I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier Read Free Book Online

turning them to the side that said, in three different languages,
Please Make Up Our Room Early
. Sometimes she only wanted to talk. She’d tell him the entire plot of a movie she’d just seen on television. Other times, she’d say, “Talk to me. Read me poetry.” His voice quivering, he would read her a poem he had written, pretending it was the work of an obscure poet: “My love for you is like a searching wind …”
    But this call was different. “Look, Ace,” she said, “I’m at the newspaper. I dropped in to see my fatherand he has a visitor. An editor from Rawlings, Pennsylvania, who was passing through and decided to drop in for a visit. Isn’t Rawlings where you’re from?”
    Once again, Adam was swept with a series of vivid impressions, the bus ride at night, the sense of hurry.
    Amy went on. “Listen, this guy says he’s lived in Rawlings all his life and he can’t remember any Farmers there. Not
farmer
farmers, but your kind of Farmer. He says he’s always known everybody in town. Didn’t you say your father sold insurance in Rawlings?”
    “I don’t know,” Adam said. “Why is it important?”
    “Well, it’s not important, really. This man’s just visiting and when my father told him your family was also from Rawlings he thought he’d drop in and see your folks. Kind of like a reunion. Then he couldn’t remember any Farmers ever being in Rawlings, not in the insurance business, and I figured I’d call to check. I thought you’d be curious about your old hometown.”
    “I am curious,” Adam said. But he was more puzzled than curious. He tried to sound cool—he didn’t want Amy to hear the puzzlement in his voice.
    “Well, how about your mother? What was her maiden name? Maybe he remembers your mother.” Amy giggled. “Some men are like that.”
    “My mother’s name was Holden. Louise Holden.”
    “Hold on. I’ll see if it strikes sparks.”
    He heard muffled conversation as Amy apparently reported her findings to the visiting editor.
    “Nope,” Amy said, returning to the phone. “That doesn’t ring a bell, either. Hey, how long did you live there, anyway? Didn’t you say you were born there?”
    Adam was about to say: “I
was
born there. And my parents were, too.” But something made him remain silent. The memory of flight …
    “You still there, Ace?”
    “Look, Amy, I said we came to Monument from Rawlings—but I didn’t say I was born there. You must have misunderstood. We lived there, oh, only a few months, I guess. And my father wasn’t working during that time. He’d had an accident, hurt his leg. We came to Monument when we heard that there was an insurance agency for sale.”
    Adam was amazed at his ability to lie, the way his mind had been quick to invent a new set of circumstances for himself and his parents. But he wondered,
Why
? Why is it necessary to lie?
    “Well, I figured it was something like that, Ace. Anyway, too bad—if Rawlings had been your old hometown, your father and mother might have enjoyed meeting him. They could have had a reunion and all.”
    “Well, thanks anyway, Amy. I appreciate it.”
T
:
Was that all?
A
:
Yes.
T
:
Did Amy ever mention that conversation again?
A
:
No. Never.
T
:
What did you think of the conversation and her questions?
A
:
I felt funny—strange.
(5-second interval.)
A
:
Then I rationalized. I told myself that the editor from Rawlings had been mistaken. He probably had a bad memory. And I guess I tried not to think about it.
(10-second interval.)
T
:
Then we have arrived at the second landmark, haven’t we?
A
:
Have we?
T
:
Permit me to summarize. The first landmark was that day in the woods with the dog. The important thing was what drove you and your father into the woods. The second landmark was that call from Amy. You were nine years old at the first landmark and fourteen at the second.
A
:
I’m tired.
T
:
It’s early. Take your time. We are doing so well.
A
:
I don’t want to talk anymore.
T
:
You