Summary

Chapter 1 features the third-person perspective of 11-year-old Jack Cheng, who woke one night in November 2003 to a strange sound. He went downstairs and discovered the front door was open. Having recently found his five-year-old sister Annabel sleepwalking in the kitchen, he knew she must have left the house this time. He found one of her slippers in the yard and Annabel herself at a nearby creek. As he began to lead her home, Annabel, still asleep, called Jack “Daddy” (4). When they made it back to the house, Annabel kicked the welcome mat askew on her way inside. Jack felt good about protecting his sister.

Jack was five himself when he came to Plano, Texas to live with his parents. Previously, he had been raised by his grandparents, called Lăolao and Lăoye, in Tianjin, China. His parents had gone to America when...