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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm“Louis,” Steve said, “you’ve got to get hold of yourself.”Louis looked at Steve, politely questioning. Not much of what Steve had said had gotten through—hehad been thinking that if he had been a little quicker he could have saved his son’s life— but a little ofthis last registered.“I don’t think you’ve noticed,” Steve said, “but Ellie isn’t vocalizing. And Rachel has had such a badshock that her very conception of time seems to have been twisted out of shape.”“Right!” Louis said. More force in reply seemed to be indicated here. He wasn’t sure why.Steve put a hand on Louis’s shoulder. “Lou,” he said, “they need you more now than they ever have intheir life. More than they ever will again, maybe. Please, man . . . I can give your wife a shot, but . . .you . . . see, Louis, you gotta . . oh, Christ, Louis, what a cock-knocking, motherfucking mess this is!”Louis saw with something like alarm that Steve was starting to cry. “Sure,” he said, and in his mind hesaw Gage running across the lawn toward the road. They were yelling at Gage to come back, but hewouldn’t—lately the game had been to run away from Mommy-Daddy—and then they were chasinghim, Louis quickly outdistancing Rachel, but Gage had a big lead, Gage was laughing, Gage wasrunning away from Daddy—that was the game—and Louis was closing the distance but too slowly,Gage was running down the mild slope of the lawn now to the verge of Route 15, and Louis prayed toGod that Gage would fall down— when little kids ran fast, they almost always fell down because aperson’s control over his legs didn’t get really cool until he was maybe seven or eight. Louis prayed toGod that Gage would fall down, fall down, yes, fall down bloody his nose crack his skull need stitcheswhatever, because now he could hear the drone of a truck coming toward them, one of those big tenwheelersthat went back and forth endlessly between Bangor and the Orinco plant in Bucksport, and hehad screamed Gage’s name then, and he believed that Gage had heard him and tried to stop. Gageseemed to realize that the game was over, that your parents didn’t scream at you when it was just agame, and he had tried to put on the brakes, and by then the sound of the truck was very loud, the soundof it filled the world. It was thundering. Louishad thrown himself forward in a long flying tackle, his shadow tracking the ground beneath him as theshadow of the Vulture had tracked the white late-winter grass of Mrs. Vinton’s field that day in March,and he believed that the tips of his fingers had actually brushed the back of the light jacket Gage hadbeen wearing, and then Gage’s forward motion had carried him out into the road, and the truck had beenthunder, the truck had been sunlight on high chrome, the truck had been the deep-throated, shriekingbellow of an air horn, and that had been Saturday, that had been three days ago.“I’m okay,” he said to Steve. “I ought to go now.”“If you can get yourself together and help them,” Steve said, swiping at his eyes with the arm of hisjacket, “you’ll be helping yourself too. The three of you have got to get through it together, Louis.file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20St...20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (184 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM