Louis Creed lost his father at the age of 3 and never knew who his grandfather was. He never expected to meet someone like his father when he entered middle age.As a matter of fact, as an adult, and when he was approaching middle age, he had only met such an old man who could have been his father, and Creed had no choice but to call the old man a friend.He met the old man the evening he moved into the big white house in Luther Hall with his wife and two children, as well as his daughter Ally's pet, the cat Winston Churchill, or Churchill for short. of. At first Louis drove the family around the university where he would be teaching to find a house they would move into, but progress was slow, like searching for a needle in a haystack.When they were about to find the house, all the landmarks were right, as clear as the astrological chart of the night Julius Caesar was assassinated.Louis thought wearily. Everyone was exhausted, tense and irritable.The youngest son, Gage, was teething and was messing around almost non-stop, no matter how many lullabies his wife Rachel sang him, he just wouldn't sleep.It wasn't even time to nurse him anymore, and Rachel nursed him anyway, but Gage bit her with his new teeth.Rachel was upset because she didn't know whether it was right to move to Maine from the Chicago she knew where she was born and raised, and she couldn't help crying after being bitten by her son again.Daughter Ellie immediately began to cry too.In the backseat of the station wagon, Church the cat was pacing restlessly, as it had been three days since they drove out of Chicago.Churchy was caged, but he kept whining, so they had to let him out, and his restless movement was really disturbing.

Louis felt like he was going to cry too.A crazy but attractive idea popped into his head: he was going to suggest that everyone go back to Bangor to get something to eat and wait for the luggage van; Hit the gas pedal and drive without looking back, no matter how much expensive gas his four-cylinder carburetor will consume.He would drive south, all the way to Orlando, Florida, where he would change his name and get a job at Walt Disney World as a doctor.But before he hits the Southern 95 Turnpike, he pulls over and throws the damn cat away. Thinking of this, the car turned the last corner again, and he didn't see the house until then.After he secured the position at the University of Maine, he had flown to see the house they had chosen from photographs of seven houses.It's an old New England Colonial house, but it's just been renovated, and it's well insulated and heated, though a little pricey.There are three large rooms downstairs and four more rooms upstairs.A long awning that can also be converted into more rooms later.The house was surrounded by a meadow, which was still lush and green even in the heat of August.

On the other side of the house there was a large field for the children to play in, and on the other side of the field was the endless woods.The realtor had said the property was on the state line and would not be developed for the foreseeable future.Descendants of the Meek Mike Indian tribe hold nearly 8,000 acres of land in Luther House and towns to the east, and the tangled lawsuits, both federal and state, will likely stretch into the next century. Rachel suddenly stopped crying.She sat up straight and said, "That's—" "Yes." Louis said.He's a little uneasy—no, he's scared.In fact, he was intimidated.He mortgaged the house for the next 12 years of their lives, and they couldn't pay off the mortgage until Ellie was 17.

He swallowed. "what do you think?" "Beautiful," Rachel said.A stone fell from Louis' heart.He could tell his wife wasn't joking, and as he circled the asphalt driveway to the awning in the back, he saw his wife's eyes scanning the windows, maybe her mind was wondering what curtains and bowls to use What kind of oilcloth should be spread on the cabinet, God knows what else she was thinking. "Daddy?" Allie said from the backseat.She didn't cry either.Even Gage stopped making noise.Louis was aware of the silence. "What's the matter, dear?"

Allie, eyes brown from the reflection in the rearview mirror and her dark blond hair, was also scanning the house, the meadow, the roof of another house in the distance, and the large field that stretched out into the woods. "Is this home?" "It'll be soon, honey," Louis replied. "Oh!" she yelled, nearly shattering his eardrums.Louis sometimes gets mad at his daughter, but if he sees Disney World in Orlando, he won't mind her screaming. He parked the car in front of the awning and turned off the engine. The engine stopped.After the noise of Chicago, the Loop, and the interstates, in the silence, in the late afternoon, they heard a bird singing sweetly.

"Home," Rachel said softly, still looking at the house. "Home," Gage said smugly, sitting on his mother's lap. Louis and Rachel looked at each other, and in the rearview mirror they saw Ellie's eyes widen. "you" "he" "That is--" They talked together, then laughed together.Gage didn't pay attention to this, he kept eating his thumbs.He's been calling "Ma" for almost a month now, and he can barely make the sound of "ba" when he sees Louis. But this time, perhaps just by accidental imitation, he did say one word: home.

Louis lifted his son from his wife's lap and held him tight. In this way, they came to Luther Town.