Chap­ter 1 unfolds in the small, qui­et town of Green Town, Illi­nois, where an unusu­al sense of ten­sion fills the air on a chill­ing Octo­ber day. The towns­peo­ple go about their busi­ness as nor­mal, yet the approach­ing storm car­ries an omi­nous weight, as if it’s more than just a change in weath­er. As the storm draws clos­er, a mys­te­ri­ous fig­ure, a light­ning-rod sales­man, appears in the streets, dressed in dark attire and car­ry­ing a heavy leather kit filled with odd, iron tools. His pres­ence seems almost unnat­ur­al, a stark con­trast to the peace­ful sur­round­ings. He approach­es two boys, Will Hal­loway and Jim Night­shade, who are seat­ed on a hill­side, engrossed in the sim­ple task of mak­ing twig whis­tles. The boys share a deep and unique con­nec­tion, born just min­utes apart on Hal­loween, and their friend­ship forms the foun­da­tion of their adven­tures. The coin­ci­dence of their shared birth­date cre­ates a bond that feels almost fat­ed, one that sets them apart from the rest of the world.

The sales­man engages with the boys, ask­ing for their names and if they have any mon­ey, only to find that they are both with­out funds. Unde­terred, he offers them an iron light­ning rod for free, warn­ing them that one of the near­by hous­es is like­ly to be struck by light­ning in the com­ing storm. The rod, unlike any­thing they’ve ever seen before, is adorned with strange sym­bols and engrav­ings from var­i­ous cul­tures. As they exam­ine the object, Jim iden­ti­fies a scarab bee­tle among the designs, while Will, filled with doubt, ques­tions whether the rod can actu­al­ly serve its intend­ed pur­pose. Despite their skep­ti­cism, the boys can’t help but feel a strange allure to the rod, as if the mys­te­ri­ous man’s warn­ing holds some weight. The strange sym­bol­ism and the man’s insis­tence seem to make the rod more than just a sim­ple object, stir­ring their curios­i­ty even fur­ther.

The sales­man con­tin­ues to explain, sug­gest­ing that some peo­ple attract light­ning, hint­ing that one of the boys’ homes is par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble. He empha­sizes that the rod must be installed before the storm arrives, in order to ground the strike and pro­tect the house. He inspects Jim’s home close­ly, claim­ing it to be the most like­ly tar­get for the light­ning, while dis­miss­ing Will’s house as less like­ly to be affect­ed. The strange man’s words, filled with both author­i­ty and urgency, raise the ten­sion in the air. The boys, though uncer­tain, can’t help but feel the weight of his words, even as they remain unsure about the valid­i­ty of his claims. The dark­en­ing sky and the increas­ing rum­bles of thun­der make the storm feel immi­nent, and the unease around them grows stronger, as if some­thing beyond their under­stand­ing is unfold­ing.

As the storm looms clos­er, a sense of con­flict builds between the boys. Jim, ever the skep­tic, down­plays the dan­ger and refus­es to take the salesman’s advice seri­ous­ly. Will, how­ev­er, feels an over­whelm­ing sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty and fear for their safe­ty. His con­cern push­es him to act, and he rush­es off to find a lad­der, deter­mined to install the rod him­self. The urgency grows as the storm’s approach becomes more unde­ni­able, with thun­der crack­ing in the dis­tance. Will’s deter­mi­na­tion to act, fueled by his pro­tec­tive instincts, con­trasts with Jim’s reluc­tance, cre­at­ing a pal­pa­ble ten­sion between the two. Jim, after a moment of hes­i­ta­tion, final­ly agrees to join Will, and togeth­er, they pre­pare to secure the rod. Their friend­ship, test­ed by fear and uncer­tain­ty, is strength­ened in this moment of shared resolve. As the storm threat­ens to unleash its fury, the boys brace for what lies ahead, unaware that this deci­sion will set them on a path toward unimag­in­able adven­tures. The mix­ture of child­hood inno­cence, fear of the unknown, and the bond between the two boys cre­ates a sense of antic­i­pa­tion for the chal­lenges that await them.