Hide Your Eyes Read Online Free

have a new fish!’ said Daniel.

    ‘I’m Buster the Safety Dog!’ the Dalmatian said in a slobbery, animated voice. Officer Ricky was impressive; his lips never moved. He lifted Buster into a standing position, spun the puppet in a pirouette and flopped it back down onto his knee in one fluid motion. ‘I’m going to show you how to spot danger! Get it?’

    ‘Yay!’ the class screamed.

    ‘Now, I know a word that rhymes with danger. Do you?’

    ‘Ranger!’

    ‘Danger!’

    ‘Poopoo brain-ger!’

    ‘Kendrick.’

    ‘The word is stranger ! Can anybody tell me what a stranger is?’

    ‘I have a new fish!’

    ‘I’ll tell you what a stranger is!’ the puppet shouted. ‘A stranger is anybody you and your parents don’t know! If a stranger talks to you, what do you do?’

    ‘Yell loud and run away!’ said Nancy.

    ‘That’s right, young lady!’ said Buster. ‘If a stranger gives you a candy bar, what do you do?’

    ‘Don’t take it and run away and yell loud!’ said Serena Martin.

    ‘That’s right! If a stranger gives you a Nintendo game, what do you do?’

    ‘Say, “Thank you!” ’ Daniel said.

    ‘Wrong-o-roonie! Sorry, young man. Saying thank you is polite, but you’re not supposed to be polite to strangers. You know why?’

    Silence.

    ‘Because . . . strangers are danger! Say it with me!’

    ‘Strangers are danger!’

    ‘You got that right, Buster,’ I said, thinking of every fairy tale I knew in which the overly trusting princess was nearly killed by the witch or the troll. And my gaze slowly drifted up, until I was looking at the tiny, evenly spaced soundproofing holes in the ceiling tiles.

    ‘ Hello there, princess,’ he says, through the open window of his dirty red Pinto. No one has ever called me a princess before and so I smile and watch him smile back with his long, thin teeth. He says he has something for me in the car, and I think , Maybe it’s a jeweled crown, like on the Imperial Margarine commercials . . .

    I shut my eyes tight and forced the memory out of my head, wondering what could have possibly brought it back. I’d obviously thought about strangers before. I’d thought about the ones who broke into my classroom, the one who stole my purse at the movies, the ones whom Yale would meet at clubs or gyms or newsstands, the ones who passed me on the street as I walked home from the box office alone. New York was a city filled with strangers and danger. But I still hadn’t thought about the man in the red Pinto. Not for twenty years.

    It’s good to know how to scream , Krull had said. You’d be surprised how many people don’t . I caught his eye, and he nodded at me.

    Buster the Safety Dog was chanting, ‘If a stranger calls on the ustcalls ophone, and he asks if you’re alone, what do you say?’

    ‘No!’ the class shouted.

    ‘If a stranger says, “Come with me! I’ve got something for you to see!” what do you say?’

    ‘No!’

    ‘I can’t heeeeeear you!’

    ‘No!’

    ‘Now, let’s all say it together, as loud as we can . . .’

    ‘No! No! No!’

     
    After the presentation, the kids mobbed Officer Ricky as if he were a rock star. I walked up to Krull and said, ‘Looks like he was a hit.’

    ‘I think he used to play Atlantic City.’

    ‘Listen,’ I said. ‘I just wanted to tell you again how sorry I am about this morning.’

    ‘It was actually pretty funny.’

    ‘Funny?’

    ‘I mean, the principal, Mr. Mann, told me when we were walking to your room that he “suspected you have some authority issues.” Something like that . . . Basically, he was saying you don’t like cops.’

    ‘That isn’t true.’

    ‘It’s no big deal. I don’t like a lot of cops. But I was getting ready to turn on the charm and change your mind, you know? Because this is the first time I’ve done community outreach and I wanted to make sure everybody was happy. But I get to your room, and before I can even say “hello” you