Nearly a decade had passed since the DeLace's had woken up to find Nathan on their doorstep, but the house had barely changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass address number on the DeLaces' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. DeLace had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had gone by. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets — but Alicia DeLace was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond girl playing with her first dollhouse, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with her father, being hugged and kissed by her mother. The room held no sign at all that a boy lived in the house, too.

Yet Nathan Torrance was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Poppy was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.

"Up! Get up! Now!"

Nathan woke with a start. His aunt knocked again.

"Up" she shrieked. Nathan heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a fairy in it.

His aunt was back outside the door.

"Are you up yet?" she demanded.

"Nearly," said Nathan.

"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Allie's birthday."

Alicia's birthday, how could he have forgotten? Nathan got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Nathan was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.

When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Alicia's birthday presents. It looked as though Alicia had gotten the new computer she wanted, not to mention the second television and the new clothes, as well as a riding bike. Why she wanted a bike Nathan didn't know since Alicia was very fat and hated excerising, unless it involved punching Nathan of course. Which she didn't get to do often because she often couldn't catch him. Nathan was a lot faster than he looked.

Nathan had a thin face, knobbly knees, brown hair, and bright red eyes. He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Alicia had punched him on the nose. The only thing Nathan liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a ball of fire. He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Poppy was how he had gotten it.

"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions."

"Don't ask questions" was the first rule for a quiet life with the DeLaces.

Uncle Robert entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.

"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.

About once a week, Uncle Robert looked over the top of his phone and shouted that Nathan needed a haircut. Nathan must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew all over the place.

Nathan was frying eggs by the time Alicia arrived in the kitchen with her mother. Alicia looked a lot like Uncle Robert. She had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick, long, blond hair. Aunt Poppy often said that Alicia looked like a baby angel, Harry often said that Alicia looked like a pig in a wig.

Nathan put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Alicia, meanwhile, was counting her presents. Her face fell.

"Thirty-six," she said, looking up at her mother and father. "That's two less than last year."

"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marlene's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."

"All right, thirty-seven then," said Alicia, going red in the face. Nathan, who could see a huge Alicia tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Alicia turned the table over.

Aunt Poppy obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right

Alicia thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally she said slowly, "So I'll have thirty… thirty…"

Thirty-nine, sweety," said Aunt Poppy.

"Oh." Alicia sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."

Uncle Robert chuckled.

"Little girl wants her money's worth, just like her father. 'Atta girl, Alicia!" He ruffled Alicia's hair.

At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Poppy went to answer it while Nathan and Uncle Robert watched Alicia unwrap her gifts. She was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Poppy came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.

"Bad news, Robert," she said. "Mrs. Snyder's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Nathan's direction.

Alicia's mouth fell open in horror, but Nathan's heart gave a leap. Every year on Alicia's birthday, her parents took her out wherever she wanted. Every year, Nathan was left behind with Mrs. Snyder, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Nathan hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Snyder made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.

"Now what?" said Aunt Poppy, looking furiously at Nathan as though he'd planned this. Nathan knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Snyderhad broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at her cats again.

"We could phone Marlene," Uncle Robert suggested.

"Don't be silly, Robert, she hates the boy."

The DeLaces often spoke about Nathan like this, as though he wasn't there or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.

"You could just leave me here," Nathan saidhopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Alicia's computer).

Aunt Poppy looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.

"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.

"I won't blow up the house," said Nathan, but they weren't listening.

"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Poppy slowly, "… and leave him in the car…"

"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone…"

Alicia began to cry loudly. In fact, she wasn't really crying, it had been years since she'd really cried, but she knew that if she screwed up his face and wailed, her mother would give her anything she wanted.

"Allie sweetie, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around her daughter.

"I… don't… want… him… t-t-to come!" Alicia yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" She shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in her mother's arms. Just then, the doorbell rang…

"Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Poppy frantically, and a moment later, Alicia's best friend, Persephone Pollers, walked in with her mother. Persephone was a scrawny girl with a face like a rat. She was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Alicia hit them. Alicia stopped pretending to cry at once.

Half an hour later, Nathan, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the DeLace's' car with Persephone and Alicia, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Robert had taken Nathan aside.

"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Nathan's, "I'm warning you now, boy, any funny business, anything at all and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."

"I'm not going to do anything," said Nathan, "honestly…"

But Uncle Robert didn't believe him. No one ever did.

The problem was, strange things often happened around Nathan and it was just no good telling the DeLaces he didn't make them happen.

Once, Aunt Poppy, tired of Nathan coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar."Alicia had giggled herself silly at Nathan, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Poppy had sheared it off. He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Alicia and Persephone to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Snyder's cabbage-smelling living room.