Pet Sematary - Stephen King [72]
Did you ask him why he didnt take you, Jud?
I did, Jud said. Somewhere during that long talk I did ask him that. And he said it was a bad place, by and large, and that it didnt often do anything good for people who had lost their animals or for the animals themselves. He asked me if I liked Spot the way he was, and do you know, Louis, I had the hardest time answering that.. and its important that I tell you my feelings on that, because sooner or later youre going to ask me why I led you up there with your daughters cat if it was a bad thing to do. Isnt that so?
Louis nodded. What was Ellie going to think about Church when she got back? That had been much on his mind while he and Steve Masterton had been playing racket ball that afternoon.
Maybe I did it because kids need to know that sometimes dead is better, Jud said with some difficulty. Thats somethin your Ellie dont know, and I got a feelin that maybe she dont know because your wife dont know. Now, you go ahead and tell me if Im wrong, and well leave it.
Louis opened his mouth and then closed it again.
Jud went on, now speaking very slowly, appearing to move from word to word as they had moved from hummock to hummock in Little God Swamp the night before.
Ive seen it happen over the years, he said. I guess I told you that Lester Morgan buried his prize bull up there. Black Angus named Hanratty. Aint that a silly name for a bull?
Died of some sort of ulcer inside, and Lester dragged him all the way up there on a sledge. How he did it-how he got over the deadfall there I dunno-but its said that what you want to do, you can. And at least as far as that burying ground goes, Id say its true.
Well, Hanratty came back, but Lester shot him dead two weeks later. That bull turned mean, really mean. But hes the only animal I ever heard of that did. Most of them just seem.
a little stupid a little slow a little A little dead?
Yeah, Jud said. A little dead. Like they had been somewhere and came back but not all the way. Now, your daughter isnt going to know that, Louis. Not that her cat was hit by a car, and killed, and came back. So you could say you cant teach a child a lesson unless the child knows theres a lesson to be learned. Except..
Except sometimes you can, Louis said, more to himself than to Jud.
Yes, Jud agreed, sometimes you can. Maybe shell learn something about what death really is, which is where the pain stops and the good memories begin. Not the end of life, but the end of pain. You dont tell her those things; she will figure them out on her own.
And if shes anything like me, shell go on loving her pet. It wont turn vicious, or bite, or anything like that. Shell go on loving it but shell draw her own conclusions and shell breathe a sigh of relief when it finally dies.
Thats why you took me up there, Louis said. He felt better now. He had an explanation. It was diffuse, it relied more upon the logic of the nerve endings than the logic of the rational mind, but under the circumstances, he found he could accept that. And it meant he could forget the expression he thought he had seen on Juds face briefly last night-that dark, capering glee. Okay, thats-
Abruptly, almost shockingly, Jud covered his face with both hands. For one moment Louis thought he had been struck by a sudden pain, and he half-rose, concerned, until he saw the convulsive heave of the chest and realized that the old man was struggling not to cry.
Thats why, but it aint why, he said in a strangled, choked
voice. I did it for the same reason Stanny B. did it and for the same reason Lester Morgan did it. Lester took Linda Lavesque up there after her dog got run over in the road. He took her up there even though he had to put his goddam bull out of its misery for chasing kids through its pasture like it was mad. He did it anyway, he did it anyway, Louis, Jud almost moaned, and what the Christ