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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm“And they’re all together. Remember last year?” She giggled and Louis smiled. Last year seeminglyeverything they’d gotten had to be assembled, and they’d been up until almost four o’clock Christmasmorning, both of them finishing grouchy and out ofsorts. And by midafternoon of Christmas, Ellie had decided the boxes were more fun than the toys.“Gross-OUT!” Louis said, imitating Ellie.“Well, come on to bed,” Rachel said, “and I’ll give you a present early.”“Woman,” Louis said, drawing himself up to his full height, “that is mine by right.”“Don’t you wish,” she said and laughed through her hands. In that moment she looked amazingly likeEllie . . . and like Gage.“Just a minute,” he said. “There’s one other thing I gotta do.” He hurried into the front hail closet andbrought back one of his boots. He removed the fire screen from in front of the dying fire.“Louis, what are you—”“You’ll see.”On the left side of the hearth the fire was out and there was a thick bed of fluffy gray ashes. Louisstamped the boot into them, leaving a deep track. Then he tromped the boot down on the outer bricks,using it like a big rubber stamp.“There,” he said, after he had put the boot away in the closet again. “You like?”Rachel was giggling again. “Louis, Ellie’s going to go nuts.”During the last two weeks of school, Ellie had picked up a disquieting rumor around kindergarten, towit, that Santa Claus was really parents. This idea had been reinforced by a rather skinny Santa at theBangor Mall, whom Ellie had glimpsed in the Deering Ice Cream Parlor a few days ago. Santa had beensitting on a counter stool, his beard pulled to one side so he could eat a cheeseburger. This had troubledEllie mightily (it seemed to be the cheeseburger, somehow, even more than the false beard), in spite ofRachel’s assurances that the department store and Salvation Army Santas were really “helpers,” sent outby the real Santa, who was far too busy completing inventory and reading children’s last-minute lettersup north to be boogying around the world on public relations jaunts.Louis replaced the fire screen carefully. Now there were two clear boot tracks in their fireplace, one inthe ashes and one on the hearth. They both pointed toward the Christmas tree, as if Santa had hit bottomfile:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20St...20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (148 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM