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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htmLouis felt great admiration for him. . . and love?Yes, his heart confirmed. And love.When Ellie came down that night in her pajamas to be kissed, she asked Louis if Mrs. Crandall would goto heaven. She almost whispered the question to Louis, as if she understood it would be better if theywere not overheard. Rachel was in the kitchen making a chicken pie, which she intended to take over toJud the next day.Across the street, all the lights were on in the Crandall house. Cars were parked in Jud’s driveway andup and down the shoulder of the highway on that side for a hundred feet in either direction. The officialviewing hours would be tomorrow, at the mortuary, but tonight people had come to comfort Jud as wellas they could, and to help him remember, and to celebrate Norma’s passing—what Jud had referred toonce that afternoon as “the foregoing.” Between that house and this, a frigid February wind blew. Theroad was patched with black ice. The coldest part of the Maine winter was now upon them.“Well, I don’t really know, honey,” Louis said, taking Ellie on his lap. On the TV, a running gunfightwas in progress. A man spun and dropped, unremarked upon by either of them. Louis was aware—uncomfortably so—that Ellie probably knew a hell of a lot more about Ronald McDonald andSpiderman and the Burger King than she did about Moses, Jesus, and St. Paul. She was the daughter of awoman who was a nonpracticing Jew and a man who was a lapsed Methodist, and he supposed her ideasabout the whole spiritus mundi were of the vaguest sort—not myths, not dreams, but dreams of dreams.It’s late for that, he thought randomly. She’s only five, but it’s late for that. Jesus Christ, it gets late sofast.But Ellie was looking at him, and he ought to say something. “People believe all sorts of things aboutwhat happens to us when we die,” he said. “Some people think we go to heaven or hell. Some peoplebelieve we’re born again as little children—”“Sure, carnation. Like what happened to Audrey Rose in that movie on TV.”“You never saw that!” Rachel, he thought, would have her own cerebral accident if she thought Ellie hadseen Audrey Rose.“Marie told me at school,” Ellie said. Marie was Ellie’s self-proclaimed best friend, a malnourished,dirty little girl who always looked as if she might be on the edge of impetigo, or ringworm, or perhapseven scurvy. Both Louis and Rachel encouraged the friendship as well as they could, but Rachel hadonce confessed to Louis that after Marie left, she always felt an urge to check Ellie’s head for flits andhead lice. Louis had laughed and nodded.“Marie’s mommy lets her watch all the shows.” There was an implied criticism in this that Louis choseto ignore.file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20St...20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (157 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM