Read Online The Stranger by Caroline B. Cooney - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Caroline B. Cooney
Ads: Link
said to each other.
Down.
Down forever, down to certain death.
He could have prevented the hunters from dying, she thought.
Then she thought, No, he couldn’t. They would have killed him first, shot him, it was self-defense, in a way.
Her thoughts leapt back and forth like a tennis ball over a net.
It came to her, as black and bleak as the lakes in the dark, that she had forgotten those two men. They had fallen out the bottom of her mind just as they fell out the bottom of the cave.
Love is amoral, she thought. Love thinks only of itself, or of The Other.
There is no room in love for passersby.
Those hunters. They had passed by, all right.
Did they have wives? Children? Mothers? Jobs?
Nobody will ever find them, thought Nicoletta. They will never be buried. They will never come home. Nobody will ever know.
Unless I tell.
“Good night,” said Christo softly. He walked her up the steps, dizzy with love. Together they stared at the blank wooden face of the door, at the bare nail where last December a Christmas wreath had hung.
Christo’s kiss was long and deep and intense. His lips contained enough energy to win football games, to sing entire concerts. When he finally stopped, and tried to find enough breath to speak, he couldn’t, and just went back to the car.
Behind Nicoletta the door was jerked open and she fell inside, her heart leaping with memories of caves and black lakes, of dancing in front of rock faces that opened like the jaws of mountain spirits.
“Ooooooh, that was so terrific!” squealed Jamie, flinging her arms around her sister. “He really kissed you! Wow, what a kiss! I was watching through the peephole. Oooooooh, I can’t wait to tell my friends.”
Nobody could ever accuse a little sister of good timing.
“Get lost, Jamie.”
“Forget it. We share a bedroom. I’ll never be lost. Tell me everything or I’ll never let you sleep. I’ll borrow all your clothes. I’ll get a parakeet and keep the cage over your bed. I’ll spill pancake syrup in your hair.”
“Go for it,” said Nicoletta. She walked past her pesky sister and into the only room in the teeny house where you were allowed to shut the door and be alone. In the bathroom mirror she stared at herself.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?
There were answers behind the silvered glass. If she could only look in deeply enough, she would know.
I didn’t look deeply enough into the cave either, she thought.
I have to go back.
Further down.
Deeper in.
Chapter 11
“D ADDY AND I ARE going to see the Burgesses today,” said Mother. “This is the first free Saturday we’ve had in so long!”
Mr. Burgess was Daddy’s old college roommate. It was a long drive and when Mother and Daddy went to see Sally and Ralph, they stayed all afternoon and sometimes long into the night.
Yes! thought Nicoletta. I’ll have the time to scout out the cave. Nicoletta tightened her bathrobe around her and thought of the long, unsupervised day ahead and what yummy food she would eat to sustain herself. Doughnuts, she thought, Gummi bears, ice cream, chocolate chips out of the bag, and barbecue potato chips. She would take some to Jethro. She would wear a backpack filled with junk food, and—
“Nicoletta,” said her mother, in her high, firm, order-giving voice, “you’ll stay home and baby-sit for Jamie.”
“Baby-sit for Jamie?” Nicoletta repeated incredulously. She needed to get out there in the snow and find Jethro! And they were making her stay home and baby-sit her stupid sister who was perfectly capable of taking care of herself?
Nicoletta tipped way backward in her wooden breakfast table chair, rolling her eyes even farther backward, to demonstrate her total disgust.
Luckily Jamie felt the same way. “Baby-sit?” she shrieked. “Mother! I am eleven years old. I do not need a sitter and I am not a baby. Furthermore, if I did need one, I would want one more capable, more interesting, and
Down.
Down forever, down to certain death.
He could have prevented the hunters from dying, she thought.
Then she thought, No, he couldn’t. They would have killed him first, shot him, it was self-defense, in a way.
Her thoughts leapt back and forth like a tennis ball over a net.
It came to her, as black and bleak as the lakes in the dark, that she had forgotten those two men. They had fallen out the bottom of her mind just as they fell out the bottom of the cave.
Love is amoral, she thought. Love thinks only of itself, or of The Other.
There is no room in love for passersby.
Those hunters. They had passed by, all right.
Did they have wives? Children? Mothers? Jobs?
Nobody will ever find them, thought Nicoletta. They will never be buried. They will never come home. Nobody will ever know.
Unless I tell.
“Good night,” said Christo softly. He walked her up the steps, dizzy with love. Together they stared at the blank wooden face of the door, at the bare nail where last December a Christmas wreath had hung.
Christo’s kiss was long and deep and intense. His lips contained enough energy to win football games, to sing entire concerts. When he finally stopped, and tried to find enough breath to speak, he couldn’t, and just went back to the car.
Behind Nicoletta the door was jerked open and she fell inside, her heart leaping with memories of caves and black lakes, of dancing in front of rock faces that opened like the jaws of mountain spirits.
“Ooooooh, that was so terrific!” squealed Jamie, flinging her arms around her sister. “He really kissed you! Wow, what a kiss! I was watching through the peephole. Oooooooh, I can’t wait to tell my friends.”
Nobody could ever accuse a little sister of good timing.
“Get lost, Jamie.”
“Forget it. We share a bedroom. I’ll never be lost. Tell me everything or I’ll never let you sleep. I’ll borrow all your clothes. I’ll get a parakeet and keep the cage over your bed. I’ll spill pancake syrup in your hair.”
“Go for it,” said Nicoletta. She walked past her pesky sister and into the only room in the teeny house where you were allowed to shut the door and be alone. In the bathroom mirror she stared at herself.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?
There were answers behind the silvered glass. If she could only look in deeply enough, she would know.
I didn’t look deeply enough into the cave either, she thought.
I have to go back.
Further down.
Deeper in.
Chapter 11
“D ADDY AND I ARE going to see the Burgesses today,” said Mother. “This is the first free Saturday we’ve had in so long!”
Mr. Burgess was Daddy’s old college roommate. It was a long drive and when Mother and Daddy went to see Sally and Ralph, they stayed all afternoon and sometimes long into the night.
Yes! thought Nicoletta. I’ll have the time to scout out the cave. Nicoletta tightened her bathrobe around her and thought of the long, unsupervised day ahead and what yummy food she would eat to sustain herself. Doughnuts, she thought, Gummi bears, ice cream, chocolate chips out of the bag, and barbecue potato chips. She would take some to Jethro. She would wear a backpack filled with junk food, and—
“Nicoletta,” said her mother, in her high, firm, order-giving voice, “you’ll stay home and baby-sit for Jamie.”
“Baby-sit for Jamie?” Nicoletta repeated incredulously. She needed to get out there in the snow and find Jethro! And they were making her stay home and baby-sit her stupid sister who was perfectly capable of taking care of herself?
Nicoletta tipped way backward in her wooden breakfast table chair, rolling her eyes even farther backward, to demonstrate her total disgust.
Luckily Jamie felt the same way. “Baby-sit?” she shrieked. “Mother! I am eleven years old. I do not need a sitter and I am not a baby. Furthermore, if I did need one, I would want one more capable, more interesting, and
Similar Books
