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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htmfrom the children, above all to be kept from the children, the way that Victorian ladies and gentlemenhad believed the nasty, grotty truth about sexual relations must be kept from the children.“Jesus,” he said. “Was it her heart?”“I don’t know,” she said. She was no longer crying, but her voice was choked and hoarse. “Could youcome, Louis? You’re his friend, and I think he needs you.”You’re his friend.Well I am, Louis thought with a small touch of surprise. I never expected to have an eighty-year-oldman for a buddy, but I guess I do. And then it occurred to him that they had better be friends,considering what was between them. And considering that, he supposed that Jud had known they werefriends long before Louis had. Jud had stood by him on that one, and in spite of what had happenedsince, in spite of the mice, in spite of the birds, Louis felt that Jud’s decision had probably been the rightone . . . or, if not the right one, at least the compassionate one. He would do what he could for Jud now,and if it meant being best man at the death of his wife, he would be that.“On my way,” he said and hung up.32It had not been a heart attack. It had been a cerebral accident, sudden and probably painless. When Louiscalled Steve Master-ton that afternoon and told him what was going on, Steve said that he wouldn’tmind going out just that way.“Sometimes God dillies and dailies,” Steve said, “and sometimes He just points at you and tells you tohang up your jock.”Rachel did not want to talk about it at all and would not allow Louis to talk to her of it.Ellie was not so much upset as she was surprised and interested—it was what Louis thought athoroughly healthy six year-old reaction should be. She wanted to know if Mrs. Crandall had died withher eyes shut or open. Louis said he didn’t know.Jud took hold as well as could have been expected, considering the fact that the lady had been sharingbed and board with him for almost sixty years. Louis found the old man—and on this day he looked veryfile:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20St...20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (154 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM
file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htmmuch like an old man of eighty-three—sittingalone at the kitchen table, smoking a Chesterfield, drinking a bottle of beer, and staring blankly into theliving room.He looked up when Louis came in and said, “Well, she’s gone, Louis.” He said this in such a clear andmatter-of-fact way that Louis thought it must not have really cleared through all the circuits yet—hadn’thit him yet where he lived. Then Jud’s mouth began to work and he covered his eyes with one arm.Louis went to him and put an arm around him. Jud gave in and wept. It had cleared the circuits, all right.Jud understood perfectly. His wife had died.“That’s good,” Louis said. “That’s good, Jud, she would want you to cry a little, I think. Probably bepissed off if you didn’t.” He had started to cry a little himself. Jud hugged him tightly, and Louis huggedhim back.Jud cried for ten minutes or so, and then the storm passed. Louis listened to the things Jud said then withgreat care—he listened as a doctor as well as a friend. He listened for any circularity in Jud’sconversation; he listened to see if Jud’s grasp of when was clear (no need to check him on where; thatwould prove nothing because for Jud Crandall the where had always been Ludlow, Maine); he listenedmost of all for any use of Norma’s name in the present tense. He found little or no sign that Jud waslosing his grip. Louis was aware that it was not uncommon for two old married people to go almost handin-hand,a month, a week, even a day apart. The shock, he supposed, or maybe even some deep innerurge to catch up with the one gone (that was a thought he would not have had before Church; he foundthat many of his thoughts concerning the spiritual and the supernatural had undergone a quiet butnonetheless deep sea-change). His conclusion was that Jud was grieving hard but that he was stillcompos mentis. He sensed in Jud none of that transparent frailty that had seemed to surround Norma onNew Year’s Eve, when the four of them had sat in the Creed living room, drinking eggnog.Jud brought him a beer from the fridge, his face still red and blotchy from crying.“A bit early in the day,” he said, “but the sun’s over the yardarm somewhere in the world and under thecircumstances . .“Say no more,” Louis told him and opened the beer. He looked at Jud. “Shall we drink to her?”“I guess we better,” Jud said. “You should have seen her when she was sixteen, Louis, coming backfrom church with her jacket unbuttoned.. . . your eyes would have popped. She could have made thedevil swear off drinking. Thank Christ she never asked me to do it.”Louis nodded and raised his beer a little. “To Norma,” he said. Jud clinked his bottle against Louis’s. Hewas crying again but he was also smiling. He nodded. “May she have peace, and let there be no friggingarthritis wherever she is.”file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20St...20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (155 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM
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