Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Page #2

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Mom hadn't touched his stuff.

It was all there.

Oskar! You okay?

This is Oskar Schell.

Grandma? Grandma, are you awake?

Over.

Grandma?

It's Grandma. Uh, what is it, sweetheart?

Can't you sleep?

Do you want me to come over? Over.

Did Dad ever mention a special key

to you, Grandma? Over.

A special key?

I don't think so, no.

A special key? What for?

What was this special key for?

Over.

Is the Renter home? Over.

The Renter? No, no,

he's never home this early. Over.

Grandma had rented a room to a man...

...three weeks after the worst day.

Why is the Renter's door always

closed? And why can I never meet him?

He likes quiet.

Why can't you tell me

anything about him?

He's someone I knew in the old country.

Now play.

How long will he be here?

He never stays any place for long.

Is he dangerous?

If you ever see him, don't say anything.

He can get very angry. Now play.

What have you found, Oskar? Over.

Oskar, are you still there?

Oskar?

It's for some kind of lock box.

It's not like any of these.

It's thicker, harder to break.

But it's not for a fixed safe, I don't think.

Could be a safe deposit box,

post office box.

It's old. Maybe 20, 30 years old.

How can I find the company

that made it?

Anyone could've made it.

Then how do I find the lock that it fits?

I'm afraid I can't help you there, unless you

wanna try it in anything you come across.

You never know what a key's gonna fit.

There are a million different possibilities.

That's what I love about keys.

They all open something.

Just one.

Shouldn't you be in school?

It's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Lie number two.

I started counting my lies earlier that

morning when I told Mom I had a fever.

I don't wanna potentially infect

a multitude of people at school.

I could be a walking pathogen.

I thought Martin Luther King's birthday

was in January.

It used to be. They changed it.

That was lie number three.

Hold on, Oskar.

Who's "Black"?

On the envelope?

Anybody you know?

Could be somebody who knows

something about the key.

Thanks for being

such a great locksmith.

What do you need these for?

A project on the census.

Lie number four.

Why aren't you in school?

-They said I know too much already.

-Ah.

Black, Black, Black.

Well, "Black" was definitely a person.

Probably.

If "Black" was a person, he or she

must have known Dad somehow.

Four-hundred-seventy-two.

But how?

And how was I going to find him/her?

Was this a Reconnaissance Expedition?

Lagos, Nigeria. And it drifted....

Dad's expeditions

always included a journey.

...2278.3 nautical miles.

Brazil!

And he always planned them,

down to the smallest details.

Five miles an hour.

Seven hundred.

What else could it be?

If there was a key, there was a lock.

If there was a name,

there was a person.

I'm home.

There had to be a lock.

I would find it because

he wanted me to find it.

Q-56. Q-56. Q-56.

And I would find it because it was the only

way I could stretch my 8 minutes with him.

Maybe I could stretch them forever.

I put together a backpack of vital things

I would need for my survival.

An Israeli gas mask Grandma bought me

two weeks after the worst day.

My tambourine to help keep me calm.

Binoculars, obviously.

I had to travel light

to be as quick as possible.

My expedition journal.

My father's father's camera.

A Brief History Of Time, by Stephen

Hawking, that my dad used to read to me.

Cell phone.

Fig Newtons, which I love.

The key, obviously.

And my father's message

to not stop looking.

And I wouldn't, not ever.

Hey.

Where you going?

Out.

Where?

I told you, to the comic book convention

with Minch. Be back later.

Lie number five.

Except for the "be back later" part.

Well, leave your cell phone on.

Check in with me every hour, okay?

I mean it.

I didn't know what was waiting for me.

Although my stomach hurt

and my eyes were watering...

...I made up my mind that nothing,

nothing was going to stop me.

Not even me.

First up, Abby Black,

Fort Greene, Brooklyn.

Because public transportation

makes me panicky, I walked.

I've always had a hard time

doing certain things.

The elevator works, genius.

I know, retard.

But the worst day

made the list of things a lot longer.

-Old people...

-Ah!

...running people...

...airplanes...

...tall things...

...things you can get stuck in.

Loud things.

-Screaming, crying.

-Aah!

-People with bad teeth...

-Ha-ha-ha!

...bags without owners, shoes without

owners, children without parents...

...ringing things, smoking things,

people eating meat...

...people looking up.

Towers, tunnels, speeding things...

...loud things, things with lights,

things with wings.

Bridges make me especially panicky.

Come on, try.

I can't try.

If you don't try, you'll never know.

-So try.

-Don't be disappointed with me!

Come on. Take your juice.

You know, Grandma brought me

to these swings.

My favorite...

...was one, two...

...the third from the right...

... because I thought it would go higher

than any other one.

So when everyone had gone home...

...I'd swing.

It was just me and the swings.

I'd do a lot of thinking up here,

especially when I learned how to pump.

I would go as high as I could go...

...until I couldn't go any higher...

...and then I would jump.

Ah! And for a moment,

I would feel as free as a bird.

You should give it a whirl, Oskar.

It might change the way

you look at things.

It's not safe.

You don't have to jump.

Can we go home now?

Fort Greene.

Fort Greene.

Fort Greene!

Fort Greene! Fort Greene!

Fort Greene! Fort Greene!

What are you doing?

-Hello. My name is Oskar Schell.

Did you know my father,

Thomas Schell?

-You are Abby Black?

-Uh, yeah.

I'm sure people

tell you this constantly...

...but if you like under

"incredibly beautiful" in the dictionary...

...there's a picture of you.

Abby, I'm trying to say something here.

-What are you doing?

-Would it be okay if I came in?

-Now is really not a good time.

Why not?

I'm in the middle of something.

I'm going upstairs to get this done.

-Me too.

And you can do whatever....

What kind of something?

-Is that any of your business?

-Is that a rhetorical question?

I had to get in there.

I'm extremely thirsty!

Lie number seven.

What do you want to drink?

Iced coffee with half-and-half, please.

You coming?

I love this.

-So did I.

-How much do you know about elephants?

Hardly anything.

I know quite a lot.

Loxodonta Africana.

There's this woman who spent

the past 10 years in the Congo...

...making recordings of elephant calls

to learn how they communicate.

Abby! Where is everything?

This past year, she started to play them

back to the elephants.

What's fascinating

is that she played back...

...the call of a dead elephant to family

members, and they remembered.

They approached the Jeep,

the speaker.

I wonder what they were feeling

when they heard those calls.

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