The Cloud of Unknowing Read Online Free Page A

ahead and find us a spot.”
    Kitty talked to Helena while Lou emptied his flight bag and packed it with motel towels and their swimsuits and a few oranges. Kitty handed him the phone when he came back. “I’m gonna go find Jonathan, okay?”
    Lou waved her off. “Careful crossing the street,” he said. “Helena?”
    â€œHi, Lou.”
    â€œThe kids are having a great time.”
    â€œThey didn’t mind getting thrown out of Disney World?”
    â€œYou know, they really didn’t seem to.”
    â€œI’m glad you called, Lou—”
    â€œI’m glad I called, too.”
    â€œI’m glad you called, because I was over at the house today—I thought maybe they’d sent my 1099 there—and I noticed that the radiator in the front hall was seeping. Did you bleed the radiators last fall?”
    â€œHelena, I was thinking. Maybe we could all go to Europe this summer. I don’t think the Soviet trip would be much funfor the kids, but I’ve got it down pretty well at this point. I can put someone else in charge for three or four weeks. We’ll go to Poland, and Czechoslovakia, maybe even drive down to Bulgaria and take the kids to some monasteries. I think they’re old enough to appreciate it. They really are good travelers, Helena. Very resourceful. Did Kitty tell you about the fountain?”
    â€œOh, Lou.”
    â€œOh?”
    â€œI can’t take a month off. I’d lose all my shifts.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œIt’s a lovely idea, though. It really is. I think the kids would love it if you took them. We’ll have to get them passports.”
    â€œOkay, Helena. It was just an idea. We’ll see you in a couple of days.”
    â€œTell Jonathan hi.”
    â€œI’ll tell him.”
    Lou crossed the highway and looked out at the water, grey and opaque under a thin cloud cover. The seawall was under construction, and sections of concrete slab were stacked on the sand. He saw the boat launch a hundred yards up the beach, and two figures, knee-deep in the surf with their pant legs rolled up. It took him a minute to realize that he was looking at Jonathan and Kitty. They seemed so small.

The Endless Mountains
    In 1976, the Bicentennial year, Jonathan turned twelve and started calling his father Lou. The two of them shared a room on the top floor of Lou’s large brown-shingled Victorian in Cambridge, all the other bedrooms being occupied by paying tenants. Jonathan’s younger sister, Kitty, lived in a nearby apartment with their mother. It was informal arrangement, though. Most summers Jonathan moved into the lower bunk in Kitty’s room while Lou, who taught Slavic languages at Brandeis, was away leading camping tours of the Soviet Union. During the rest of the year he and Kitty made their way home together or separately after school as the mood suited them, sometimes wandering around until they got hungry and then fixing themselves a snack in whichever kitchen was closest.
    One day at breakfast, Lou put down his newspaper and said he thought he’d walk to work.
    â€œHow far is it, Lou?” Jonathan asked.
    â€œTen miles, give or take.”
    â€œCan you really walk all the way?”
    His father had never been athletic. His stomach hung over his belt. He smoked cigarettes and fed himself and Jonathan out of cans, which he bought in bulk from a wholesale grocer in Somerville.
    â€œI’ll just have to leave a little earlier,” Lou said. “After all, Shulkin walked five thousand kilometers to escape the gulag.” Shulkin was a colleague from Brandeis, a cheerful Russian man who wore overcoats and itchy-looking hats.
    Lou got a ride home from school that day. He pulledhimself up the stairs, groaning, soaked in the tub for a long time, then went right to bed, leaving Jonathan to open a can of ravioli for supper. He persisted, though, walking to Brandeis again when he’d recovered