Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Page #5

---

but not a key to it...

...which he says is worse

than looking at a brick wall.

I feel like I'm looking

at a brick wall...

... because I tried the key

in 148 different places...

...but the key didn't fit

and open anything Dad needed me to find.

So that I'd know without him

everything is all right.

Then let's leave it there.

I still feel scared every time

I go into a strange place.

I'm so scared I have to hold myself around

my waist or I think I'll just break apart!

But I never forget what I heard him

tell Mom about the Sixth Borough:

That if things were easy to find....

They wouldn't be worth finding.

But I'm still scared every time I leave

home, every time I hear a door open.

And I don't know a single thing

that I didn't know when I started...

...except I miss my dad

more than ever...

...even though the whole point

was to stop missing him at all!

It hurts too much.

Sometimes I think I might do

something really bad.

Like you to what?

No way. Absolutely not. No, no, no.

Sure. Next Saturday, 7 a.m.

I got there 23 minutes,

I didn't know if I wanted him to be there.

I didn't even know

if I didn't want him to be there.

I'd give it the day to find out.

If you're coming with me,

there are rules.

You are allotted two bathroom breaks,

one 19-minute stop for eating.

And sightseeing is strictly prohibited...

...although sites of historical merit

may be noted.

Also, there's a list of 15 simple questions

about yourself I'd like you to answer.

Come on.

Rule number four is keep up.

I can't stop and wait every two minutes.

Jean Black is in Zone H,

map grid AQ-16.

It's in the Rockaways, 113 miles.

This way.

I don't take the train. It's not safe.

It's an obvious target.

All public transportation is.

You can get blown to pieces

by people who don't even know you.

Oh, no.

He said, "I can't walk that far."

He said if I wanted him to go with me,

it would have to be on the bus or a train.

And the train was a lot faster.

And he wrote:

"Anyway, there's nothing to be afraid of. "

To which I said:

It's easy for you to say!

Which actually...it wasn't.

"Think about nothing."

That's an oxymoron, like, "now, then."

An oxymoron is when two words

contradict each other.

My father and I used to have

oxymoron wars.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes