Chapter 1
Alex Collins was never asleep when he was supposed to be. His parents gave up trying to hide holiday gifts or replace his lost teeth with money before he turned five. He was the kind of kid who didn’t care for surprises anyway. He preferred to know what lay ahead of him. By the time his brother and sister were old enough to consider sneaking out of the house at night, they already knew it would be pointless.
Life on the outskirts Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, gave Alex the stability he craved. Giggling about the French translation of Fond du Lac as Bottom of the Lake before he even started school gave him the first taste of the humor that would always sustain him.
He saw patterns all around him. The orderly grids of streets, noises and bursts of activity with shift changes at factor
