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I don’t know, I don’t know. The weather is turning toward autumn. 10/6/58 I went to the drive-in last night. It’s the last weekend for them. On Monday they’ll put up a sign that says CLOSED FOR THE SEASON and add something like TWICE AS FINE IN ’59! The last program consisted of two short subjects, a Bugs Bunny cartoon, and another pair of horror movies, Macabre and The Tingler. I took my usual folding chair and watched Macabre without really seeing it. I was cold. I have money to buy a coat, but now I’m afraid to buy much of anything. I keep thinking about the changes it could cause. When the first feature ended, I did go into the snackbar, however. I wanted some hot coffee. (Thinking This can’t change much, also thinking How do you know.) When I came out, there was only one child in the kiddie playground that would have been full at intermission only a month ago. It was a girl wearing a jean jacket and bright red pants. She was jumping rope. She looked like Rosette Templeton. “I went down the road, the road was a-muddy,” she chanted. “I stubbed my toe, my toe was a- bloody. You all here? Count two an three an four and fi’! My true love’s a butterfly!” I couldn’t stay. I was shivering too hard. Maybe poets can kill the world for love, but not ordinary little guys like me. Tomorrow, supposing the rabbit-hole is still there, I’m going back. But before I do . . . Coffee wasn’t the only thing I bought in the snackbar. 10/7/58 The lockbox from the Western Auto is on the bed, standing open. The spade is in the closet (what the maid thought about that I have no idea). The ink in my last refill is running low, but that’s okay; another two or three pages will bring me to the end. I’ll put the manuscript in the lockbox, then bury it near the pond where I once disposed of my cell phone. I’ll bury it deep in that soft dark soil. Perhaps someday, someone will find it. Maybe it will be you. If there is a future and there is a you, that is. This is something I will soon find out. I tell myself (hopefully, fearfully) that my three weeks in the Tamarack can’t have changed much; Al spent four years in the past and came back to an intact present . . . although I admit I have wondered about his possible relationship to the World Trade Center holocaust or the big Japanese earthquake. I tell myself there is no connection . . . but still I wonder. I should also tell you that I no longer think of 2011 as the present. Philip Nolan was the Man Without a Country; I am the Man Without a Time Frame. I suspect I always will be. Even if 2011 is still there, I will be a visiting stranger. Beside me on the desk is a postcard featuring a photo of cars pulled up in front of a big screen. That’s the only kind of card they sell in the Lisbon Drive-In snackbar. I have written the message, and I have written the address: Mr. Deacon Simmons, Jodie High School, Jodie, Texas. I started to write Denholm Consolidated High School, but JHS won’t become DCHS until next year or the year after. The message reads: Dear Deke: When your new librarian comes, watch out for her. She’s going to need a good angel, particularly in April of 1963. Please believe me. No, Jake, I hear the Ocher Card Man whisper. If John Clayton is supposed to kill her and doesn’t, changes will occur . . . and, as you’ve seen for yourself, the changes are never for the better. No matter how good your intentions are. But it’s Sadie! I tell him, and although I’ve never been what you’d call a crying man, now the tears
egin to come. They ache, they burn. It’s Sadie and I love her! How can I just stand by when he may kill her? The reply is as obdurate as the past itself: Close the circle. So I tear the postcard into pieces, I put them in the room’s ashtray, I set them on fire. There’s no smoke alarm to blare to the world what I have done. There’s only the rasping sound of my sobs. It’s as though I have killed her with my own hands. Soon I’ll bury my lockbox with the manuscript inside, and then I’ll go back to Lisbon Falls, where the Ocher Card Man will no doubt be very glad to see me. I won’t call a cab; I intend to walk the whole way, under the stars. I guess I want to say goodbye. Hearts don’t really break. If only they could. Right now I’m going nowhere except over to the bed, where I will lay my wet face on the pillow and pray to a God I can’t quite believe in to send my Sadie some good angel so she can live. And love. And dance. Goodbye, Sadie. You never knew me, but I love you, honey.
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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,
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Tiger bounded happily to meet him,
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“Yes!” Sadie chirruped, resetti
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For a moment as I sat there in my c
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was me, panting. “I hope he fucki
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I fumbled the .38 out of my pocket
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“Puddentane,” I said. “Ask me
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murder his whole family.” She loo
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I shook my head. “Honey, you’ve
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We were coming into Dallas now. I m
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Yes. He still is. But you’re clos
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“That’s it, and I will.” I ha
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asked after Deke, wished her a good
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again before I got out of his sight
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(Parkland) while O works. Rifle sto
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een a success. According to newscas
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November 20, 1963 Dear Sadie, I hav
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play before the curtain goes up on
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CHAPTER 28 1 11/22/63 (Friday) I sa
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Lee’s murder—we’d simply have
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Cadillac Street. Only you knew that
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Sadie was standing on the curb and
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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 and 412: stacked book cartons. The overhead
Page 413 and 414: PART 6 THE GREEN CARD MAN
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: Here’s another thing I do know. T
Page 459 and 460: ex-wife for months. The staff at De
Page 461 and 462: arber shop is gone, and the Cities
Page 463 and 464: gone, you can never get it back. Pa
Page 465 and 466: I’d put the probability at ninety
Page 467 and 468: Jack, I’m sure you’d understand
Page 469 and 470: 10. If you could pick any other per
Page 471 and 472: it’s just one of the places where
Page 473 and 474: 20. “In the Mood,” Glenn Miller
Page 475 and 476: top edge, or just pat back into the
Page 477 and 478: for 10 minutes. Slide a thin knife
Page 479 and 480: © SHANE LEONARD STEPHEN KING is th
Page 481 and 482: The Colorado Kid Cell Lisey’s Sto
Page 483 and 484: We hope you enjoyed reading this Sc
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