The Mask Read Online Free PDF Page A

what I’ve seen some parents do to theirs. Not that I won’t make mistakes. I’m sure I will. My full share of them. But the one that you mentioned won’t be among them.”
    “That’s valid,” O’Brian said, nodding. “Valid and very well put. I’m sure that when I tell the recommendations committee what you’ve just said, they’ll be quite satisfied on this point.” He spotten another tiny speck on his sleeve and removed it, frowning as if it were not merely lint, but offal. “Another question they’re bound to ask: Suppose the child you adopt turns out to be not only an underachiever but…well…basically less intelligent than either of you. For parents as oriented toward an intellectual life as you are, wouldn’t you be somewhat frustrated with a child of just average—or possibly slightly below average—intelligence?”
    “Well, even if we were capable of having a child of our own,” Paul said, “there wouldn’t be any guarantee that he’d be a prodigy or anything of that sort. But if he was…slow…we’d still love him. Of course we would. And the same goes for any child we might adopt.”
    To O’Brian, Carol said, “I think you’ve got too high an opinion of us. Neither of us is a
genius
, for heaven’s sake! We’ve gotten as far as we have primarily through hard work and perseverence, not becausewe were exceptionally bright. I wish it
had
come that easy, but it didn’t.”
    “Besides,” Paul said, “you don’t love a person merely because he’s intelligent. It’s his entire personality that counts, the whole package, and a lot of factors contribute to that package, a great many things other than just intellect.”
    “Good,” O’Brian said. “I’m glad to hear you feel that way. The committee will respond well to that answer, too.”
    For the past few seconds, Carol had been aware of the distant wail of sirens. Fire engines. Now they were not as distant as they had been; they were rapidly growing nearer, louder.
    “I think maybe one of those last two bolts of lightning caused some real damage when it touched down,” Paul said.
    O’Brian swung his chair around toward the center window, which was directly behind his desk. “It
did
sound as if it struck nearby.”
    Carol looked at each of the three windows, but she couldn’t see any smoke rising from behind the nearest rooftops. Then again, the view was blurred and visibility was reduced by the water-spotted panes of glass and by the curtains of mist and gray rain that wavered and whipped and billowed beyond the glass.
    The sirens swelled.
    “More than one truck,” O’Brian said.
    The fire engines were right outside the office for a moment—at least two trucks, perhaps three—and then they passed, heading into the next block.
    O’Brian pushed up from his chair and stepped to the window.
    As the first sirens dwindled just a little, new ones shrieked in the street behind them.
    “Must be serious,” Paul said. “Sounds as if at least two engine companies are responding.”
    “I see smoke,” O’Brian said.
    Paul rose from his chair and moved toward the windows to get a better look.
    Something’s wrong here.
    That thought snapped into Carol’s mind, startling her as if a whip had cracked in front of her face. A powerful, inexplicable current of panic surged through her, electrified her. She gripped the arms of her chair so tightly that one of her fingernails broke.
    Something…is…wrong…very wrong
…
    Suddenly the air was oppressively heavy—hot,
thick
, as if it were not air at all but a bitter and poisonous gas of some kind. She tried to breathe, couldn’t. There was an invisible, crushing weight on her chest.
    Get away from the windows!
    She tried to shout that warning, but panic had short-circuited her voice. Paul and O’Brian were at different windows, but they both had their backs to her, so that neither of them could see she had been gripped by sudden, immobilizing fear.
    Fear of what? she demanded of