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PROLOGUE

Jamie

J amie sat in the dark kitchen, munching on his cereal. For once, his mom had gotten something properly sweet and sugary, with these colorful little crunchy marshmallows Jamie was trying and failing to save for last. So yummy.

Did she know what was about to happen? Jamie hadn’t told. But maybe the grown-ups had other ways of knowing…

He looked up from his bowl as the kitchen light turned on. There was a loud thump. A suitcase falling on the floor.

“Jesus Christ!” Jamie’s dad had a hand held up to his heart, like Jamie’s surprise presence in the kitchen had caused it to stop in his chest. But Jamie didn’t have that power.

Wouldn’t it be cool if he did though?

“You scared me, son. It’s three in the morning. What are you doing up?”

Jamie studied his father intently. His hair was such a light brown it was almost blond. And those blue eyes always a little red-rimmed. Jamie looked nothing like him.

He was happy about that.

“Couldn’t sleep. Just having some cereal.” Jamie crunched a marshmallow between his teeth for effect. “What are you doing, Dad? Leaving?”

His dad stared at him in that way he did sometimes, like Jamie was strange, like his dad was afraid of him. Then he shook his head like he was clearing his thoughts and answered the question. “Business trip, buddy. Got an early flight.”

“Leaving and not coming back,” Jamie mused, stirring his spoon around in his bowl.

There it was again, flashing across his dad’s face. Definitely fear. “Why do you say that?”

Jamie just crunched his cereal some more. It was a stupid question, and his dad knew it.

“Did you—did you see something, buddy?”

Ooh, interesting. Jamie smiled, setting his spoon down. This was new. His dad never liked to talk about Jamie’s…specialness. “What would I have seen, Dad?”

But the moment of honesty was apparently already over, because his dad shook his head. “Nothing. It’s just a work trip, buddy. I’ll be back in a week. Wouldn’t want to miss you turning the big eleven.”

Jamie shrugged off that silly statement. Trying to distract Jamie with mentions of birthdays? Ridiculous.

His dad turned to leave.

“Sandra,” Jamie said softly. So softly.

But his dad heard it. His face went white.

“You think I might have seen Sandra, Dad?” Jamie asked. “Or…California?”

Oh, his dad did not like that at all . He was shaking his head again, but he was starting to look more angry than scared. Would he yell at Jamie? It wouldn’t be the first time he’d blamed his son for something Jamie had seen in his dreams.

As if Jamie had a choice what visions came to him. As if he had a choice about any of it.

“There’s no way.” His dad ground his teeth as he said it, and the words came out gritty. Like rocks smashing together. “I’ve never— There’s no way you could know that name.”

Jamie sighed like he’d seen the adults around him do when they were super disappointed in something. The denial was boring and pointless, but his dad never seemed to get tired of it.

Like now. “It’s not natural,” his dad was spitting out. “ You’re not natural.”

Jamie didn’t know what that even meant. He’d been born on this planet, hadn’t he? He hadn’t been built in a lab or flown in from outer space. How could he be “not natural”?

“You shouldn’t know these things. You don’t know these things.” His dad grabbed his suitcase off the floor. “I’ll be back in a week. Back by your birthday.”

He didn’t hug Jamie goodbye. Didn’t even glance back. He just left the room with his lie floating in the air.

Jamie knew it was a lie, because he’d seen his birthday. Mamá had been there. Also a new bike. But no Dad. And there wouldn’t be again. He had a new family now. Sandra and her kids in California.

Sucks to be them , Jamie thought. He refused to be sad about it. He wasn’t sad about it. What did Jamie want with someone who didn’t want him? Who would leave Jamie’s mom—the best lady in the whole wide world—behind just because his kid creeped him out sometimes?

It’s not even my fault. I didn’t ask for any of it.

Jamie wasn’t sure how long he sat there in the kitchen, but his cereal was all soggy by the time his mom came in, doing that special waddle she did now that her pregnant belly had gotten so massive.

He didn’t mind her big belly. She was growing his little sister in there. One who was going to look just like him and Mamá. Dark hair, dark eyes. Beautiful.

“Mijo, what are you doing up?” His mom kissed his forehead in passing, and some of that dark, icky feeling his dad had left behind went away at the gesture.

Jamie smiled brightly at her. “I like this new cereal you got.”

“Mm. Thought you would,” she said, grabbing the kettle off the stove and filling it with water. “Although, that was supposed to be for a certain special occasion.”

“Dad left for his business trip.”

His mom’s hand froze with the kettle hanging over the sink, her whole body rigid from his words. “Did he now?”

For the first time that morning, Jamie felt a little…

lost. Should he tell her? He didn’t want to lie— he wasn’t a liar—but he didn’t want to make her sad either.

Should he have warned her before? But telling people ahead of time never seemed to do any good.

It only freaked them out, or they got all angry when things turned out exactly the way Jamie had said they would.

But then his mom turned and looked at him, her dark eyes serious, and he realized she already knew. And that she knew he knew.

They shared a long look, he and Mamá. But she didn’t ask him any questions, or tell him how weird and “unnatural” he was for knowing the grown-up stuff he wasn’t supposed to know about. She just smiled at him.

It wasn’t her best, brightest smile, but it wasn’t too bad either.

“Maybe I’ll have a bowl of cereal too.”