Pet Sematary - Stephen King [14]
Moving inward, the pet graves became older; fewer and fewer of the inscriptions could be read, but those that could yielded a rough timeline extending into the past. Here was TRIXIE. KILT ON THE HIGHWAY SEPT 15, 1968. in the same circle was a wide flat board planted deep in the earth. Frost and thaw had warped it and canted it to one side, but Louis could still make Out IN MEMORY OF MARTA OUR PET RABIT DYED MARCH 1 1965. A row farther in was: GEN. PATTON (OUR! GOOD! DOG! the inscription amplified), who had died in 1958; and POLYNESIA (who would have been a parrot, if Louis remembered his Doctor Doolittle correctly), who had squawked her last Polly want a cracker in the summer of 1953. There was nothing readable in the next two rows, and then, still a long way in from the center, chiseled roughly on a piece of sandstone, was HANNAH THE BEST DOG THAT EVER LIVED 1929-1939. Although sandstone was relatively soft-as a result the inscription was now little more than a ghost-Louis found it hard to conceive of the hours some child must have spent impressing those nine words on the stone. The commitment of love and grief seemed to him staggering; this was something parents did not even do for their own parents or for their children if they died young.
Boy, this does go back some, he said to Jud, who had strolled over to join him.
Jud nodded. Come here, Louis. Want to show you something.
They walked to a row only three back from the center. Here the circular pattern, perceived as an almost haphazard
coincidence in the outer rows, was very evident. Jud stopped before a small piece of slate that had fallen over. Kneeling carefully, the old man set it up again.
Used to be words here, Jud said. I chiseled em myself, but its worn away now. I buried my first dog here. Spot. He died of old age in 1914, the year the Great War begun.
Bemused by the thought that here was a graveyard that went farther back than many graveyards for people, Louis walked toward the center and examined several of the markers. None of them were readable, and most had been almost reclaimed by the forest floor. The grass had almost entirely overgrown one, and when he set it back up, there was a small tearing, protesting sound from the earth. Blind beetles scurried over the section he had exposed. He felt a small chill and thought, Boot Hill for animals. Im not sure I really like it.
How far do these go back?
Gorry, I dont know, Jud said, putting his hands deep in his pockets. Place was here when Spot died, of course. I had a whole gang of friends in those days. They helped me dig the hole for Spot. Digging here aint that easy, either- grounds awful stony, you know, hard to turn. And I helped them sometimes. He pointed here and there with a horny finger. That there was Pete LaVasseurs dog, if I remember right, and theres three of Albion Groatleys barncats buried right in a row there.
Old Man Fritchie kept racing pigeons. Me and Al Groatley and Carl Hannah buried one of them that a dog got. Hes right there. He paused thoughtfully. Im the last of that bunch left, you know. All dead now, my gang. All gone.
Louis said nothing, only stood looking at the pet graves with his hands in his pockets.
Grounds stony, Jud repeated. Couldnt plant nothing here but corpses anyway, I guess.
Across the way, Gage began to cry thinly, and Rachel brought him over, toting him oŕ her hip. Hes hungry, she said. I think we ought to go back, Lou. Please, okay? her eyes asked.
Sure, he said. He shouldered the Gerrypack again and turned around so Rachel could pop Gage in. Ellie! Hey Ellie,