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as spotters, pointing up at the sixth-floor window, where a skinny man in a blue shirt was clearly visible. I heard a patter of thumps, a sound like hailstones striking mud. Those were the bullets that missed the window and hit the bricks above or on either side. Many didn’t miss. I saw Lee’s shirt billow out as if a wind had started to blow inside it—a red one that tore holes in the fabric: one above the right nipple, one at the sternum, a third where his navel would be. A fourth tore his neck open. He danced like a doll in the hazy, sawdusty light, and that terrible snarl never left his face. He wasn’t a man at the end, I tell you; he was something else. Whatever gets into us when we listen to our worst angels. A bullet spanged one of the overhead lights, shattered the bulb, and set it to swaying. Then a bullet tore off the top of the would-be assassin’s head, just as one of Lee’s had torn off the top of Kennedy’s in the world I’d come from. He collapsed onto his barricade of boxes, sending them tumbling to the floor. Shouts from below. Someone yelling “Man down, I saw him go down!” Running, ascending footfalls. I sent the .38 spinning toward Lee’s body. I had just enough presence of mind to know that I would be badly beaten, perhaps even killed by the men coming up the stairs if they found me with a gun in my hand. I started to get up, but my knee would no longer hold me. That was probably just as well. I might not have been visible from Elm Street, but if I was, they’d open fire on me. So I crawled to where Sadie lay, supporting my weight on my hands and dragging my left leg behind me like an anchor. The front of her blouse was soaked with blood, but I could see the hole. It was dead-center in her chest, just above the slope of her breasts. More blood poured from her mouth. She was choking on it. I got my arms under her and lifted her. Her eyes never left mine. They were brilliant in the hazy gloom. “Jake,” she rasped. “No, honey, don’t talk.” She took no notice, though—when had she ever? “Jake, the president!” “Safe.” I hadn’t actually seen him all in one piece as the limo tore away, but I had seen Lee jerk as he fired his only shot at the street, and that was enough for me. And I would have told Sadie he was safe no matter what. Her eyes closed, then opened again. The footfalls were very close now, turning from the fifth-floor landing and starting up the final flight. Far below, the crowd was bellowing its excitement and confusion. “Jake.” “What, honey?” She smiled. “How we danced!” When Bonnie Ray and the others arrived, I was sitting on the floor and holding her. They stampeded past me. How many I don’t know. Four, maybe. Or eight. Or a dozen. I didn’t bother to look at them. I held her, rocking her head against my chest, letting her blood soak into my shirt. Dead. My Sadie. She had fallen into the machine, after all. I have never been a crying man, but almost any man who’s lost the woman he loves would, don’t you think? Yes. But I didn’t. Because I knew what had to be done.
PART 6 THE GREEN CARD MAN
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Thank you for downloading this Scri
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It is virtually not assimilable to
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11/22/63
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uddy who had demonstrated the true
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PART 1 WATERSHED MOMENT
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those little squiggles he put on th
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3 Al’s Diner was housed in a silv
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“Long story short, I went to a do
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with all that stupid talk about Al
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toward him. He leaned on the stack
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CHAPTER 2 1 I took another step for
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where all the women have big bazonk
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a style I recognized (from old movi
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off the rest of my beeyah and stood
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narrow lane unless they happened to
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get-together?’” “Always the s
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CHAPTER 3 1 The gnome did indeed ha
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But I sat down. 3 “Do you know th
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—” He started coughing again, t
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down at the backs—that he didn’
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I mean.” “Would it have to be k
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over again. “I plugged her name i
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Stephanie Routhier.” “Just anot
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CHAPTER 4 1 Al let me help him into
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student work, no teacher does—you
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was trying to crawl under the bed.
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eyebrows even at a convenience stor
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my sorrow. But he’s not dead wher
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PART 2 THE JANITOR’S FATHER
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hunched his thin shoulders all the
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Sabattus? I think that’s it. Do y
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the bank. That made me remember the
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6 I got the clothes Al had recommen
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The taxi driver was a fat man who w
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CHAPTER 6 1 The same chain-smoking
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monocle in one eye and a school pen
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Lemkes, some of them siblings, most
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crocodile. If it keeps up, this bur
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Late that afternoon, hopes dashed (
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clasped. He stoops a little and kic
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seconds, maybe. It was the sort of
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and saw Derry hulking on the west b
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CHAPTER 7 1 How should I tell you a
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He’s a nice man. Always joking ar
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4 On the following Tuesday, I rente
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passing off fantasies like the murd
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oom from the large table where Dunn
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Chaz saw me looking. “Frank knows
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10 I got used to the planes coming
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CHAPTER 8 1 In the weeks before Hal
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One of the people I spoke to was Do
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Trust me on the sickness part. I kn
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smoke, and eye-watering chlorine. T
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Had Tugga given him shit about that
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At first that didn’t compute. The
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That’s a laugh. You want to hear
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If I told him just the right way—
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here like a rabbit in a hole.”
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and dislocated her shoulder as well
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He smiled and closed his eyes. 14 I
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Chevron. I crossed the street towar
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PART 3 LIVING IN THE PAST
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again. “You look like you’ve lo
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throat like a playing card in the s
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6 I made it home, and this time it
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to say. But halfway through the fou
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Sorry, buddy, couldn’t wait. Too
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CHAPTER 10 1 I crossed the employee
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3 I drove up the Mile-A-Minute High
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He and the large lady (Frati looked
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athroom medicine cabinet, and my ne
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stop in spite of a green light, my
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13 There was plenty about the World
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“It’s a simple enough assignmen
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of the land around Bowie Hill, wher
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kind of loony I am, Cullum will be
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CHAPTER 12 1 I took US 1 south. I a
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gossip in the billiard parlor next
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eal BS degree), I heard a psycholog
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protective cover—7 DAYS ONLY, BE
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You’d put your foot on it and cru
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father in his nakedness, and God cu
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his father’s gearshift. I’d jer
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“You come on back around six. Tha
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certain students, and at the librar
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19 We’re going to take another le
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CHAPTER 13 1 It was seven forty-fiv
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Gorgeous girl? Check. Blonde? Check
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was thinking of nothing but this bi
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Three weeks later, just before scho
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“Deke first popped the question a
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working on either of my manuscripts
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I want you to meet. This is—” S
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“He seems to be bearing up,” El
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9 At the game, practically everybod
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PART 4 SADIE AND THE GENERAL
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y a trim little man who wore horn-r
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Dunning, but I can’t say for sure
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“Yes, ma’am.” “That ain’t
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would be seven or eight years from
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The Stroll was the first step Chris
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my Ford steamed up. Then she pushed
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CHAPTER 15 1 At ten o’clock on th
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the grass. Now she picked up a Tupp
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“But keep them handy, honey.” A
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She smiled and kissed the corner of
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“I love you, too. No maybe or mis
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little hysterically. “Mama probab
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tighter, as if hugging could make i
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her jeans, then fumbled in the brea
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“Sadie? Are we all right?” “Y
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“I’ll always listen.” But she
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“The play, then. At least do the
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ever came right out and said so. An
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8 Everybody in town did turn out, a
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was looking for a cheap rent becaus
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“I won’t. Not anymore. So don
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CHAPTER 17 1 A few days before the
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It was the last day of school. The
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you care about it, when you feel li
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something on it. She took it back a
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“I was stupid to come to Fort Wor
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closest thing to fireworks came jus
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I looked at my watch and said, “I
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13 It was almost dark when I got to
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students were wont to say, but West
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“Will you give us a minute?” Ro
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June. I thought Marina might point
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I fought against the temptation to
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one that wasn’t swollen). There w
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I wondered if I were mad. Surely th
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14 There was a moment of silence lo
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good dancer.” “Then let’s go
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“What do you want?” the younger
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ack. I listened to the comment twic
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“I sort of like Kennedy,” Lee s
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ut no takers. Until the Oswalds mov
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Browder Street coffee shop. There t
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cocksuckers right now!” There wer
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I ignored her. This wasn’t the fi
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assumption that people were going t
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She looked at me doubtfully, turned
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CHAPTER 20 1 So in the end it only
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“That turkey looks absolutely won
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it. Then he slugged her. She fell d
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8 The day after Sadie’s Boxing Da
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Walker closed his eyes and raised h
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2 That was on a Friday afternoon, a
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Marina invited her in. I waited unt
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Lee’s footfalls crossed above my
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I looked down and saw a fresh drag-
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I liked George de Mohrenschildt bet
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CHAPTER 22 1 The afternoon of April
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It made a rough trail from the livi
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light, I will kill this bitch and t
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casserole delivery.’ And raise th
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Her eyes widened. She was looking o
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CHAPTER 23 From the Dallas Morning
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“I don’t think I’m quite read
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more. “When this young woman’s
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him wink. Marina and Jeanne lapsed
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then taking a bus or train. And if
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eason for it.” 9 She wasn’t ove
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I moved into Deke’s Spanish-style
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Hunch-think: that again. I paid the
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lock?” “Of course not. Although
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“Only one problem. They’re aski
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“What’s wrong?” she asked.
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Ellen took Sadie—who was exhauste
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“Yes, honey.” “Can you predic
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his house, and I’d attended a few
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DALLAS’S WHITE KNIGHT! According
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CHAPTER 25 1 I stayed with Sadie on
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There was silence on the line while
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He got in and shut the door. “Abo
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Gavery was putting out fresh loaves
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She blushed, except for around the
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“I don’t think that would work,
Page 361 and 362: Tiger bounded happily to meet him,
Page 363 and 364: “Yes!” Sadie chirruped, resetti
Page 365 and 366: For a moment as I sat there in my c
Page 367 and 368: was me, panting. “I hope he fucki
Page 369 and 370: I fumbled the .38 out of my pocket
Page 371 and 372: “Puddentane,” I said. “Ask me
Page 373 and 374: murder his whole family.” She loo
Page 375 and 376: I shook my head. “Honey, you’ve
Page 377 and 378: We were coming into Dallas now. I m
Page 379 and 380: Yes. He still is. But you’re clos
Page 381 and 382: “That’s it, and I will.” I ha
Page 383 and 384: asked after Deke, wished her a good
Page 385 and 386: again before I got out of his sight
Page 387 and 388: (Parkland) while O works. Rifle sto
Page 389 and 390: een a success. According to newscas
Page 391 and 392: November 20, 1963 Dear Sadie, I hav
Page 393 and 394: play before the curtain goes up on
Page 395 and 396: CHAPTER 28 1 11/22/63 (Friday) I sa
Page 397 and 398: Lee’s murder—we’d simply have
Page 399 and 400: Cadillac Street. Only you knew that
Page 401 and 402: Sadie was standing on the curb and
Page 403 and 404: laid hold of the chrome doorhandle
Page 405 and 406: scraped her knees. “What time is
Page 407 and 408: I hurried to it and tried the passe
Page 409 and 410: “Because it was a girl’s,” I
Page 411: stacked book cartons. The overhead
Page 415 and 416: exactitude because there was no clo
Page 417 and 418: happened, Mr. Amberson. I won’t s
Page 419 and 420: had to stretch my savings. When I g
Page 421 and 422: “—but he was a world-class fuck
Page 423 and 424: that dreamlike conversation while t
Page 425 and 426: something. He would pass it on to E
Page 427 and 428: “Where you did exactly what?”
Page 429 and 430: I wrote carefully, but it didn’t
Page 431 and 432: He offered me the three tickets lik
Page 433 and 434: CHAPTER 30 1 I stepped off my final
Page 435 and 436: “They’re saying seven thousand
Page 437 and 438: “Who are you?” I asked. “And
Page 439 and 440: “Buying meat over and over again
Page 441 and 442: painted on the remains of the floor
Page 443 and 444: good-sized rock in it. That explain
Page 445 and 446: CHAPTER 31 1 He still lived on Godd
Page 447 and 448: “Ayuh. That was taken on our twen
Page 449 and 450: Sure it was. Maybe a Police Special
Page 451 and 452: “Yes.” The cannula had come ask
Page 453 and 454: The world well lost for love—was
Page 455 and 456: Here’s another thing I do know. T
Page 457 and 458: egin to come. They ache, they burn.
Page 459 and 460: ex-wife for months. The staff at De
Page 461 and 462: arber shop is gone, and the Cities
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gone, you can never get it back. Pa
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I’d put the probability at ninety
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Jack, I’m sure you’d understand
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10. If you could pick any other per
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it’s just one of the places where
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20. “In the Mood,” Glenn Miller
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top edge, or just pat back into the
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for 10 minutes. Slide a thin knife
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© SHANE LEONARD STEPHEN KING is th
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The Colorado Kid Cell Lisey’s Sto
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