Đăng Nhập
Đăng nhập iSach
Đăng nhập = Facebook
Đăng nhập = Google
Quên Mật Khẩu
Đăng ký
Trang chủ
Đăng nhập
Đăng nhập iSach
Đăng nhập = Facebook
Đăng nhập = Google
Đăng ký
Tùy chỉnh (beta)
Nhật kỳ....
Ai đang online
Ai đang download gì?
Top đọc nhiều
Top download nhiều
Top mới cập nhật
Top truyện chưa có ảnh bìa
Truyện chưa đầy đủ
Danh sách phú ông
Danh sách phú ông trẻ
Trợ giúp
Download ebook mẫu
Đăng ký / Đăng nhập
Các vấn đề về gạo
Hướng dẫn download ebook
Hướng dẫn tải ebook về iPhone
Hướng dẫn tải ebook về Kindle
Hướng dẫn upload ảnh bìa
Quy định ảnh bìa chuẩn
Hướng dẫn sửa nội dung sai
Quy định quyền đọc & download
Cách sử dụng QR Code
Truyện
Truyện Ngẫu Nhiên
Giới Thiệu Truyện Tiêu Biểu
Truyện Đọc Nhiều
Danh Mục Truyện
Kiếm Hiệp
Tiên Hiệp
Tuổi Học Trò
Cổ Tích
Truyện Ngắn
Truyện Cười
Kinh Dị
Tiểu Thuyết
Ngôn Tình
Trinh Thám
Trung Hoa
Nghệ Thuật Sống
Phong Tục Việt Nam
Việc Làm
Kỹ Năng Sống
Khoa Học
Tùy Bút
English Stories
Danh Mục Tác Giả
Kim Dung
Nguyễn Nhật Ánh
Hoàng Thu Dung
Nguyễn Ngọc Tư
Quỳnh Dao
Hồ Biểu Chánh
Cổ Long
Ngọa Long Sinh
Ngã Cật Tây Hồng Thị
Aziz Nesin
Trần Thanh Vân
Sidney Sheldon
Arthur Conan Doyle
Truyện Tranh
Sách Nói
Danh Mục Sách Nói
Đọc truyện đêm khuya
Tiểu Thuyết
Lịch Sử
Tuổi Học Trò
Đắc Nhân Tâm
Giáo Dục
Hồi Ký
Kiếm Hiệp
Lịch Sử
Tùy Bút
Tập Truyện Ngắn
Giáo Dục
Trung Nghị
Thu Hiền
Bá Trung
Mạnh Linh
Bạch Lý
Hướng Dương
Dương Liễu
Ngô Hồng
Ngọc Hân
Phương Minh
Shep O’Neal
Thơ
Thơ Ngẫu Nhiên
Danh Mục Thơ
Danh Mục Tác Giả
Nguyễn Bính
Hồ Xuân Hương
TTKH
Trần Đăng Khoa
Phùng Quán
Xuân Diệu
Lưu Trọng Lư
Tố Hữu
Xuân Quỳnh
Nguyễn Khoa Điềm
Vũ Hoàng Chương
Hàn Mặc Tử
Huy Cận
Bùi Giáng
Hồ Dzếnh
Trần Quốc Hoàn
Bùi Chí Vinh
Lưu Quang Vũ
Bảo Cường
Nguyên Sa
Tế Hanh
Hữu Thỉnh
Thế Lữ
Hoàng Cầm
Đỗ Trung Quân
Chế Lan Viên
Lời Nhạc
Trịnh Công Sơn
Quốc Bảo
Phạm Duy
Anh Bằng
Võ Tá Hân
Hoàng Trọng
Trầm Tử Thiêng
Lương Bằng Quang
Song Ngọc
Hoàng Thi Thơ
Trần Thiện Thanh
Thái Thịnh
Phương Uyên
Danh Mục Ca Sĩ
Khánh Ly
Cẩm Ly
Hương Lan
Như Quỳnh
Đan Trường
Lam Trường
Đàm Vĩnh Hưng
Minh Tuyết
Tuấn Ngọc
Trường Vũ
Quang Dũng
Mỹ Tâm
Bảo Yến
Nirvana
Michael Learns to Rock
Michael Jackson
M2M
Madonna
Shakira
Spice Girls
The Beatles
Elvis Presley
Elton John
Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd
Queen
Sưu Tầm
Toán Học
Tiếng Anh
Tin Học
Âm Nhạc
Lịch Sử
Non-Fiction
Download ebook?
Chat
Night Whispers
ePub
A4
A5
A6
Chương trước
Mục lục
Chương sau
Chapter 5
B
y the time Sloan reached her temporary classroom, she'd convinced herself that her emotions were firmly under control and that she could concentrate completely on what she had to do.
She walked into the room, closed the door behind her, and gave the group a bright, fixed smile. "We're going to be talking about correct ways for women to deal with several potentially dangerous situations… " she announced; then she realized she'd forgotten to greet them or introduce herself. "By the way, my name is Sloan Reynolds…" she began again. And my father has just contacted me for the first time in my life, she thought.
Sloan shook her head to clear it. The classes she was about to give were vitally important to the women in the room, and the women were all important to her. They needed her advice; they were counting on her. Carter Reynolds was nothing to her.
Sloan thrust him out of her mind and began the first of her lectures. "We'll start with one of the most common scenarios where a lone woman suddenly finds herself in danger. Let's suppose you're alone on the road at night and you get a flat tire," she said. "There's very little traffic and the nearest lights—the nearest sign of people—are three or four miles away. What do you do?"
