Pet Sematary - Stephen King [87]
Louis felt great admiration for him and love?
Yes, his heart confirmed. And love.
When Ellie came down that night in her pajamas to be kissed, she asked Louis if Mrs. Crandall would go to heaven. She almost whispered the question to Louis, as if she understood it would be better if they were not overheard. Rachel was in the kitchen making a chicken pie, which she intended to take over to Jud the next day.
Across the street, all the lights were on in the Crandall house. Cars were parked in Juds driveway and up and down the shoulder of the highway on that side for a hundred feet in either direction. The official viewing hours would be tomorrow, at the mortuary, but tonight people had come to comfort Jud as well as they could, and to help him remember, and to celebrate Normas passing-what Jud had referred to once that afternoon as the foregoing. Between that house and this, a frigid February wind blew. The road was patched with black ice. The coldest part of the Maine winter was now upon them.
Well, I dont really know, honey, Louis said, taking Ellie on his lap. On the TV, a running gunfight was in progress. A man spun and dropped, unremarked upon by either of them. Louis was aware-uncomfortably so-that Ellie probably knew a hell of a lot more about Ronald McDonald and Spiderman and the Burger King than she did about Moses, Jesus, and St. Paul. She was the daughter of a woman who was a nonpracticing Jew and a man who was a lapsed Methodist, and he supposed her ideas about the whole spiritus mundi were of the vaguest sort-not myths, not dreams, but dreams of dreams. Its late for that, he thought randomly. Shes only five, but its late for that. Jesus Christ, it gets late so fast.
But Ellie was looking at him, and he ought to say something. People believe all sorts of things about what happens to us when we die, he said. Some people think we go to heaven or hell. Some people believe were born again as little children-
Sure, carnation. Like what happened to Audrey Rose in that movie on TV.
You never saw that! Rachel, he thought, would have her own cerebral accident if she thought Ellie had seen Audrey Rose.
Marie told me at school, Ellie said. Marie was Ellies self-proclaimed best friend, a malnourished, dirty little girl who always looked as if she might be on the edge of impetigo, or ringworm, or perhaps even scurvy. Both Louis and Rachel encouraged the friendship as well as they could, but Rachel had once confessed to Louis that after Marie left, she always felt an urge to check Ellies head for flits and head lice. Louis had laughed and nodded.
Maries mommy lets her watch all the shows. There was an implied criticism in this that Louis chose to ignore.
Well, its reincarnation, but I guess youve got the idea. The Catholics believe in heaven and hell, but they also believe theres a place called limbo and one called purgatory. And the Hindus and Buddhists believe in Nirvana-
There was a shadow on the dining room wall. Rachel. Listening.
Louis went on more slowly.
There are probably lots more too. But what it comes down to, Ellie, is this: no one knows. People say they know, but when they say that, what they mean is that they believe because of faith. Do you know what faith is?
Well..
Here we are, sitting in my chair, Louis said. Do you think my chair will still be here tomorrow?
Yeah, sure.
Then you have faith it will be here. As it so happens, I do, too. Faith is believing a thing will be, or is. Get it?
Yes. Ellie nodded positively.
But we dont know itll be here. After all, some crazed chair burglar might break in and take it, right?
Ellie giggled. Louis smiled.
We just have faith that wont happen. Faith is a great thing, and really religious people would like us to believe that faith and knowing are the same thing, but I dont believe that myself. Because there