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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htmWe just ran the film backward, Louis thought tiredly as they emerged from the woods and into the fieldoverlooking his own house some time later. He did not know how much later; he had taken off his watchwhen he had lain down to doze that afternoon, and it would still be there on the windowsill by his bed.He only knew that he was beat, used up, done in. He could not remember feeling so kicked-dog wearysince his first day on Chicago’s rubbish-disposal crew one high-school summer sixteen or seventeenyears ago.They came back the same way they had gone, but he could remember very little about the trip. Hestumbled on the deadfall, he remembered that—lurching forward and thinking absurdly of Peter Pan—oh Jesus, I lost my happy thoughts and down I come— and then Jud’s hand had been there, firm andhard, and a few moments later they had been trudging past the final resting places of Smucky the Catand Trixie and Marta Our Pet Rabit and onto the path he had once walked not only with Jud but with hiswhole family.It seemed that in some weary way he had pondered the dream of Victor Pascow, the one which hadresulted in his somnambulistic episode, but any connection between that night walk and this had eludedhim. It had also occurred to him that the whole adventure had been dangerous—not in any melodramaticWilkie Collins sense but in a very real one. That he had outrageously blistered his hands while in a statethat was nearly somnambulistic was really the least of it. He could have killed himself on the deadfall.Both of them could have. It was hard to square such behavior with sobriety. In his current exhaustion, hewas willing to ascribe it to confusion and emotional upset over the death of a pet the whole family hadloved.And after a time, there they were, home again.They walked toward it together, not speaking, and stopped again in Louis’s driveway. The wind moanedand whined. Wordlessly, Louis handed Jud his pick.“I’d best get across,” Jud said at last. “Louella Bisson or Ruthie Parks will be bringin Norma home andshe’ll wonder where the hell I am.”“Do you have the time?” Louis asked. He was surprised that Norma wasn’t home yet; in his muscles itseemed to him that midnight must have struck.“Oh, ayuh,” Jud said. “I keep the time as long as I’m dressed and then I let her go.”He fished a watch out of his pants pocket and flicked the scrolled cover back from its face.“It’s gone eight-thirty,” he said and snapped the cover closed again.“Eight-thirty?” Louis repeated stupidly. “That’s all?”file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20St...20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (108 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM