Pet Sematary - Stephen King [102]
Ellie was dressed in blue jeans and a yellow blouse. She had brought a picture to the breakfast table with her. This picture, an enlargement of a Polaroid Rachel had taken with the SX-70 Louis and the kids had given her for her last birthday, showed Gage, grinning from the depths of his Sears ski-parka, sitting on her Speedaway sled as Ellie pulled him. Rachel had caught Ellie looking back over her shoulder and smiling at Gage. Gage was grinning back at her.
Ellie carried the picture, but she didnt talk much.
Louis was unable to see the condition of either his wife or his daughter; he ate his breakfast and his mind replayed the accident
over and over and over, except in this mind-movie the conclusion was different. In the mind-movie he was quicker, and all that happened was that Gage got a spanking for not stopping when they yelled.
It was Steve who really saw how it was going with Rachel and with Ellie as well. He forbade Rachel to go to the morning viewing (although viewing was really a misnomer because of the closed coffin; if it was open, Louis thought, theyd all run screaming from the room, me included) and forbade Ellie to go at all. Rachel protested. Ellie only sat, silent and grave, with the picture of her and Gage in one hand.
It was Steve who gave Rachel the shot she needed and who gave Ellie a teaspoon of a colorless liquid to drink. Ellie usually whined and protested about taking medicine-any kind of medicine-but she drank this silently and without a grimace. By ten oclock that morning she was asleep in her bed (the picture of her and Gage still held in her hand) and Rachel was sitting in front of the television set, watching Wheel of Fortune. Her responses to Steves questions were slow. She was stoned, but her face had lost that thoughtful look of madness which had so worried-and frightened-the P.A. when he came in that morning at a quarter past eight.
Jud, of course, had made all the arrangements. He made them with the same calm efficiency that he had made them for his wife three months before. But it was Steve Masterton who took Louis aside just before Louis left for the funeral home.
Ill see that shes there this afternoon, if she seems capable of handling it, he told Louis.
Okay.
The shot will have worn off by then. Your friend Mr. Crandall says hell stay with Ellie during the afternoon viewing hours-
Right.
-and play Monopoly or something with her-
Uh-huh.
But-
Right.
Steve stopped. They were standing in the garage, Churchs stomping ground, the place where he brought his dead birds and dead rats. The ones that Louis owned. Outside was May sun-
shine, and a robin bopped across the head of the driveway, as if it had important business somewhere. Maybe it did.
Louis, Steve said, youve got to get hold of yourself.
Louis looked at Steve, politely questioning. Not much of what Steve had said had gotten through-he had been thinking that if he had been a little quicker he could have saved his sons life- but a little of this last registered.
I dont think youve noticed, Steve said, but Ellie isnt vocalizing. And Rachel has had such a bad shock that her very conception of time seems to have been twisted out of shape.
Right! Louis said. More force in reply seemed to be indicated here. He wasnt sure why.
Steve put a hand on Louiss shoulder. Lou, he said, they need you more now than they ever have in their life. More than they ever will again, maybe. Please, man I can give your wife a shot, but you see, Louis, you gotta.. oh, Christ, Louis, what a cock-knocking, motherfucking mess this is!
Louis saw with something like alarm that Steve was starting to cry. Sure, he said, and in his mind he saw Gage running across the lawn toward the road. They were yelling at Gage to come back, but he wouldnt-lately the game had been to run away from Mommy-Daddy-and then they were chasing him, Louis quickly outdistancing Rachel, but Gage had a big lead, Gage was laughing, Gage was running away from Daddy-that was the game-and