Chapter 2, Runaway Summary

Peggy Guester is a sixteen-year-old girl with a powerful psychic ability to see the future and read other people's thoughts. Peggy is known as a "torch," and few people can guess just how pervasive her power, or "knack," is. Peggy constantly remembers attending the birth of Alvin when she was five years old. People often request that Peggy attend births, because she can see the child's future, and warn parents of any pitfalls ahead. When Alvin is born, his birth is very special, because he is the seventh living son of a seventh son. Such a birth is very rare, and people assume that such a child will be a sort of messiah, with the knack of "Maker." Powerful forces desire the death of Alvin, and his family almost drowns at the event of his birth, victims of an enchanted river...