Several hands went up and Sloan nodded toward an attractive middle-aged woman who sold real estate. "I'd lock the car doors, roll up the windows, and stay in the car until a police car, or tow truck, or some sort of trustworthy help arrives."
That was exactly the answer Sloan expected to hear, and it was the wrong answer. "Okay," she said, preparing to illustrate her point. "Now, suppose that while you're locked in your car, a vehicle pulls over to the side of the road. A man gets out, comes over to you, and offers to help. What will you do?"
"Does he look trustworthy?" the realtor asked.
"I don't know what honest looks like," Sloan countered firmly, "and neither do you. I mean, who looked more wholesome than Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy? But let's suppose the guy who offers to help you doesn't look trustworthy. What would you do then?"
"I'd keep the window up, and—and I'd lie and tell him help is already on the way!" the realtor finished with the enthusiasm of one who has come up with an inspired solution. "Is that the right answer?"
"Well, let's see if it is or isn't," Sloan said as she walked over to a table where she'd set up a television and video-cassette player. "If your man was a good guy who truly wanted to help, he'll leave. But what do you think he'll do if he's a bad guy who wants to rob or rape or murder you?"
"What can he do?" the woman replied. "I'm in the car with the doors locked and the windows up."
"I'll show you what he can—and will—do," Sloan said as she pressed the playback button on the VCR. The television screen lit up showing a nighttime scene exactly like the one Sloan had described, with an actress playing the part of the stranded motorist on the highway. On the screen, a second car pulled to a stop, and a clean-cut-looking actor got out and offered to fix her tire. When the woman politely declined his help, he suddenly grabbed the door handle and tried to open the car door. She began screaming in panic, and he ran to his car, but instead of leaving, he returned a moment later with a tire iron; then he bashed in her window, unlocked the door, and jerked the screaming, struggling woman out of the car, where he began bludgeoning her with the tire iron.
The brief film clip was so realistic that Sloan's students were silent and shaken after she turned off the VCR.
"Lesson number one—" Sloan said firmly, but with a smile to ease the tension in the room. "Do not stay in a disabled vehicle. If you do, you're turning yourself into a potential victim and advertising your plight to every criminal and creep who drives by."
"Then what should we do?" a pharmacist's wife asked.
"You have several choices, depending upon how far away you are from the nearest house or business. None of your alternatives are convenient, but they're not as 'inconvenient' as being robbed or worse. If you're within walking distance of a house or business, even if it's several miles away, start walking. If you can't go cross-country, then you'll have to walk along the highway, but be prepared to duck behind a bush or crouch in a ditch if you see car lights coming your way. If it's too far to walk, or if the climate would endanger your health, then you'll have to stay in the car, but be prepared to get out of it and hide somewhere as soon as you see headlights coming your way. If someone stops to check out the car, stay hidden."
Sloan paused to let all that sink in; then she said, "If there's some reason why you absolutely must remain in your vehicle until morning, then wait until you see headlights coming, get out of the car and go to your hiding place. From there, you can watch and see what he does and how he acts. If he tries to break into your vehicle, or vandalize it, or steal your hubcaps—or if he has a couple drunken buddies with him—then at least you'll know you're safer where you are."
Sloan reached behind her and picked up a small black object on the table. Smiling, she said, "If you really don't like hiking down highways and across fields in the dark—if you'd rather not spend a terrifying night jumping in and out of your car, hiding and fearing for your life—then I'm happy to recommend an alternative." Lifting her arm, she held up the cellular telephone she'd taken from the table, and her smile vanished. "Please get one of these," Sloan implored. "Please," she said again for emphasis. "You can buy one for under one hundred dollars, and if you only use it for emergencies, the monthly cost for airtime isn't much. I realize that for some of you the cost of a cheap cell phone and monthly service may put a strain on your budget, but you can't put a dollar value on your life, and it's your life you're risking without one. If you have one of these when you're stranded at night in a car, you don't have to spend the night hiking or hiding. You can phone a tow truck, or the police department, or your husband or boyfriend and tell them you'll be waiting near the car. After that, all you have to do is stay out of sight until the help you're expecting arrives.
"Oh, one more thing," she added as Jess walked into the room. "If you've phoned the police, stress that you'll be near the car, not in it. Don't just leap out from behind a bush when we get there."
"Why not?" Sara challenged, smiling directly at Jess.
"Because," Jess said dryly, "it scares the hell out of us when that happens."
Everyone laughed, but Sloan had a much different impression of that ostensibly innocent exchange between Sara and Jess. Sara, who was always nice to everyone, had actually meant to force Jess into admitting to fear in front of a roomful of women. Sloan knew that as surely as she knew that Jess, who never took any gibe—or any woman—seriously, had truly resented Sara's "joke." They were two of the most attractive, most personable people in all of Bell Harbor. And they couldn't stand each other. They were Sloan's closest friends, and the undercurrent of animosity between them had finally risen to the surface and was bursting out into the open.
Sloan finished her lecture with a reminder that the next session would include some physical self-defense moves and reminded them to wear suitable clothing; then she turned off the television set and removed the video cartridge from the VCR. She'd completely forgotten that Carter Reynolds had reared up out of the dark highway of her own past.
Unfortunately, her respite lasted only until Sara got her alone.
Chương trước
Mục lục
Chương sau
Night Whispers
Judith Mcnaught
Night Whispers - Judith Mcnaught
https://isach.info/story.php?story=night_whispers__judith_mcnaught