• Complain

Gary Paulsen - The River (Yearling)

Here you can read online Gary Paulsen - The River (Yearling) full text of the book (entire story) in english for free. Download pdf and epub, get meaning, cover and reviews about this ebook. year: 1993, publisher: Yearling, genre: Detective and thriller. Description of the work, (preface) as well as reviews are available. Best literature library LitArk.com created for fans of good reading and offers a wide selection of genres:

Romance novel Science fiction Adventure Detective Science History Home and family Prose Art Politics Computer Non-fiction Religion Business Children Humor

Choose a favorite category and find really read worthwhile books. Enjoy immersion in the world of imagination, feel the emotions of the characters or learn something new for yourself, make an fascinating discovery.

Gary Paulsen The River (Yearling)

The River (Yearling): summary, description and annotation

We offer to read an annotation, description, summary or preface (depends on what the author of the book "The River (Yearling)" wrote himself). If you haven't found the necessary information about the book — write in the comments, we will try to find it.

We want you to do it again.These words, spoken to Brian Robeson, will change his life. Two years earlier, Brian was stranded alone in the wilderness for fifty-four days with nothing but a small hatchet. Yet he survived. Now the government wants him to do it again--to go back into the wilderness so that astronauts and the military can learn the survival techniques that kept Brian alive.This time he wont be alone: Derek Holtzer, a government psychologist, will accompany him to observe and take notes. But during a freak storm, Derek is hit by lightning and falls into a coma. Their radio transmitter is dead. Brian is afraid that derek will die of dehydration unless he can get him to a doctor. His only hope is to build a raft and try to transport Derek a hundred miles down the river to a trading post--if the map he has is accurate.

Gary Paulsen: author's other books


Who wrote The River (Yearling)? Find out the surname, the name of the author of the book and a list of all author's works by series.

The River (Yearling) — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "The River (Yearling)" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Contents To my daughter Lynn with love B - photo 1

Contents To my daughter Lynn with love B - photo 2

Contents

To my daughter, Lynn, with love

___________________________

B rian opened the door and stood back. There were three men, all in dark suits, standing on the front porch. They were large but not fat, well built, with bodies in decent shape. One of them was slightly thinner than the other two.

Brian Robeson?

Brian nodded. Yes.

The thin man smiled and stepped forward and held out his hand. Im Derek Holtzer. These other two are Bill Mannerly and Erik Ballard. Can we come in?

Brian held the door open to let them come in. Mother isnt home right now .

Its you we want to see. Derek stopped just in the entryway and the other two did the same. Of course, well wish to speak to your mother and father as well, but we came to see you. Didnt you get a call about us?

Brian shook his head. I dont think so. I mean, I know I didnt, but I dont think Mother did either. She would have said something.

How about your father?

He doesnt live here. My parents are divorced.

Oh. Sorry. Derek truly looked embarrassed. I didnt know.

It happens. Brian shrugged, but it was still new enough, just over a year and a half, to feel painful. He mentally pushed it away and had a sudden thought of his own foolishness. Three men he did not know were in the house. They did not look threatening, but you never knew.

What can I do for you?

Well, if you dont know anything about any of this, maybe we should wait for your mother to come home. We can come back.

Brian nodded. Whatever you want but you could tell me what its about, if you wanted to.

Maybe Id better check on you first. Are you the Brian Robeson who survived alone in the Canadian woods for two months?

Fifty-four days, Brian said. Not quite two months. Yesthats me.

Good.

Are you from the press? For months after his return home, Brian had been followed by the press. Even after the television speciala camera crew went back with him to the lake and he showed them how hed livedthey stayed after him. Newspapers, television, book publishersthey called him at home, followed him to school. It was hard to get away from them. One man even offered him money to put his face on a T-shirt, and a jeans company wanted to come out with a line of Brian Robeson Survival Jeans.

His mother had handled them all, with the helpthrough the mailof his father, and he had some money in an account for college. Actually, enough to complete college. But it had finally slowed down and he didnt miss it.

At first it had been exciting, but soon the thrill had worn off. He was famous, and that wasnt too bad, but when they started following him with cameras and wanting to make movies of him and his life it got a little crazy.

He met a girl in school, Deborah McKenzie. They hit it off and went on a few dates, and pretty soon the press was bugging her as well and that was too much. He started going out the back door, wearing sunglasses, meeting Deborah in out-of-the-way places, and sliding down the hallways in school. He was only too glad when people stopped noticing him.

And here they were again. I mean, are you with television or anything?

Derek shook his head. Nopenot even close. Were with a government survival school.

Instructors?

Derek shook his head. Not exactly. Bill and Erik are instructors, but Im a psychologist. We work with people who may need to survive in bad situationsyou know, like downed pilots, astronauts, soldiers. How to live off the land and get out safely.

What do you want with me?

Derek smiled. You can probably guess .

Brian shook his head.

Well, to make it short, we want you to do it again.

___________________________

B rian stared at him. Its a joke, right?

Derek shook his head. Not at allbut I think we should wait for your mother to come home and talk to her and your father. Well come back later.

He turned to leave and the other two men, still silent, followed him to the door.

Just a minute. Brian stopped them. Maybe I didnt understand what you saidlet me get it straight. You want me to go back and do it over again? Live in the woods with nothing but a hatchet?

Derek nodded. Thats it.

But thats crazy. It was rough. I mean, I almost died and it was just luck that I made it out.

Derek shook his head. No. Not luck. You had something more going for you besides luck.

Brian had a mental picture of the porcupine coming into his shelter in the dark, throwing the hatchet and hitting the rock embedded in the wall and getting sparks. If the porcupine hadnt come in and he hadnt thrown the hatchet, and if the hatchet hadnt hit the rock just right, there wouldnt have been sparks and he wouldnt have had a fire and he might not be standing here talking to this man now. Most of it was luck .

Let me explain what I mean.

Brian waited.

We teach what you did, or we try to. But the truth is, we have never done it and we dont know anybody who has ever done it. Not for real. He shrugged, his shoulders moving under the jacket. Oh, we do silly little tests, you know, where we go out and pretend to survive. But nobody in our field has ever had to do itwhere everything is on the line. He looked directly at Brian. Like you.

The one named Bill Mannerly stepped forward. We want you to teach us. Not from a book, not from pamphlets or training films, but really teach us what its like. So we can teach others more accurately.

Brian smiled. He couldnt help it. You mean take a class out and show them what I did?

Derek held up his hands and shook his head. No. Not like that. Nothing phony. We havent worked it all out yet, but we thought one of us would go with you and stay out there with you, live the way you live, watch youlearn. Learn . Take notebooks and make notes, write everything down. We really want to know how you did itall the parts of it.

Brian believed him. His voice was soft and sincere and his eyes were honest, but still Brian shook his head. It wasnt like you think. It wasnt a camping trip. I lost weight, but more than that, I didnt come back the same. And, he thought, Im still not the same; Ill never be the same. He could not walk through a park without watching the trees for game, could not not hear things. Sometimes he wanted not to see, not to hear everything around himnoise, colors, movement. But he couldnt blank them out. He saw, heard, smelled everything.

Thats what we want to know. Those things. Derek smiled. Look, dont say no yet. Let us come back and talk to your mother, explain it all, and then you can make a decision. All right?

Brian nodded slowly. All right. Just to talk, right?

Just to talk.

The three men left, and Brian looked at the digital clock on the table in the entryway. It would be an hour before his mother got home. He had some studying to doit was the end of May and there were finalsbut he decided to cook dinner.

He loved to cook.

It was one of the things that had changed about him from the time when he was in the woods. He thought of it as the Time.

Just that. The Time. When he was speaking quietly to Deborah about ithed tried to tell her of it, all of it, including the moments when he tried to end himselfwhen he spoke to her about it, he always started it with just those words:

The Time.

A year had passed, and in the world around him not much had changed. His mother still saw the man, though not as much, and Brian thought it might be passing, what they had between them. The divorce was still finaland would probably remain so. Hed gone to visit his father after the Time and found that hed fallen in love with another woman and was going to marry her.

Next page
Light

Font size:

Reset

Interval:

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «The River (Yearling)»

Look at similar books to The River (Yearling). We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.


Gary Paulsen - Hatchet
Hatchet
Gary Paulsen
Gary Paulsen - The River
The River
Gary Paulsen
Belmont and Belcourt Biographies - Derek Jeter: An Unauthorized Biography
Derek Jeter: An Unauthorized Biography
Belmont and Belcourt Biographies
Derek Fee [Fee - Dead Rat
Dead Rat
Derek Fee [Fee
Thompson Derek - One in christ
One in christ
Thompson Derek
Gary Paulsen - Brians Hunt
Brians Hunt
Gary Paulsen
Gary Paulsen - Brians Winter
Brians Winter
Gary Paulsen
Gary Paulsen - Brians Return
Brians Return
Gary Paulsen
Reviews about «The River (Yearling)»

Discussion, reviews of the book The River (Yearling) and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.