Elatsoe: Chapters 17–26

Unfortunately, their car broke down. After puttering ominously, it stopped on the railroad tracks. The girlfriend looked out her window and saw the marble plaque; she knew that it marked the spot where all those children died.

The insular kind of patriotism that functioned at a county-wide, not country-wide, level.

Was he actually the town’s founder? When she first read that fact in Brett's report, Ellie assumed that the kid meant “honorary founder.”

Willowbee was a posthumous extension of Nathaniel Grace's work.

“So, ah, let's start looking! If we finish quickly enough, there's bound to be ice cream in town."
“That's the kind of incentive I need to speed-read!"

Ellie started her perusal at the sprawling model of Willowbee that dominated the center of the room.

According to an informative plaque, a local architect had painstakingly handcrafted miniature versions of every building in Willowbee.

It smelled like lemon-scented cleaning fluid; the librarian must have wiped it recently, wiping away the fingerprints and smudges that inevitably multiplied on transparent surfaces.

Ellie smiled ruefully. "Remember why my family guards Six-Great-Grandmother's technique to wake the dead?”

Although Ellie and Jay spent another twenty minutes in the museum, their research only confirmed what they knew already: Willowbee, founded by the disciples and progeny of Nathaniel Grace, was notable for its clinic.

He leaned closer, rapt, a smudge of chocolate on his upper lip.

“My question just seems so frivolous.”
“What seems so frivolous?”
“In the hypothetical event of my wedding..."

“How about yes, on the caveat that I have no idea what I’m agreeing to and may not survive the summer."

The small-scale replica of Allerton’s clinic had been so innocuous. What about the real thing? There had to be something off about it. An energy, an unwelcomeness.

A conspicuously locked cellar. Barbed wire around the parking lot.

Then again, Ellie's parents would be lividly disappointed if she visited Allerton's den away from home.

Windows boarded up, entrance guarded by a stoic, muscly bouncer.

A single receptionist sat behind a counter; the sixty-something woman, who had hair as fine white as lamb's wool, eyed Ellie warily.

Ellie knew that it was possible to graft a lemon branch onto an orange tree and grow two kinds of fruit on the same plant.

The dances of magic users can be powerful. Their 'midnight revels, by a forest side or fountain, some belated peasant sees, or dreams he sees.'

She could vindicate herself and amaze the class with just one innocent command.

There are military-grade “sound cannons” that can incapacitate human targets with sonic waves. The notorious Sargasso Sirens concert rocked so loud, eardrums burst in the mosh pit.

Neither could hold a candle to the unbridled voice of a dead hound.

Buffeted by the foghorn howl, she could not hear herself scream.

They left, and Ellie suspected that her mother just wanted a chance to confer with Dan alone. As if Ellie were still a child, too vulnerable and naïve to make grown-up decisions about her life.

Lenore had been sullen and quiet that evening, barely speaking at supper.

“Circumstantial stuff. Anyway, by the time Jay and I found the crash site with his aunt Bell, it had been cleaned up, but we found enough plastic and paint that I’m sure the car was totaled. It's also possible that Allerton wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Here's the thing: he had this accident along Cuz's route home from work. It's an isolated road near Willowbee."

He didn’t call an ambulance. Didn't even try first aid. No. Instead, he—alone or with cronies, I don't know—returned Cuz to his car and abandoned it on a different road.

The president wrote Dr. Allerton's predecessors a thank-you letter after the procedure. The doctors miraculously healed everything.

“It's quite possible that they believe Dr. Allerton and his ilk are miraculous healers," Vivian said.

Your six-great-grandfather loved all his animals, but one—a quick mare with a dappled coat of gray and black—was special.

I believe that muskets were the gun of choice for soldiers. The long, unwieldy kind that used musket balls and had to be loaded with each shot. Unreliable things. Hard to aim, unless they were fired at close range or enchanted.

And yes, your six-great-grandmother had a reputation as a formidable warrior. She was very successful at defending her family.

Naturally, she fretted whenever her mother left the safety of home to fight encroaching threats.

Gregory was crawling across the cracked earth, a mostly toothless smile on his cherubic face.

Ronnie sounded terse, a concerning departure from her typical boisterous, confident cheeriness.

Ronnie sounded terse, a concerning departure from her typical boisterous, confident cheeriness.

“If Al is trapped in the mansion, an exorcism might hurt him. They tend to get chaotic. Violent. Lots of collateral damage."

Once the call ended, Ellie clasped her hands, imitating penitence.

Her black T-shirt was emblazoned with green 0s and 1s, binary code.