ebEpvI

file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htmfully. “At least, I hope you need us. And neither of us are in any shape to—”“—in any kind of shape to stay here,” Louis said forcefully. He felt as if he might be coming down witha fever. “I’m glad you need me, and I do need you and Ellie. But right now this is the worst damn placein the world for you, honey. Gage is everywhere in this house, around every corner. For you and me,sure. But it’s even worse for Ellie, I think.”He saw pain flicker in her eyes and knew he had touched her. Some part of himself felt shame at thischeap victory. All the textbooks he’d read on the subject of death told him that the bereaved’s firststrong impulse is to get away from the place where it happened . . . and that to succumb to such animpulse may turn out to be the most harmful course of action because it allows the bereaved the dubiousluxury of refusing to come to terms with the new reality. The books said it was best to remain where youwere, to battle grief on its home ground until it subsided into remembrance. But Louis simply did notdare make the experiment with his family at home. He had to get rid of them, at least for a while.“I know,” she said. “It just . . . hits you all over the place. I moved the couch while you were inBangor. . . I thought running the vacuum around would take my mind off. . . off thingsand I found four of his little Matchbox cars under there.as if they were waiting for him to come back and. . . you know, play with them . . .“ Her voice, alreadywavering, now broke. Tears spilled down her cheeks. “And that’s when I took the second Valiumbecause I started crying again, the way I’m crying now. . . oh what a fucking soap opera all of this is. . .hold me, Lou, will you hold me?”He did hold her, and he did it well, but he felt like an imposter. His mind spun with ways to turn thesetears to his further benefit. Some nice guy, all right. Hey-ho, let’s go.“How long does it go on?” she wept. “Does it ever end? If only we could have him back, Louis, I swearI’d watch him better, it would never happen, and just because that driver was going too fast that doesn’tlet me—us—off the hook. I didn’t know there could ever be hurt like this, and that’s the truth. It comes,over and over it comes, and it hurts so much, Louis, there’s no rest from it even when I go to sleep,when I go to sleep I dream it,over and over again, I see him running to the road . . . and I scream to him. . .““Shhh,” he said. “Rachel, shhhh.”She lifted her puffy face to him. “It wasn’t even as if he were being bad, Louis. It was just a game tohim. . . the truck came at the wrong time. . . and Missy Dandridge called while I was still crying. . . andsaid she read in the Ellsworth American that the driver tried to kill himself.”file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20St...20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (233 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM