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file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Stephen%20King%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm“Yeah, it’s Church,” he said. “I’ll be damned if I know how I’m going to tell Ellie about it.”Suddenly he had an idea. He would bury Church up in the Pet Sematary with no marker or any of thatfoolishness. He would say nothing to Ellie on the phone tonight about Church; tomorrow he wouldmention casually that he hadn’t seen Church around; the day after he would suggest that perhaps Churchhad wandered off. Cats did that sometimes. Ellie would be upset, sure, but there would be none of thefinality . . . no reprise of Rachel’s upsetting refusal to deal with death. . . just a withering away.Coward, part of his mind pronounced.Yes. . . no argument. But who needs this hassle?“Loves that cat pretty well, doesn’t she?” Jud asked.“Yes,” Louis said absently. He moved Church’s head again. The cat had begun to stiffen, but the headstill moved much more easily than it should have. Broken neck. Yeah. Given that, he thought he couldreconstruct what had happened. Church had been crossing the road—for what reason God alone knew—and a car or truck had hit him, breaking his neck and throwing him aside onto Jud Crandall’s lawn. Orperhaps the cat’s neck had been broken when he struck the frozen ground. It didn’t matter. Either waythe remains remained the same. Church was dead.He glanced up at Jud, about to tell him his conclusions, but Jud was looking away toward that fadingorange line of light atthe horizon. His hood had fallen back halfway, and his face seemed thoughtful and stern. . . harsh, even.Louis pulled the green garbage bag out of his pocket and unfolded it, holding it tightly to keep the windfrom whipping it away. The brisk crackling sound of the bag seemed to bring Jud back to this here andnow.“Yes, I guess she loves it pretty well,” Jud said. His use of the present tense felt slightly eerie . . . thewhole setting, with the fading light, the cold, and the wind, struck him as eerie and gothic.Here’s Heathcliff out on the desolate moors, Louis thought, grimacing against the cold. Getting ready topop the family cat into a Hefty Bag. Yowza.He grabbed Church’s tail, spread the mouth of the bag, and lifted the cat. He pulled a disgusted, unhappyface at the sound the cat’s body made coming up—rrrriiippp as he pulled it out of the frost it had setinto. The cat seemed almost unbelievably heavy, as if death had settled into it like a physical weight.Christ, he feels like a bucket of sand.Jud held the other side of the bag, and Louis dropped Church in, glad to be rid of that strange, unpleasantfile:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20Ste...%20Books/Stephen%20King%20-%20Pet%20Sematary.htm (94 of 333)7/28/2005 9:21:49 PM