“That’s Vega,” she said. “It’s twenty-six light-years away. When you look at that star, the light hitting your eyes is fourteen years older than us.” She pointed to another bright star, close to Vega. “That one’s called Deneb. It looks about the same as Vega, but it’s not. It’s a supergiant, and it’s more than thirty-five hundred light-years away. That light you’re looking at is older than the Romans. It’s hard to think about stuff like that, but I like it.”

She went quiet again. Sam heard the wind brushing the grass stems against the table’s legs.

“I came out here every night for the first couple weeks,” Dani said. “I’d lie here for hours. I got so into it. I got an astronomy book from the school library and memorized stars and constellations. I was excited. I really was happy.”

Another silence settled in. Sam listened to the sound of her breathing, softer than the breeze moving over the field. Then he heard her turn toward him on the table.

“So tell me what’s weird about Echo House,” she said.

He turned to face her, too. He could just make out her shape against the sky.

“It’s the stove,” he said. “And it’s the floor. And it’s the building itself. It’s all three of those things, together.”

“What about them?”

“The stove is trapped in place by the floor,” Sam said. “Which means the stove was there first. They set it there and laid the flagstones down over its feet.”

“Right…”

“Then they built the school on top of the floor. They must have, because the stones go under the wall. So the order goes like this: stove first, then the floor, then the school. And that’s all great … except the stove is about forty years newer than the school. The engraving on the back says the stove was forged in 1885. But the stone marker out front says the school was built in 1847. It doesn’t add up. It’s not even possible. How could the stove have been set in place before the school was constructed, if the stove didn’t even exist yet?”

For a moment Dani said nothing. The insect chorus filtered across the darkness.

Then she said, “I knew I had you pegged as a smart guy.” And though Sam couldn’t see it, he could tell by her voice that she was smiling.

“So how could they build it like that?” he said. “How is it possible?”

“It’s not. It’s fake.”

“The stove is fake?”

Dani shook her head. “The school is fake. It’s like a stage prop. It wasn’t built in 1847. My guess, based on other things I’ve seen, is that it was built sometime in the last fifty years. It was never a working school at all. It’s just there for looks.”