From the Dust Returned

From the Dust Returned
Ray Douglas Bradbury

Enter the strange world of the Elliott family: it will change you forever…They have lived for centuries in a house of legend and mystery in upper Illinois – and they are not like other midwesterners. Rarely encountered in daylight hours, their children are curious and wild; their old ones have survived since before the Sphinx first sank its paws deep in Egyptian sands. And some sleep in beds with lids.Now the house is being readied in anticipation of the gala homecoming that will gather together the far-flung branches of this odd and remarkable family where they will mix their arcane skills and lifestyles, fall in and out of love and change the world around them forever.You have never seen their like before.

Ray Bradbury

From the Dust Returned

Dedication

To the two midwives of this book:

DON CONGDON,

who was in at the beginning in 1946,

AND JENNIFER BREHL,

who helped bring it to completion in 2000.

With gratitude and love.

Contents

Dedication

Prologue

The Beautiful One Is Here

Chapter 1

The Town and the Place

Chapter 2

Anuba Arrives

Chapter 3

The High Attic

Chapter 4

The Sleeper and Her Dreams

Chapter 5

The Wandering Witch

Chapter 6

Whence Timothy?

Chapter 7

The House, the Spider, and the Child

Chapter 8

Mouse, Far-Traveling

Chapter 9

Homecoming

Chapter 10

West of October

Chapter 11

Many Returns

Chapter 12

On the Orient North

Chapter 13

Nostrum Paracelsius Crook

Chapter 14

The October People

Chapter 15

Uncle Einar

Chapter 16

The Whisperers

Chapter 17

The Theban Voice

Chapter 18