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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htmeven pointed out the marker, although the years had worn the inscription away.Louis flushed the toilet, turned out the light, and went back to bed. Something else was wrong, as well—and in a moment he had it. Jud had been born with the century, and that day at the Pet Sematary he hadtold Louis his dog had died during the first year of the Great War. That would have been when Jud wasfourteen, if he had meant when the war actually started in Europe. When he was seventeen, if he hadmeant when America entered the war.But tonight he had said that Spot died when he, Jud, was ten. Well, he’s an old man, and old men getconfused in their memories, he thought uneasily. He’s said himself that he’s noticed signs of increasingforgetfulness—groping for names and addresses that used to come to him easily, sometimes getting upin the morning and having no memory of the chores he planned to do just the night before. For a man ofhis age, he’s getting off pretty goddamned light. . . senility’s probably too strong a word for it in Jud’scase; forgetfulness is actually better, more accurate. Nothing too surprising about a man forgetting whena dog died some seventy years ago. Or the circumstances in which it died, for that matter. Forget it,Louis.But he wasn’t able to fall asleep again right away; for a long while he lay awake, too conscious of theempty house and the wind that whined around the eaves outside it.At some point he slept without even being aware that he had gone over the edge; it must have been so,because as he slipped away, it seemed to him that he heard bare feet slowly climbingthe stairs and that he thought, Let me alone, Pascow, let me alone, what’s done is done and what’s deadis dead—and the steps faded away.And although a great many other inexplicable things happened as that year darkened, Louis was neverbothered by the specter of Victor Pascow again, either waking or dreaming.He awoke at nine the next morning. Bright sunshine streamed in the bedroom’s east windows. Thetelephone was ringing. Louis reached up and snared it. “Hello?”“Hi!” Rachel said. “Did I wake you up? Hope so.”“You woke me up, you bitch,” he said, smiling.“Ooooh, such nasty language, you bad old bear,” she said. “I tried to call you last night. Were you overat Jud’s?”He hesitated for only the tiniest fraction of a moment. “Yes,” he said. “Had a few beers. Norma was up23file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20St...20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (112 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM