The Cloud of Unknowing Read Online Free

young pines—where he stretched out on the grass and shut his eyes.
    â€œSir? Sir , are you awake?”
    Two security guards stood over Lou. They were wearing short-sleeved uniforms with white Panama hats, and red ties patterned with tiny Mickey Mouse heads. Both of them were young and fit. The one who addressed Lou had a moustache. He looked a bit like Lee Van Cleef.
    â€œSir, is your name Mr. Schultz?”
    â€œYes, that’s me. Lou Schultz,” he said, sitting up. “How did you know my name?”
    â€œWe have your children, sir. They’re waiting at the security office.”
    The guards escorted Lou back to Main Street, to a storefront between a candy shop and a photography studio. “Town Sheriff” was painted in ornate gold letters on the front window. Jonathan and Kitty were inside, sitting close together on a wooden bench.
    The guard with the moustache kneeled down in front of them. “Is this man your father?” he asked.
    â€œ Yes ,” Jonathan said impatiently. “Dad, tell him we don’t need a babysitter.”
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” Lou asked. “I thought you were going to Frontiertown.”
    â€œFrontierland,” Jonathan said.
    â€œSir, we found your children in the park unattended.”
    â€œAh! There’s been a misunderstanding,” Lou said. “They were not unattended. You see, they came here with me. But I thank you for your concern.”
    â€œI realize that, sir, but they were unattended when we found them.”
    â€œYes, but we had plans to meet for lunch.” He looked at his watch and saw that it wasn’t even noon yet. “I suppose we might as well eat now.”
    â€œMr. Schultz, your children were found taking coins out of the Cinderella Fountain.”
    Lou saw that their pants were soaked up to their knees. He furrowed his brow. “Is this true, children, what the officer is saying?” he asked, making his voice deep with concern.
    â€œKitty lost the tickets,” Jonathan said. “She got to go on the Dumbo ride, and then we were supposed to go on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but she lost all the tickets. The whole book. We were going to buy another ticket book.”
    â€œMy pocket came unzipped,” Kitty protested.
    To Lou’s relief, Kitty and Jonathan’s outrage at getting picked up by security seemed to have preempted any complaints they might have had about spending under two hours at Disney World.
    â€œWell kids,” he said as the ferry nosed out into the lagoon, “what did you think of the Magic Kingdom?”
    â€œSo-called Magic Kingdom,” Jonathan said.
    â€œThey acted like we were babies ,” Kitty said.
    â€œDid they get all the coins off you?”
    â€œYeah, and fifty cents of it was mine,” Jonathan said. “I found it in the back seat.”
    â€œTell you what. Let’s go to the beach and have a picnic lunch.”
    Resort hotels in various stages of completion lined the highway along the ocean. Lou stopped at a market a few miles north of Palm Coast and bought a loaf of bread and a jar of pickles and two cans of sardines. He asked the clerk where they could go swimming.
    â€œMost of the beaches around here are private, but if you want to leave your car here, y’all can walk up the road a bit to the town boat launch,” he said.
    â€œSay, is there a payphone around here?”
    â€œOut front, left of the door.”
    Lou got two dollars in change from the clerk and stuffed a dollar in a jar on the counter that had a picture of a kid in a leg brace taped to it.
    â€œMuch obliged,” he said. “C’mon, kids,” he called to Kitty and Jonathan, who were browsing a rack of comic books. “Who wants to talk to Mommy?”
    â€œI do,” yelled Kitty, but Jonathan was impatient to get to the water.
    â€œThe boat launch should be just up that way.” Lou pointed north. “Go