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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htmLouis lowered the Hefty Bag into the hole and slowly shoveledthe dirt back in. He was cold now and tired. The patter of the earth on the plastic was a depressingsound, and while he did not regret coming up here, that sense of exhilaration was fading, and he hadbegun to wish the adventure over. It was a long walk back home.The pattering sound muffled, then stopped—there was only the whump of dirt on more dirt. He scrapedthe last bit into the hole with the blade of his shovel (there’s never enough, he thought, recallingsomething his undertaker uncle had said to him at least a thousand years ago, never enough to fill thehole up again) arid then turned to Jud.“Your cairn,” Jud said.“Look, Jud, I’m pretty tired and—”“It’s Ellie’s cat,” Jud said, and his voice, although soft, was implacable. “She’d want you to do it right.”Louis sighed. “I suppose she would,” he said.It took another ten minutes to pile up the rocks Jud handed him, one by one. When it was done, therewas a low, conical pile of stones on Church’s grave, and Louis did indeed feel a small, tired pleasure. Itlooked right, somehow, rising with the others in the starlight. He supposed Ellie would never see it—thethought of taking her through that patch of swamp where there was quicksand would make Rachel’s hairturn white—but he had seen it, and it was good.“Most of these have fallen over,” he said to Jud, standing and brushing at the knees of his pants. He wasseeing more clearly now, and in several places he could clearly make out scattered strews of loosestones. But Jud had seen to it that he built his own cairn only from stones taken from the grave hehimself had dug.“Ayuh,” Jud said. “Told you: the place is old.”“Are we done now?”“Ayuh.” He clapped Louis on the shoulder. “You did good, Louis. I knew you would. Let’s go home.”“Jud—” he began again, but Jud only grabbed the pick and walked off toward the steps. Louis got theshovel, had to trot to catch up, and then saved his breath for walking. He looked back once, but the cairnmarking the grave of his daughter’s cat Winston Churchill had melted into the shadows, and he couldnot pick it out.file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20St...20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (107 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM