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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm“I only just thought of it,” she said hysterically. “Why didn’t I think of it before? Why didn’t you thinkof it?”“Think of what?” he questioned.“The other two wishes,” she replied rapidly. “We’ve only had one.“Was that not enough?” he demanded fiercely.“No,” she cried triumphantly: “we’ll have one more. Co down and get it quickly, and wish our boy aliveagain.”—w. w. JACOBS (“The Monkey’s Paw”)58Jud Crandall came awake with a sudden jerk, almost falling out of his chair. He had no idea how long hehad slept; it could have been fifteen minutes or three hours. He looked at his watch and saw that it wasfive minutes of five. There was a feeling that everything in the room had been subtly shifted out ofposition, and there was a line of pain across his back from sleeping sitting up.Oh you stupid old man, look what you gone and done!But he knew better; in his heart, he knew better. It wasn’t just him. He hadn’t simply fallen asleep onwatch; he had been put to sleep.That frightened him, but one thing frightened him more: what had awakened him? He was under theimpression that there had been some sound, some— He held his breath, listening over the papery rustleof his heart.Here was a sound—not the same one that had awakened him, but something. The faint creak of hinges.Jud knew every sound in this house—which floorboards creaked, which stair levels squeaked, wherealong the gutters the wind was apt to hoot and sing when it was drunkenly high, as it had been last night.He knew this sound as well as any of those. The heavy front door, the one that communicated betweenhis porch and the front hail, had just swung open. And with that information to go on, his mind was ableto remember the sound that had awakened him. It had been the slow expansion of the spring on thescreen door communicating between the porch and the front walk.“Louis?” he called but with no real hope. That wasn’t Louisfile:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20St...20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (305 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:50 PM