Christine - Stephen King [0]
by
Stephen King
Hodder & Stoughton
All of the song lyrics which appear in these pages are separately
copyrighted, and all rights in such lyrics are reserved to such copyright
proprietors. If there are any questions about song titles, copyright
proprietors, and/or copyright dates, please submit such questions in
writing and the publisher will promptly forward the same to the
appropriate copyright proprietor for response.
First published in Great Britain in 1983 by
Hodder and Stoughton Limited
Copyright Š 1983 by The Philtrum Corporation
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, without permission of the publishers.
First NEL Paperback Edition March 1984
Conditions of sale: This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall
not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise
circulated without the publisher's prior consent in, any form of binding or
cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar
condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent
purchaser.
NEL Books are published by
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Editorial office: 47 Bedford Square, London WCIB 3DP
Photoset by Rowland Phototypesetting Ltd
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Made and printed in Great Britain by Cox & Wyman Ltd, Reading
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
King, Stephen, 1947-
Christine.
I. Title
813',54[F] PS3561.1483
ISBN 0-450-05674-0
This is for George Romero and Chris Forrest Romero.
And the Burg.
Author's Note
Lyrics quotes in this book are assigned to the singer (or singers, or group) most commonly associated with them. This may offend the purist who feels that a song lyric belongs more to the writer than the singer. What you have done, the purist might argue, is akin to ascribing the works of Mark Twain to Hal Holbrook. I don't agree. In the world of popular song, it is as the Rolling Stones say: the singer, not the song. But I thank them all, writers and singers - most particularly Chuck Berry, Bruce Springsteen, Brian Wilson and Jan Berry, of Jan and Dean. He did come back from Deadman's Curve.
Getting the necessary legal permission to use lyrics is hard work, and I'd like to thank some of the people who helped me remember the songs and then make sure it was OK to use them. They include: Dave Marsh, rock critic and rock historian; James Feury, a.k.a. 'Mighty John Marshall', who rocks my little town on WACZ; his brother, Pat Feury, who throws oldies hops in Portland; Debbie Geller; Patricia Dunning; and Pete Batchelder. Thanks to all you guys and may your old Coasters records never warp so bad you can't play 'em.
S.K.
Epilogue
PROLOGUE
This is the story of a lover's triangle, I suppose you'd say - Arnie Cunningham, Leigh Cabot, and, of course, Christine. But I want you to understand that Christine was there first. She was Arnie's first love, and while I wouldn't presume to say for sure (not from whatever heights of wisdom I've attained in my twenty-two years, anyway), I think she was his only true love. So I call what happened a tragedy.
Arnie and I grew up on the same block together, went to Owen Andrews Grammar School and Darby Junior High together, then to Libertyville High together. I guess I was the main reason Arnie didn't just get gobbled up in high school. I was a big guy there - yeah, I know that doesn't mean donkeyshit; five years after you've graduated you can't even cadge a free beer on having been captain of the football and baseball teams and an All-Conference swimmer - but because I was, Arnie at least never got killed. He took a lot of abuse, but he never got killed.
He was a loser, you know. Every high school has to have at least two; it's like a national law. One male, one female. Everyone's dumping ground. Having a bad day? Flunked a big test? Had an argument with your folks and got grounded for the weekend? No problem. Just find one of those poor sad sacks that