The cemetery, he thought as he drew closer and closer to the hill, was the exact opposite of The Miraculous. Each grave was its own entry, its own story. But instead of making the world seem wonderful, instead of making Wunder feel connected and loved and happy, these stories made him feel separate and lonely and angry.

Then it occurred to him that this was where he should leave The Miraculous. In the most unmiraculous place of all.

He should leave it here, and then never come back.

He knelt and pulled the black leather volume from his backpack.

Caw! Caw! Caw!

Wunder jumped as the sound echoed off the headstones. The Miraculous fell from his hands.

“It’s just a bird,” he said out loud, but his voice shook and the feeling that he was somewhere he should not be returned.

He leaped to his feet, grabbed his backpack, and ran to the gates.

The bird cawed again. Closer this time.

Wunder kept running. He was in the woods now, and it was dark, so dark after the brightness of the cemetery that it was hard to see.

And then he was passing the toweringly tall live oak, and the bird was cawing again, cawing as it swooped down the dirt trail. He knew he shouldn’t look, he didn’t want to look, but he did—

And there she was. Rocking in that spiral-wood rocking chair. Newspaper spread open over her knees. The pages fluttering in the wind. Like wings, like the wings of a bird.

The witch of the DoorWay House.

And just like last time, she was watching him.

Just like last time, she met his eye. She smiled.

And she waved.

Chapter 9

Wunder’s father called the house that afternoon to say he would be working late.

“There’s tons of food in the fridge,” he said. “You can heat up whatever you want for dinner.”

“Okay,” Wunder said. “Sure.”

His father was quiet for a few seconds. “I know I should be there,” he said. “But I’ve been gone for two weeks. There’s a lot to catch up on.”

“It’s fine,” Wunder said. “I’ll be fine.”

Wunder’s father was an engineer at SunShiners, where he designed solar panels. He used to be a technician there. When Wunder was younger, he would go to work with his father, and they would take apart equipment—massive metal machines—and his father would explain how the pieces worked. How they fit together.

Then, when Wunder was seven, his father graduated from college after years of night classes and applied for the engineer position. Wunder had written about it in The Miraculous. It went like this:

Miraculous Entry #322

Yesterday, I lit a candle at church for my dad because he really wanted the engineer job.

Then today, he came home and told us he got it! There were a lot of other people trying to get that job, but they chose him. He’s really happy about it, and so is my mom, and so am I.