Jeanne DuPrau - The Prophet of Yonwood The Third Book of Ember

Contents The Vision..................................................................................................................................................5 CHAPTER 1 - The Inheritance..................................................................................................................7 CHAPTER 2 - The Third Floor...............................................................................................................12 CHAPTER 3 - The Girl in the Closet......................................................................................................15 CHAPTER 4 - Break-In...........................................................................................................................20 CHAPTER 5 - The Fiery Vision..............................................................................................................24 CHAPTER 6 - Mrs. Beesons Idea..........................................................................................................29 CHAPTER 7 - The Short Way Home......................................................................................................36 CHAPTER 8 - A Crack in the Sky..........................................................................................................40 CHAPTER 9 - At the Prophets House....................................................................................................42 CHAPTER 10 - The Photograph and the Journal....................................................................................47 CHAPTER 11 - Trouble Spots.................................................................................................................52 CHAPTER 12 - Inside the Backyard Shed..............................................................................................56 CHAPTER 13 - The Perfect Living Room..............................................................................................59 CHAPTER 14 - Someone in the Basement.............................................................................................64 CHAPTER 15 - Up to the Woods............................................................................................................70 CHAPTER 16 - The Snakes Dinner.......................................................................................................73 CHAPTER 17 - Hoyt McCoys Horrible House.....................................................................................78 CHAPTER 18 - What Grover Saw..........................................................................................................81 CHAPTER 19 - Blue Envelopes..............................................................................................................86 CHAPTER 20 - Orders............................................................................................................................92 CHAPTER 21 - Getting Ready for the Open House...............................................................................95 CHAPTER 22 - An Indoor Universe.......................................................................................................99 CHAPTER 23 - The Emergency Meeting.............................................................................................103 CHAPTER 24 - The Bracelet.................................................................................................................106 CHAPTER 25 - The Open House..........................................................................................................110 CHAPTER 26 - Catastrophe..................................................................................................................115 CHAPTER 27 - The Chase....................................................................................................................119 CHAPTER 28 - One More Trip to the Woods.......................................................................................123 CHAPTER 29 - The Last Day...............................................................................................................128 CHAPTER 30 - Nickie and the Prophet................................................................................................131 CHAPTER 31 - Love.............................................................................................................................135 What Happened Afterward....................................................................................................................140 Acknowledgments..................................................................................................................................144 The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.J.B.S. HaldaneThe Vision On a warm July afternoon in the town of Yonwood, North Carolina, a woman named Althea Tower went out to her backyard to fill the bird feeder. She opened her sack of sunflower seeds, lifted the bird feeders lidand that was when, without warning, the vision assailed her. It was like a waking dream. The trees and grass and birds faded away, and in their place she saw blinding flashes of light so searingly bright she staggered backward, dropped her sack of birdseed, and fell to the ground.

Billows of fire rose around her, and a hot wind roared. She felt herself flung high into the sky, and from there she looked down on a dreadful scene. The whole earth boiled with flames and black smoke. The noise was terriblea howling and crashing and cracklingand finally, when the firestorm subsided, there came a silence that was more terrible still. When the vision finally faded, it left Althea stunned. She lay on the ground, unable to move, with her mind all jumbled and birds pecking at the spilled birdseed around her.

She might have lain there for hours if Mrs. Brenda Beeson had not happened to come by a few minutes later to bring her a basket of strawberries. Seeing Althea on the ground, Mrs. Beeson rushed forward. She bent over her friend and spoke to her, but Althea only moaned. So Mrs.

Beeson used her cell phone to call for help. Within minutes, four of her best friendsthe doctor, the police chief, the town mayor, and the minister of the churchhad all arrived. The doctor squatted beside Althea and spoke slowly and loudly. Can you tell us whats wrong? he said. What is it? Althea shivered. Her lips twisted as she tried to speak.

Everyone leaned in to hear. Its God, she whispered. God. I sawI saw She trailed off. Merciful heavens, said Brenda Beeson. Shes had a vision.

Of course they didnt know at first what her vision had been. They thought maybe shed seen God. But why would that frighten her so? Why would she be muttering about fire and smoke and disaster? Days went by, and Althea didnt get better. She lay on her bed hardly moving, staring into the air and mumbling. Then, exactly a week later, a clue to the mystery came. The president of the United States announced that talks with the Phalanx Nations had reached a crisis.

Their leaders would not give in on any of their demands, and the leaders of the United States would not give in on theirs. Unless some sort of agreement could be reached, the president said, it might be necessary to go to war. Brenda Beeson made the connection right away: War! That must be what Althea Tower had seen. Mrs. Beeson called her friends, they told their friends, the newspaper wrote it up, and soon the whole town knew: Althea Tower had seen the future, and it was terrible. All over Yonwood, people gathered in frightened clusters to talk.

Could it be true? The more they thought about it, the more it seemed it could be. Althea had always been a quiet, sensible person, not the sort to make things up. And these were strange times, what with conflicts and terrorists and talk of the end of the worldjust the kind of times when visions and miracles were likely to happen. Brenda Beeson formed a committee to take care of Althea and pay attention to anything else she might say. People wrote letters to the newspaper about her and left flowers and ribbons and handwritten notes in front of her house. The minister spoke of her in church.