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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htmLouis sat down beside her and said, “I want you to know, Ellie, that if we keep on loving each other, wecan get through this.”Each word was like moving a handcar loaded with wet bales, and the total effort left Louis feelingexhausted.“I’m going to wish really hard,” Ellie said calmly, “and pray to God for Gage to come back.”“Ellie—”“God can take it back if He wants to,” Ellie said. “He can do anything He wants to.”“Ellie, God doesn’t do things like that,” Louis said uneasily, and in his mind’s eye he saw Churchsquatting on the closed lid of the toilet, staring at him with those muddy eyes as Louis lay in the tub.“He does so,” she said. “In Sunday School the teacher told us about this guy Lazarus. He was dead, andJesus brought him back to life. He said ‘Lazarus, come forth,’ and the teacher said if he’d just said‘Come forth,’ probably everybody in that graveyard would have come out, and Jesus only wantedLazarus.”An absurdity popped out of his mouth (but the day had sung and gibbered with absurdity): “That was along time ago, Ellie.”“I’m going to keep things ready for him,” she said. “I’ve got his picture, and I’m going to sit in his chair—”“Ellie, you’re too big for Gage’s chair,” Louis said, taking her hot, feverish hand. “You’ll break it.”“God will help it not to break,” Ellie said. Her voice was serene, but Louis observed the brown halfmoonsunder her eyes. Looking at her made his heart ache so badly that he turned away from her. Maybewhen Gage’s chair broke, she would begin to understand what had happened a little better.“I’m going to carry the picture and sit in his chair,” she said. “I’m going to eat his breakfast too.” Gageand Ellie had each had their own breakfast cereals; Gage’s, Ellie had once claimed, tasted like deadboogers. If Cocoa Bears was the only cereal in the house, Ellie would sometimes eat a boiled egg. . . ornothing at all. “I’ll eat lima beans even though I hate them, and I’ll read all of Gage’s picturebooks andI’ll. . . I’ll. . . you know. . . get things ready. . . in case . . .“She was crying now. Louis did not try to comfort her but only brushed her hair back from her forehead.What she was talking about made a certain crazed sense. Keeping the lines open. Keeping things current.Keeping Gage in the present, in the Hot One Hundred, refusing to let him recede; remember when Gagedidfile:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20St...20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (199 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM