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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htmdrop the cat onto the grass quickly and to cover his face with one hand, his eyes shut. The whole worldwas swimming now, and his head was full of a tottery, sick vertigo—it was the sort of feeling he couldremember from the bitter end of long drunks, just before the puking started.There was dried blood caked on Church’s muzzle, and caught in his long whiskers were two tiny shredsof green plastic. Bits of Hefty Bag.We will talk more about this and by then you will understand more.Oh Christ, he understood more than he wanted to right now. Give me a chance, Louis thought, and I’llunderstand myself right into the nearest mental asylum.He let Church into the house, got his blue dish, and opened a tuna-and-liver cat dinner. As he spoonedthe gray-brown mess out of the can, Church purred unevenly and rubbed back and forth along Louis’sankles. The feel of the cat caused Louis to break out in gooseflesh, and he had to clench his teeth grimlyto keep from kicking him away. His furry sides felt somehow too slick, too thick—in a word, loathsome.Louis found he didn’t care if he never touched Church again.When he bent and put the dish on the floor, Church streaked past him to get it, and Louis could havesworn he smelled sour earth—as if it had been ground into the cat’s fur.He stood back, watching the cat eat. He could hear him smacking—had Church smacked over his foodthat way before? Perhaps he had, and Louis had just never noticed. Either way, it was a disgustingsound. Gross, Ellie would have said.Abruptly Louis turned and went upstairs. He started at a walk, but by the time he got to the upperhallway, he was almost running. He undressed, tossing all of his clothes in the laundry hamper althoughhe had put them on fresh from the underwear out that morning. He drew himself a hot. bath, as hot as hecould take it, and plopped in.The steam rose around him, and he could feel the hot water working on his muscles, loosening them.The bath was also working on his head, loosening that. By the time the water had begun to cool, he wasfeeling dozy and pretty much all right again.The cat came back, just like the cat in the nursery rhyme, all right, so what, big deal.It had all been a mistake. Hadn’t he thought to himself yesterday evening that Church looked remarkablywhole and unmarked for an animal that had been struck by a car?Think of all the woodchucks and cats and dogs you’ve seen strewn all over the highway, he thought,their bodies burst, their guts everywhere. Tech-ni-color, as Loudon Wainwright says on that recordabout the dead skunk.file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20St...20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (118 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM