Free The Prophet of Yonwood by Jeanne DuPrau

goodness, just the way exercise strengthened muscles.
    So she made a cup of mint tea instead and carried it up to the nursery, where she took her Look at Later pile from the toy cabinet and set it on the window seat. The light was dim there because of the blankets she and Amanda had hung over the windows, and because of the cloudy sky. She pushed one of the blankets aside a little and settled down with a big red pillow at her back. Otis jumped up next to her.
    The first thing she wanted to check was that envelope shed begun to look at yesterday. She picked it up and slid out the photograph. It was brownish and had a cardboard backing. It showed six peopletwo men and two women, seated, and two children sitting on the floor in front of them. They wore old-fashioned outfits and had sour looks on their faces, as if they were annoyed with the photographer for making them sit still so long.
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    There was something odd about the two men, who sat next to each other in the center of the group. At first Nickie thought one of them was sitting in the other ones lap. She looked closer. The two men, who looked just alike, seemed to be stuck together. Yes! They were joined by what looked like a thick finger of flesh that went from the stomach of one to the stomach of the other. That was why they were sitting in that odd way. They were twinsconnected twins, or something like that. There was another word for it that she couldnt remember.
    Under the picture, someone had written, The Mssrs. Bunker and Their Wives, visitors to Greenhaven on June 4, 1868.
    Visitors to Greenhaven! They had been here, in this house. She gazed at the picture a long time. How would it be to live your life attached to someone else? You could never get away from each other, not to go for a walk, not in bed at night, not even in the bathroom! If one was sick, the other would have to lie there, too. If one wanted to go downtown and the other wanted to stay home and read the newspaper, theyd have to negotiate about it and try to agree. Each one would always hear everything the other one said. It was the strangest kind of life she could imagine.
    She put the picture back in its envelope and took up the small brown notebook that Amanda had brought to her, the one her great-grandfather had written in. She read the first entry again, where he said hed been having odd experiences, and then she read on.
    12/10 Its the second-floor bedroom, I think, the one at the west end of the hall. Why there? Some memory being triggered? Cant figure it out.
    12/13 Darn hip giving me trouble. Stayed in bed most of the day.
    12/19 Althea T. still not speaking much after nearly six months. Brenda B. very worried about her.
    He was writing about the Prophet! But then the next entry was about something quite different:
    12/27 Could past, present, and future all exist at the same time? And certain people slip around between them? See theories set forth in recent sci. journals. Ask M.
    Hmmm. What was that about?
    A movement on the sidewalk below caught her attention. She looked out the window. There was Mrs. Beeson, wearing a rain jacket with the hood up over her baseball cap, walking a long-bodied, short-legged dog on a leash. That must be Sausage, Nickie thought. She watched as Mrs. Beeson passed, walked on, and turned in at a house across the street. It was a brick house, old but well cared for, with a straight path that led to a white front door with a tall, narrow window on each side. Two bushes flanked the door, both of them trimmed into neat round shapes like green beach balls. It was a perfect-looking house, Nickie thought, just right for Mrs. Beeson, who was aiming to get rid of all the wrongness in Yonwood. If only the wholeworld could be that way!
    She watched until Mrs. Beeson and Sausage had disappeared into the house. Then she lay back on the big red pillow to think for a while, and the