Summary

Chapter 1 is titled “Extra-Ordinary” and opens with the narrator – 10-year-old Caleb Franklin – saying that Styx Malone was “like magic” the summer he arrived in their lives in Sutton, Indiana. Caleb has a brother, 11-year-old Bobby Gene, and a 1-year-old sister, Susie. They live with their parents, Bobby and Angie Franklin. Bobby is a proponent of safe and ordinary. One day, he calls Caleb “extra-ordinary,” and Caleb is hurt, feeling that his father is saying he is very ordinary. Caleb sleeps on the top bunk above his brother, and he has pictures taped on the ceiling, including the Grand Canyon and the Milky Way. His father often watches television, and Caleb is sometimes enamored with the wonders he sees, such as a show about dolphins. Angie works at a hospital. One evening, while she is at work, Bobby takes the three children to the...