Chapters 1 - 6. Summary

In Chapter 1, Ellie Harrison and her parents are living in Annapolis, MD for a year while her parents are on sabbatical. Her father is writing a book about a plain sword kept at the history museum in Washington DC. Ellie is thinking about her life in Maryland so far. She enjoys reading, cleaning the pool and drifting in the pool of their rental house all day. She misses her best friend, Nancy, and has been pretty bored since her brother, Geoff, left for college. Ellie is named after the Lady of Shalot from literature, and she doesn't think it is cool. Ellie is going running with her father in a wooded area because her mother wants her father to get some exercise. She also wants Ellie to get out of the pool once in a while. Ellie's mother, also a professor...