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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htmon the counter and said, “It doesn’t necessarily work that way, Ellie. Norma’s heart attack was a verysmall one, and I was able to administer thetreatment right away. I doubt if her heart was damaged much at all. She—”“Oh, I know,” Ellie agreed, almost cheerfully. “But she’s old, and she’ll die pretty soon anyway. Mr.Crandall too. Can I have an apple before I go to bed, Daddy?”“No,” he said, looking at her thoughtfully. “Go up and brush your teeth, babe.”Does anyone really think they understand kids? he wondered.When the house was settled and they were in their side-by-side twin beds, Rachel asked softly, “Was itvery bad for Ellie, Lou? Was she upset?”No, he thought. She knows old people croak at regular intervals, just like she knows to let thegrasshopper go when it spits like she knows that if you stumble on the number thirteen when you’reskipping rope, your best friend will die . . . like she knows that you put the graves in diminishing circlesup in the Pet Sematary.“Nope,” he said. “She handled herself very well. Let’s go to sleep, Rachel, okay?”That night, as they slept in their house and as Jud lay wakeful in his, there was another hard frost. Thewind rose in the early morning, ripping most of the remaining leaves, which were now an uninterestingbrown, from the trees.The wind awoke Louis, and he started up on his elbows, mostly asleep and confused. There were stepson the stairs .slow, dragging steps. Pascow had come back. Only now, he thought, two months had passed. When thedoor opened he would see a rotting horror, the jogging shorts caked with mould, the flesh fallen away ingreat holes, the brain decayed to paste. Only the eyes would be alive. . . hellishly bright and alive.Pascow would not speak this time; his vocal cords would be too decayed to produce sounds. But hiseyes. . . they would beckon him to come.“No,” he breathed, and the steps died out.He got up, went to the door, and pulled it open, his lips drawn back in a grimace of fear and resolution,his flesh cringing. Pascow would be there, and with his raised arms he would look like a long-deadconductor about to call for the first thundering phrase of Walpurgisnacht.file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Ste...%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (85 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM