The Mysterious Stranger

Ever since a national magazine ran an article about Whit's End, strange mail has been arriving at the shop - one family even asks if they can rent a room. But nothing prepares Whit for the young man who walks through the door and stares around in wonder, murmuring that the place is real. He introduces himself as Kent Wakefield of Pittsburgh, and he makes a claim that cannot possibly be true: he says he lived in this house as a small child. He remembers the stained glass decoration above the kitchen door, and he knows exactly where the old servants' staircase is hidden - even though Whit has owned the building for years, and before that it was the city's recreation center. Over tea, Kent explains that his parents died tragically when he was little. The uncle who took him in moved him away and would never tell him where the house stood, so Kent has spent his life dreaming about it. The magazine photographs finally led him to Odyssey.

Whit cannot let the puzzle go. At the newspaper office, Dale Jacobs and his young intern, Lucy, have searched the archives and found nothing about any Kent Wakefield, and the Hall of Records is just as empty - as far as Odyssey is concerned, the man does not exist. Lucy tags along as Whit visits the police station, where Detective Aldridge confirms only that Kent is a real person with a spotless record, and suggests a long shot: check the blueprints at City Hall. There, Whit is stopped by a man in a wheelchair who introduces himself as James Wakefield, Kent's uncle. Privately he tells Whit a sad story - that he adopted Kent, that the boy's parents likely died in a terrible fire when Kent was about three, and that Kent never recovered. The uncle says Kent escapes from time to time, wandering to small towns searching for the house where his parents died, and warns that his nephew is, quite literally, insane. Meanwhile, back at Whit's End, Connie is being rattled by anonymous phone calls from a voice that whispers "Beware" and hangs up.

Whit is relieved to have an explanation, yet something still nags at him - Kent truly recognized the place. Studying the old blueprints, Whit finds an architect's note: Whit's End was modeled after something called the Tate House. Mr. Lyle, grandson of the original architect, fills in the history. Whit's End was built on the site of the old town church, designed to look like a house, and for four years it was even the mayor's home. And it was copied from the Tate House, the home of a wealthy railroad developer on old Route 40 - a house that burned down more than twenty years ago. In the newspaper archives, Whit and Lucy find the fire report: possible arson, never proven. Katherine Anderson died in the smoke, her husband Steven Anderson was still alive when he was taken to the hospital, and their three-year-old son, Kenneth Anderson, was placed in a foster home. Kenneth - Kent. It seems far too close to be a coincidence. Then Lucy finds a photograph of the Tate House taken before the fire, and it looks exactly like Whit's End.

While Whit and Lucy drive out to explore the charred ruins, trouble is brewing back at the shop. Scrubb tells Connie that a man upstairs is frightening the kids away from the train room. It is Kent, running the trains recklessly and refusing to leave. He insists that Whit's End is his home, that his uncle tells lies about him, and that no one will believe him. When Connie tries to slip away, he grabs her arm, and she cries out for help. At the same moment, out in the blackened shell of the Tate House, Whit realizes that everything Kent has told them has proven true - and then he and Lucy hear something moving in the ruins. Hoping it is only the wind, Whit tells Lucy to go. On opposite ends of Odyssey, Whit and Connie are both in danger, and the story breaks off right there, to be continued.