Chapters (73)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Prologue
- Part IAnnie
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Part IIHarry
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Part IIIAnnie
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Part IVHarry
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Part VAnnie
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Also by Linwood Barclay
- About the Publisher
He wished he could tell his mother he was going. Then they could take the car, which would not only be faster, but would take a whole lot less energy than would be required to ride a bike all the way to Vermont. But he knew that if he told his mother that they had to go Lucknow because his dad was there, she’d be all, “Oh, Charlie, no one wants your father to still be alive more than I do, but I’m sorry, he’s no longer with us.”
Other mothers might have said he was in heaven now, something along those lines, but Charlie’s mother had never been a very religious person. You were alive, or you were dead, simple as that. But Charlie knew different.
Charlie could have told her he’d been talking to his father, that his dad had shown him how to get the key to the shed, that his dad had told him he was living in the real town that was the inspiration for the one Charlie had made on the floor of his mother’s studio, but what was the point? Some days you just couldn’t talk to her.
Which left Charlie with no choice but to leave without telling her. He didn’t know where, exactly, Lucknow was, but he wasn’t worried about that. His father would guide him, tell him which roads to take. All Charlie knew for sure was that it was a very long way, which was why he had been riding his bike so much, around and around the house, building up his strength, so that when it was time to go, he’d be up to it.
He figured his mother would be all worried when she woke up and found him gone, because mothers were like that. She’d be mad, too. But when he found his father, and when he brought him back, and they were a family again, he was pretty sure his mother would forgive him.
After only ten miles, or at least what he guessed were ten miles, since he didn’t have any way to accurately measure distance, he was exhausted.
The sun was coming up ahead of him, and while he had no real idea where he was, the sun rose in the east, and Vermont was east, or so his father had told him. The sun was a reassuring sight, but holy moly was he tired.
It was time for a break.