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Book Clubs: Travel Back to 11/22/63 with STEPHEN KING This book club kit contains everything you will need for an evening dedicated to 11/22/63: suggested questions for discussion, a conversation with Stephen King about the book, a playlist, and a selection of recipes. There’ll be a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on! Questions for Discussion 1. Where were you when JFK was assassinated? 2. 11/22/63 is filled with historical research—it twins real events with events and characters from King’s imagination. Did you learn anything surprising about the actual events leading up to the Kennedy assassination while reading this novel? 3. Our hero Jake Epping goes on an epic journey to try to prevent Kennedy’s assassination. Why choose this watershed moment in American history rather than any other moment? Would you choose a different moment, and if so, when? 4. Many great books, TV shows, and movies have investigated the idea of time travel. Do you have any particular favorite books or films that explore this? 5. When Jake lives in 1960s small town Texas, he meets some of the most important people in his life, including the lanky, lovely librarian Sadie. Why is Jake drawn to her? And why is she drawn to him? How does their relationship change over the course of the novel? 6. What is the role of romance in this book? Some reviewers of 11/22/63 cited King’s optimism about love—after reading 11/22/63, do you agree? 7. Jake (or rather George) has to spend a lot of time in Dallas, which he experiences as a malevolent place. Jodie, on the other hand, is everything idyllic small town America should be. Do you believe that certain places are evil at certain times? 8. 11/22/63 gives readers an opportunity to immerse themselves in the past, in all its casual cigarette smoking glory—the music, food, language, cars, and dancing. What are your favorite things about the ’50s and ’60s King creates in 11/22/63? And least favorite? 9. Do you believe in the butterfly effect/chaos theory?
10. If you could pick any other period in history that you could go back to, which would it be? 11. Conspiracy theories abound, and numerous books have been written on the subject of the Kennedy assassination. In his afterword, King concludes (as Jake does in the book) that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman, a disturbed and grandiose man who altered world history forever all on his own. Do you agree? A conversation with Stephen King about 11/22/63 Photo: Shane Leonard Where were you when JFK was assassinated? When I got the news I was in a hearse. I was a tuition kid in a little town and there was no bus service to the high school where we went. So our parents clubbed together and paid a guy who had a converted hearse, which he turned into a kind of school bus, and we went back and forth in that. We didn’t get the news that Kennedy had been assassinated in school. But when we got into the hearse to go home, the driver, Mike, had the radio on for the first time in living memory. We heard that Kennedy had been killed. Mike, who was kind of silent, spoke up. “They’ll catch the son of a bitch who did that and somebody will kill him.” And that’s exactly what happened. When and why did you decide to write a novel about the Kennedy assassination? I tried to write this novel in 1973 when I was teaching high school. At that time it was called Split Track and I wrote fourteen single-spaced pages. Then I stopped. The research was daunting for someone who was working full-time at another job. Also, I understood I wasn’t ready—the scope was too big for me at that time. I put the book aside and thought someday maybe I’d go back to it.
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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
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scraped her knees. “What time is
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I hurried to it and tried the passe
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“Because it was a girl’s,” I
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stacked book cartons. The overhead
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PART 6 THE GREEN CARD MAN
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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
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: Jack, I’m sure you’d understand
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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