Needful Things - Stephen King [131]
The thought of kicking ass (particularly on this scale) always put Wilma in a good mood.
Nor was the prospect of ass-kicking the only pleasure of Wilma's Sunday. She hadn't had to cook a heavy Sunday meal for once, and Pete was safely parked with jake and Frieda. If she was lucky, he would spend the whole afternoon watching men try to rupture each other's spleens and she could watch the movie in peace. But first she thought she might call her old friend Nettle. She thought she had Crazy Nettle pretty well buffaloed, and that was all very well for a start. But only for a start. Nettle still had those muddy sheets to pay for, whether she knew it or not. The time had come to put a few more moves on Miss Mental Illness of 1991. This prospect filled Wilma with anticipation, and she drove home as fast as she could.
12
Like a man in a dream, Danforth Keeton walked to his refrigerator and pulled off the pink slip which had been taped there. The words
TRAFFIC VIOLATION WARNING
were printed across the top in black block letters. Below these words was the following message: just a warning-but please read and heed!
You have been observed breaking one or more traffic laws. The citing officer has elected to "let you off with a warning" this time, but he has recorded the make, model, and license number of your car, and next time you will be charged. Please remember that traffic laws are for EVERYBODY.
Drive defensively!
Arrive alive!
Your Local Police Department thanks you!
Below the sermon was a series of blanks labelled MAKE, MODEL, and LIC. #. Printed on the slip in the first two blanks were the words Cadillac and Seville. Neatly printed in the blank for LIC. # was this:
BUSTER 1.
Most of the slip was taken up by a checklist of common traffic violations such as failure to signal, failure to stop, and illegal parking.
None of them was checked. Toward the bottom were the words OTHER VIOLATION(S), followed by two blank lines. OTHER VIOLATION(S) had been checked. The message on the lines provided to describe the violation was also neatly printed in small block capitals. It read:
BEING THE BIGGEST COCKSUCKER IN CASTLE ROCK.
At the bottom was a line with the words CITING OFFICER printed under it. The rubber-stamp signature on this line was Norris Ridgewick.
Slowly, very slowly, Keeton clenched his fist on the pink slip.
It crackled and bent and crumpled. At last it disappeared between Keeton's big knuckles. He stood in the middle of the kitchen, looking around at all the other pink slips. A vein beat time in the center of his forehead.
"I'll kill him," Keeton whispered. "I swear to God and all the saints I'll kill that skinny little fuck."
13
When Nettle arrived home it was only twenty past one, but it felt to her as if she had been gone for months, maybe even years. As she walked up the cement path to her door, her terrors slipped from her shoulders like invisible weights. Her head still ached from the tumble she had taken, but she thought a headache was a very small price to pay for being allowed to arrive back at her own little house safe and undetected.
She still had her own key; that was in the pocket of her dress.
She took it out and put it in the lock. "Raider?" she called as she turned it. "Raider, I'm home!"
She opened the door.
"Where's Mummy's wittle boy, hmmm? Where is urns? Izzum hungwy?"
The hallway was dark, and at first she did not see the small bundle lying on the floor. She took her key out of the lock and stepped in.
"Is Mummy's wittle boy awful hungwy? Izzum just sooo hung-" Her foot struck something which was both stiff and yielding, and her voice halted in mid-simper.