Pet Sematary - Stephen King [131]
But because Hanratty had gone bad, did that mean that all animals went bad? No. Hanratty the bull did not prove the general case; Hanratty was in fact an exception to the general case. Look back at the other animals-Juds dog Spot, the old womans parakeet, Church himself. They had all come back changed, and the change had been noticeable in all cases, but in the case of Spot, at least, the change hadnt been so great that Jud had forborne to recommend the process of of..
(resurrection)
Yes, of resurrection to a friend years later. Of course, farther down the line he had tried to justify and hem and haw, and had
spouted a lot of ominous, confused bullshit that could not even rightly be called philosophy.
How could he refuse to take the chance available to him-this one, unbelievable chance-on the basis of the Timmy Baterman story? One swallow did not a summer make.
Youre slanting all the evidence in favor of the conclusion you want to produce, his mind protested. At least tell yourself the goddamned truth about the change in Church. Even if you want to disqualify the animals-the mice and the birds-what about the way he is? Muddled thats the best word of all, that sums it up. The day we were out with the kite. You remember how Gage was that day? How vibrant and alive he was, reacting to everything? Wouldnt it be better to remember him that way? Do you want to resurrect a zombie from a grade-B horror picture? Or even something so prosaic as a retarded little boy? A boy who eats with his fingers and stares blankly at images on the TV screen and who will never learn to write his own name? What did Jud say about his dog? It was like washing a piece of meat. Is that what you want? A piece of breathing meat? And even if youre able to be satisfied with that, how do you explain the return of your son from the dead to your wife? To your daughter? To Steve Masterton? To the world? What happens the first time Missy Dandridge pulls into the driveway and sees Gage riding his trike in the yard? Cant you hear her screams, Louis? Cant you see her harrowing her face with her fingernails? What do you say to the reporters? What do you say when a film crew from Real People turns up on your doorstep, wanting to shoot film of your resurrected son?
Did any of this really matter, or was it only the voice of cowardice? Did he believe these things could not be dealt With? That Rachel would greet her dead son with anything but tears of joy?
Yes, he supposed there was a real possibility that Gage might return well diminished. But would that change the quality of his love? Parents loved children who were born blind, children born as Siamese twins, children who were born with their guts abysmally rearranged. Parents pled for judicial mercy or executive clemency on behalf of children who had grown up to commit rape and murder and the torture of the innocent.
Did he believe it would be impossible for him to love Gage even if Gage had to go on wearing diapers until he was eight? If
he did not master the first-grade primer until he was twelve? If he never mastered it at all? Could he simply dismiss his son as a.
a sort of divine abortion, when there was another recourse?
But, Louis, my God, you dont live in a vacuum! People will say- He cut that thought off with rude, angry force. Of all the things not to consider now, public notice was probably the greatest of them.
Louis glanced down at the raked dirt of Gages grave and felt a wave of awe and horror course through him. Unknowing, moving by themselves, his fingers had drawn a pattern in the dirt-he had drawn a spiral.
He swept the fingers of both hands through the dirt, rubbing the pattern out. Then he left Pleasantview, hurrying, feeling very much a trespasser now, believing that he would be seen, stopped, questioned at every turn of the path.
He was late collecting his pizza, and although it had been left on top of one of the big ovens, it was semicold and greasy and every bit as tasty as cooked clay. Louis ate one piece and then tossed the rest out the window,