Chapter 1 I don't know if you've ever seen a house burn, but it's not like anything else. It's nothing like the out of-control bushfire that you see every summer on TV. It's more contained, as if the fire has its own plan. It seems to burn in on itself, like a marshmallow on a stick when you go camping. The smoke is thick and black and plumes up into the air. And the fire just roars through, room by room, chewing it all up. I watched it. Dad and I both did. By the time we drove up with our pizza boxes ready for dinner, the fire had already destroyed the back half of the house. It was a Thursday and I'd been at netball training. Dad had picked me up because he'd work late.