Close Encounters of the Third Kind by Steven Spielberg

Author:Steven Spielberg [Spielberg, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 0440013739
Publisher: Delaorte Press
Published: 1977-12-14T02:25:43+00:00

18

“No, Mother,” Ronnie was saying into the telephone, “I can handle it. But thanks anyway.”

She had cradled the phone between her ear and her shoulder while she stood in front of the kitchen stove, stirring pots.

Ronnie turned partway around, covered the mouthpiece of the phone with her free hand, and said to Toby, “Go tell your father dinner’s almost ready.”

Toby hesitated and then just stood where he was in the kitchen doorway, watching and listening to his mother.

“You’re not helping me, Mother. You’re not helping. We have Master Charge till the end of the month. He hasn’t seen a doctor. He hasn’t seen anybody.”

Ronnie turned and peered out the kitchen window. Roy was sitting in his patio chair on the platform he had built on top of the garage roof. The binoculars were jammed against his eyes as he slowly turned his head from side to side, sweeping the horizon.

“Yes, he’s looking,” she told her mother. “He’s looking all the time, but not for work. I’m doing that . . . for me, Mother. Of course he loves us.”

Ronnie nodded her head vigorously and then had to grab the phone to keep it from falling. She noticed Toby still standing in the doorway. “Toby, call your father for dinner . . . You’re not helping me, Mother—”

The young boy moved slowly, almost unwillingly.

“Mother, I have to hang up now,” Ronnie said, and promptly did so.

She could hear Toby’s thin voice outside the house. It was almost as if he were afraid to raise it because he was worried about being overheard by the neighbors.

“Dad, Mom’s got dinner ready.”

Ronnie turned back to the window. Roy didn’t seem to hear Toby calling. He didn’t seem to hear anybody these days. Mrs. Harris from next door steered her car into the adjoining driveway and got out. Roy didn’t hear that either, nor the disgusted plosive Mrs. Harris felt impelled to utter each time she found him on his lookout perch.

“Please, Dad,” Toby whimpered.

His father let the binoculars drop to his lap. He stared down through the gathering dusk at his youngest son. Even through the kitchen window Ronnie could see that Roy’s face was damp. He must have been crying behind the binoculars. She thought of going out there to him, but then decided against it, turning everything on the stove to a low flame.

After a while, Neary climbed down. He came into the kitchen and stared at her for a moment. Ronnie saw that he’d dried his red-rimmed eyes. She also saw the prickly beginnings of a beard. Neary looked wiped out and, without a word, he moved past her into the family room on the way to the dining area.

Neary stopped at his miniature train layout, fixating on a little brown mountain built into the middle of the Lilliputian countryside. He picked up some shrubs and moved them to the top of the model mountain, which he’d reconstructed into a tall peak with deeply ridged sides. He felt his guts sicken as his brain drained him of every ounce of energy while working to make sense of the mountain image.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.