The Ten Thousand Doors of January

In 1903, January is nine years old and better behaved, but still loves reading and stories. Her only friend is Samuel Zappia, the neighbor boy who drives the grocery cart. He often brings her stories to read, and she sneaks them back with the most exciting lines circled. Because January feels lonely, she jumps at the chance to join Locke on another trip, this time to London. Locke has a meeting with his Society, and January catches a glimpse of some of the members. One of them in particular, a red-haired man, strikes her as strange and threatening. All of the members have “a kind of collective not-quite-rightness, as if they weren’t men at all but other kinds of creatures stuffed into black-buttoned suits” (26). January behaves obediently on their trip out of hunger for Locke’s approval, and glows when he gifts her a new book as a reward for good behavior.

Fast forward to 1906. January is 12, and while her father arrives home between travels, she longs for a traditional family with a mother and a present father. January asks to go with Julian on his next trip, but he says his trips are too dangerous for a young girl.