Pictures didn’t do it justice. Henry had seldom set foot out of his hometown, and it was as if they’d entered a completely different country. Henry recalled wondering why there were so many colors in a box of crayons, and now he understood. It was all so beautiful and unusual and unique. At one point the train entered a tunnel that ran directly through a mountain. They were in darkness for over a minute.

Rather than fight the elements, Coralis shifted his lesson plan. They opened a new drawer and labeled it geology and discussed the passing landscape in minute detail. Henry absorbed the information like a sponge, his love of rocks and minerals making it easy. When his interest shifted to the amazing rock formations, Coralis turned that corner along with Henry and delved into the formation of landmasses with such detail that Henry thought he must have been there at the beginning of time.

He couldn’t stop. He needed more and more. Coralis had lunch delivered to their cabin.

Brianna grumbled—though secretly she was enjoying the lessons almost as much as her brother. When she tired of looking out the window from her perch on Coralis’s shoulder, she curled on the seat next to him, feigning sleep.

The train continued west through New Mexico, finally entering Arizona in the early evening. “This feels … right,” Henry said with difficulty, unable to pinpoint why.

Coralis wrapped his hands around Henry’s. “The blood of the First People runs strong in your veins.”

“First People?” Henry had never heard the term before.

“Those you call Native Americans—Navajo, to be precise. This is their home, and you can sense that.”

Henry had to admit, he did feel at home in this glorious land of color and majesty. It surpassed anything his imagination could create on its own.

Brianna had silently crept next to Henry. “We belong here, don’t we, Henry?”

“Do you feel it, too?”

“I feel something different,” she said. “It’s a good feeling, but it’s kind of scary, too. It’s like I don’t know who I am.”

Henry smiled but refrained from saying You’re a hedgehog. Instead, he said what he felt. “Do you see how beautiful the sky is? I think you’re a part of it, Brianna. And every time I see a sky this color, I’m going to think of you.”

She blushed, bringing a light flush of lavender to her face, and curled onto his lap.

Coralis knew when to stop. He had not witnessed a moment like this in a very long time. Not just the bonding of two children, but the bonding of a team. A family.

Coralis had thought he had stopped growing many years ago. But with each turn of the train’s wheels, he felt the hard shell in which he had encased himself begin to crack and crumble.