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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm“Want you to open your mouth. You did your trick, now you get your treat. I’m going to put a pill underyour tongue. Just asmall one. I want you to hold it there until it dissolves. It’s going to taste a little bitter but never mindthat. All right?”She opened her mouth. Stale denture breath wafted out, and Louis felt a moment of aching sorrow forher, lying here on her kitchen floor in a litter of apples and Halloween candy. It occurred to him thatonce she had been seventeen, her breasts eyed with great interest by the young men of the neighborhood,all her teeth her own, and the heart under her shirtwaist a tough little pony-engine.She settled her tongue over the pill and grimaced a little. The pill tasted a little bitter, all right. It alwaysdid. But she was no Victor Pascow, beyond help and beyond reach. He thought Norma was going to liveto fight another day. Her hand groped in the air, and Jud took it gently.Louis got up then, found the overturned bowl, and began to pick up the treats. The woman, whointroduced herself as Mrs. Buddinger from down the road, helped him and then said she thought she hadbetter go back to the car. Her two boys were frightened.“Thank you for your help, Mrs. Buddinger,” Louis said.“I didn’t do anything,” she said flatly. “But I’ll go down on my knees tonight and thank God you werehere, Dr. Creed.”Louis waved a hand, embarrassed.“That goes for me, too,” Jud said. His eyes found Louis’s and held them. They were steady. He was incontrol again. His brief moment of confusion and fear had passed. “I owe you one, Louis.”“Get off it,” Louis said and tipped a finger toward Mrs. Buddinger as she left. She smiled and wavedback. Louis found an apple and began to eat it. The Spy was so sweet that Louis’s taste buds crampedmomentarily . . . but that was not a totally unpleasurable sensation. Won one tonight, Lou, he thoughtand worked on the apple with relish. He was ravenous.“I do though,” Jud said. “When you need a favor, Louis, you see me first.”“All right,” Louis said, “I’ll do that.”The ambulance from Bangor MedCu arrived twenty minutes later. As Louis stood outside watching theorderlies load Normafile:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Ste...%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (82 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM