Children of Tomorrow Read Online Free PDF

still, it is late. It’s been going on for some time. It won’t change tonight. So I’ll just let it pass for now.’
    His wife gave him a searching look. “There’s something about your tone of voice, and the set of your jaw that suggests you’re having those old secret reservations. And I have a feeling I’m not going to like what you’re scheming right now, when I finally find out what it is, but ’ - she shrugged - ‘one of the things I came out to tell you is that I’m getting sleepy.’ She shook her head and stared up at him, seductively. You wouldn’t want to come in bed and find me sound asleep, would you?’
    Abruptly, the hard muscles in the man’s face relaxed. He smiled, and grabbed her. ‘My same old darling,’ he said, and hugged her.
    From somewhere in the region of his neck his wife said in a muffled voice, ‘Ten years older. And every minute of it hurts inside me in a way that you’re going to have to make right. So,
    don’t waste any time starting in. ’
    Lane continued to hold her. ‘Listen!’ he said, ‘ yau go back to bed. And I’ll be there in about one min ute and thirty-three scconds.’
    'What are you going to do?’ she asked, as she drew away from him,
    ‘Clean up.’ He indicated the newspaper on the floor, and the bottles on the bar.
    Til clear that away in the morning,’ Estelle said. But she was already heading for the door to the hallway.
    ‘You know I don’t like to leave a mess,’ said her husband.
    ‘Same old John Lane,’ his wife said as she disappeared through the door and off into the darkness beyond.
    Lane was brisk now. He picked up the sections of paper, folded them carefully but quickly, and laid them on the library table. Next, he put the bottles that were on the bar into the cabinet, out of sight. From somewhere a cloth appeared in his hand. He wiped off the bar top. The cloth vanished into a receptacle behind the bar.
    The job done, he walked to the door, and stood there, finger on the light switch, taking a last survey of the room. His expression showed that he saw nothing that needed to be done. He pressed the switch, and then for a moment there were vague sounds of him walking down the hall. Pause. A door shut with a click.
    Silence.
    On another street in a poorer district, the invisible viewer waited before a single story white house: the Jaeger home. It had previously been the house of the couple with whom Bud lived. And so, when Bud and the large boy, Albert, arrived at the gate, the unseen watcher did not explore the environs of the place. It remained just outside the gate, and observed them enter and go up to the door.
    Bud held back. Whereupon, Albert stepped past him, tried the knob, and found it locked. Without hesitation, he thereupon pressed the doorbell button. A faint h illing sound came from inside the house.
    A long pause. Finally, the door opened, and a thin woman in a nightdress with a pale blue robe loosely fastened over it, stood on the threshold. ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘It’s you, Bud.’
    “Yes, uh, mom,’ said Bud.
    To the watcher at the gate, the woman’s voice had implied that she expected someone else.
    The woman had thin brown hair. Her face was middle thirties, but lined; and both it and her body expressed sadness and resignation. She spoke again. “Your dad is still out on the town.
    You’d better get in here, and into bed, before he discovers how late you’ve been out’
    For just a moment, Bud hesitated. During that moment, he communicated with the unseen watcher: I have to admit I am greatly relieved, my father. But Mr Jaeger's absence tonight only postpones the time when he finds out that 1 am now a member of an outfit.
    To the father, the entire existence of such groups for teenagers was an unfortunate event. But he had a more urgent awareness at the moment. He t e lepathed: Hurry! Get inside! I sense someone is coming.
    Bud scurried awkwardly past the woman. She retreated into the house, and closed the door.