The Remarkable Flight of Marnie McPhee Read Online Free Page A

The Remarkable Flight of Marnie McPhee
Book: The Remarkable Flight of Marnie McPhee Read Online Free
Author: Daniel Karasik
Tags: Family, Childhood, juvenile, student, Outerspace, imagination
Pages:
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focus. He finds the spot he's looking for.
    DAD
    Here.
    He leads MARNIE behind the telescope. She looks.
    MARNIE
    I don't see anything.
    He adjusts the telescope, prompts her to look again.
    DAD
    I've been staring at this all night.
    MARNIE
    It's really beautiful.
    DAD
    What does it look like?
    MARNIE
    Colour. Fiery colour.
    DAD
    Do you know what it is?
    MARNIE
    â€¦a star is dying.
    DAD
    It'll be doing that for hundreds of hundreds of years. It'll keep dying beyond the deaths of all our friends, everyone we know. But most of the time we can't see it. It's too far, the light's wrong, the earth's orbit is off. But it's pretty amazing, isn't it?
    MARNIE
    I think it's scary.
    DAD
    Me too. But also exciting. But also exhilarating. Because it says that there too, where we think there's fixity, eternity—is mystery. There too, things come into being and pass away.
    MARNIE
    It makes me sad.
    DAD
    Yeah. Me too.
    MARNIE
    â€¦do you really think it'd be all that great to see the stars close up? I mean… do you really think it'd be so different? Like after a few minutes, I mean?
    DAD
    It was what I wanted. I would've practically built my own spaceship to get there.
    MARNIE
    Why didn't you?
    DAD
    What, all by myself?
    He laughs.
    I didn't have the right tools. Good night, sweetie. Go to bed soon.
    He goes inside.
    She gazes up at the stars.
    MARNIE
    He really does seem to love the stars, huh? I thought Dad was just weird, but is it possible he's not weird at all but actually… awesome…?
    She shakes her head furiously.
    No, no, no!
    It's a trap!
    I can't let them trick me into thinking it's okay to be like them! I have to be different! I have to be special! More of a super-human-being than they are! Or else I'll grow up and be—no! There's only one solution! It has to be tonight, tonight! I have to finish building my spaceship and get out of here before the sun's up!
    To Mars! To anywhere but here!
    I'll wait till they're asleep, borrow Alan's radio, and be gone.
    I'm going… I'm going… I'm going…

4
    Three A.M.
    ALAN's bedroom.
    MARNIE, creeping, singing under her breath, again à la "We're Off to See the Wizard":
    MARNIE
    We're inside Alan's bedroom, in the midd-ddle of the niiiiiight, in the mid-dle, mid-dle, mid-dle, mid-dle middddddle of the night, to borrow to borrow his radio, la la la la, la la la la…
    She spots his radio, glowing like a Holy Grail
(or not)
above his bed. She leans in, reaches for it, smiles as she has it in her grasp—when she hits a button by accident and the radio turns on and country music blasts out!
    ALAN flies out of bed!
    ALAN
    Thief! Thief!
    The noise draws DAD and MOM; they rush in and see MARNIE!
    DAD
    The thief looks familiar—!
    MOM
    Marnie, what is this—?
    ALAN
    It's three in the morning—!
    MARNIE
    It's nothing! It's… you are still dreeeeeeaammmming…
    ALAN
    I don't think that'll work, Marns.
    MARNIE
    Oh! Eek! Bye!
    She runs away. They wait for her. A moment. She returns.
    Oh hi, everybody! Ah. What's everybody still doing up? It's three in the morning!
    They stare at her.
    MOM
    Explanation, Marnie?
    MARNIE
    Me no speakie English.
    ALAN
    I'm going back to bed.
    MOM
    You woke your brother, Marnie.
    ALAN
    That's okay, I don't sleep anyway, I'm an insomniac, remember? God. People these days.
    MARNIE
    Sorry, Alan.
    ALAN
    Oh, it's not your fault. You're innocent.
    MARNIE
    Thanks, Alan.
    ALAN
    It's the adults who are corrupting what's pure in today's—
    DAD
    Weren't you going back to bed, Alan?
    MOM
    Please, do we have to do this in the middle of the night—?
    ALAN
    My night started three days ago, because I HAVE INSOMNIA, Mom—
    DAD
    Maybe you're falling asleep and dreaming you're still awake—
    ALAN
    Great, Dad, so I'm not an insomniac, I'm just an idiot who can't tell dreams from—
    MARNIE
    Stop stop stop!
    They stop.
    Your interrogation methods are horrible! Okay—I'll show you what I'm doing. But only if
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