CHAPTER 1 Jerome Barnes was exploring the junkyard when something curious caught his eye Off in the distance past the stacks of tires and dilapidated automobiles and ancient water heaters and bales of wire crows First there were two then four then eight Of course crows weren’t out of the ordinary in Shoney Flats but soon there were a dozen of them and they were behaving in a way Jerome had never seen before swooping and calling excitedly as though they’d cornered something they weren’t quite sure about Which made Jerome want to see what it was So he made his way to the far side of the junkyard being careful not to walk into rusty old fenders or mufflers or sheets of metal doing his best not to lose sight of the great black birds Then as he found himself in the shadows 1
