Without asking permission, young Chase Masters decides to repair his kid sister Monica’s tree house. He makes some progress but leaves the tools out in the yard. The next morning at breakfast, as storm clouds pour rain on the house, Chase’s dad, John, a successful building contractor, notices the abandoned tools—they are always to be treated reverently, cleaned, and put away properly—and points them out. Chase leaps up to bring in the tools, but John tells him to finish eating while he retrieves them and inspects Chase’s treehouse work.

Chase feels relieved. His mom and Monica died a year earlier, and talking about them is hard for him and his dad, so he’s glad his father isn’t angry about the tools or the impromptu treehouse repairs. John climbs the tree trunk rungs, but, partway up, he’s struck by lightning. Neighbors hurry over, and two who are doctors find that he’s not breathing and give him CPR.

Two days later, John wakes from a coma. Chase feels terrible about leaving the tools out, but John says the lightning was fated to strike him and that there’s no hiding from fate. Over the next year, while traveling with his father, Chase decides that fate is “one of those little words with a big meaning” (4).