where this was—we were standing right across the street and down the block from the dentist, where Jenny and I had both had our teeth cleaned just a couple of days before.

    Before I could say anything, Ted pulled out the card Mr. Dimas had given each of us on which was written the location where we were to be picked up. We have to get to the corner of Maple and Whale, he said. Hey, maybe we can get your dad to pick us up, Harker.

    This is all you have to know about Ted Russell: He wouldn’t be able to spell IQ. Not because he’s dumb—which he is, as a bag of rocks—but because he couldn’t be bothered. He was a year older than me, due to having been kept back. I knew I would get nothing but the kind of jokes even grade-schoolers would roll their eyes at from him. But I was willing to put up with Russell, obnoxious jerk that he was, to be here—to be anywhere—with Rowena Danvers.

    I suppose there may have been prettier, smarter, just generally nicer girls at Greenville High, but I’d never bothered looking for them. As far as I was concerned, Rowena was the only girl for me. But after two years of trying, I had failed to convince Rowena that I was anything more than a minor extra in the movie of her life. It wasn’t that she hated me, or even disliked me—I wasn’t important enough to warrant that. I doubt that we’d exchanged more than five sentences during the entire school year, and probably four of those five were along the lines of Excuse me, but you dropped this or I’m sorry, were you sitting here? Not exactly the stuff of which great romances are made, although I treasured every one of them.

    But now, just maybe, I could change that. I could become more than an anonymous blip on her radar. I was practically fifteen, and she was my honest-to-goodness First Love. I mean it. Or I thought I did at the time. It wasn’t just a crush. I wasn’t simply in love with Rowena Danvers—I was madly, deeply, passionately in love. I even told my parents how I felt, and that took guts. If she ever noticed me, I said to them, this would be one of the great love affairs of the century. They could see I was serious, and they didn’t even tease me. They got it. They wished me luck. I would be Tristran and she would be Iseult (whoever they were; that was what Dad said); I would be Sid and she would be Nancy (whoever they were; that was what Mom said). I wanted to impress Rowena Danvers, and so what if demonstrating that I knew how to cross a street in the right direction wasn’t exactly the stuff that Shakespeare was made of? I’d take what I could get.

    I said, I know where we are.

    Ted and Rowena looked at me dubiously. Yeah, right. I’d sooner put the blindfold back on. Come on, Rowena, Ted said, taking her arm. Everybody knows that Harker couldn’t find his butt with both hands tied behind him.

    She pulled her arm free and looked at me. I could see that she didn’t relish walking five or six blocks with Ted Russell, but that she also didn’t want to be wandering around downtown for the rest of the day. "Are you sure you know where we are, Joey?" she asked.

    The woman I loved was asking me for help! I felt like I could have found my way home from the dark side of the moon. No problem, I said with all the confidence of a lemming who thinks he’s headed for a nice day at the seashore. Follow me. Come on! And I started down the street.

    Rowena hesitated a moment more, then turned away from Ted and started walking after me. He stared after her in shock for a moment, then waved his arm in a g’wan! gesture. Your funeral. I’ll tell Dimas to send out search parties, he shouted, then he laughed and pumped the air.

    It must be nice to be your own audience.

    Rowena caught up with me, and we walked on for a while in silence. We crossed Arkwright Park and headed north—I think—on Corinth.

    Within six blocks I realized something very important: It’s good to know where you are, but it’s better to know where you’re going. Which I definitely did not—in a matter of minutes I was more lost than I’ve ever been. And, what was worse, Rowena knew it. I could tell by the way she was looking at me.

    I was starting to panic. I didn’t want to let Rowena down. But I also didn’t want her to see me with egg on my face. So I said, Wait here just a minute, and I ran on ahead before she could say anything.

    I was desperately hoping to find another street or landmark that I recognized. I turned the corner and saw a building at the end of the next block that looked familiar, so I started down the street—Arkwright Boulevard, next to the park—to make sure.

    The weather in Greenville is weird at the best of times. It comes of being so close to the Grand River, which gave us the beer-brewing industry and the tourists who come down to walk the nature trail and to see the falls, but also gives us the mists that spread around the town whenever it gets chilly.

    One of those mists started at the corner of Arkwright and Corinth. I headed straight into it, felt it beading cold on my face. Most mists thin when you’re in them. This one didn’t. It was more like walking through thick smoke, blinding and gray.

    I just pushed through it, not really noticing it much—after all, I had more important things on my mind. From the inside of the mist I could see shimmering lights of all different colors. It’s weird what a town looks like when all you can see are the lights.

    I turned the next corner onto Fallbrook and stepped out of the mist—and stopped. I was in a part of town I didn’t recognize at all. Across the street was a McDonald’s I’d never seen before, with a huge green tartan arch above it. Some kind of Scottish promotion, I guessed. Weird. I noticed it, but it didn’t really register. I was too busy thinking about Rowena, and wondering whether there was any way to explain what had happened that wouldn’t leave her thinking I was a complete idiot. There wasn’t. I was going to have to head back to her and confess that I had gotten us both completely lost. I was looking forward to it about the same way I look forward to a routine dental checkup.

    At least the fog was almost gone when I got back to the cross street, panting and out of breath. Rowena was still waiting where I had left her. She was staring into the window of a pet shop, with her back to me. I ran straight across the street, tapped Rowena on the shoulder and said, I’m sorry. Guess we should have listened to Ted. That’s not something you hear often, is it?

    She turned around.

    When I was a kid—I mean, just a little kid, back in New York, back before we moved to Greenville, before Jenny even—I remember following my mom through Macy’s. She was doing her Christmas shopping, and I could have sworn that I barely took my eyes off her. She was wearing a blue coat. I followed her all around the store until the press of people scared me and I grabbed her hand. And she looked down. . . .

    And it wasn’t my mom at all. It was some woman I’d never seen before, who was wearing a similar blue coat and had the same hairstyle. I started crying and they took me off to some office and gave me a soda and found my mom and it all ended happily enough. But I’ve never forgotten that moment of dislocation, of expecting one person and seeing another.

    That was what I was feeling now. Because it wasn’t Rowena in front of me. It looked like her, as much as a sister might, and her clothes were the same. She was even wearing a black baseball cap, just like Rowena’s.

    But Rowena had always been real vain about her long blond hair. She’d said more than once that she wanted to let it grow as long as it could and never cut it.

    This girl wore her blond hair in a buzz cut—real short. And she didn’t even look like Rowena. Not really. Not when you were up close. Rowena’s eyes are blue. This girl had brown eyes. She was just some girl in a brown coat and a black baseball cap, looking at puppies in a pet store window. I was totally confused. I backed away. I’m sorry, I said. I thought you were someone else.

    She was looking at me like I had just climbed out of the sewer wearing a hockey mask and carrying a chain saw. She didn’t say anything.

    Look, I’m really sorry, I told her. My bad. Okay?

    She nodded without saying anything, and she walked away down the sidewalk until she reached the cross street, glancing behind her every few moments. Then she ran as if all the hounds of hell were after her.

    I wanted to apologize for spooking her, but I had my own problems.

    I was lost in downtown Greenville. I had gotten separated from the other two members of my unit. I had surrendered all my change. I’d failed Social Studies.

    There was only one thing to do, so I did it.

    I took off my shoe.

    Under the inner sole was a folded five dollar bill. My mom makes me keep it there for emergencies. I took out the five bucks, put my shoe back on, got some change and got on a bus for home, rehearsing all the things I could say to Mr. Dimas, to Rowena, even to Ted, and wondering whether I’d get lucky in the next twelve hours and somehow manage to contract a disease so contagious that they’d have to keep me out of school until the end of the semester. . . .

    I knew that my troubles wouldn’t be over once I got home. But at least I wouldn’t be lost anymore.

    As it turned out, I didn’t even know the meaning of the word.

    CHAPTER TWO

    I RODE THE BUS HOME in a daze. A few blocks after getting on, I stopped looking out the window and started looking at the back of the seat in front of me. Because the streets didn’t look right. At first there was nothing specific I could point out that bothered me; everything

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