The Regulators - Stephen King [100]
Hugh glared at me, if looks could kill, I wouldn't be writing in this book now. But was I scared? Please. When it comes to pissed-off kids, I live with the champ of champs.
'Mrs Wyler, do you think that's really necessary?' Hobart asked.
'Yes, sir,' I said. 'More for your son than for me.'
'Dad, do I have to?' he whines. He's still giving me the Death-ray look from behind his smeary glasses.
'Go on and tell her what she wants to hear,' Hobart said. 'Bitter medicine is best swallowed in a single gulp.' Then he patted the kid on the shoulder, as if to say yes, she's being mean, a real bitch, but we have to put up with it.
'It-was-wrong-it-was-bad-I'm-sorry,' the kid says, like he's back on the cue-cards. Glaring at me the whole time — no more tears or snivelling. I looked up saw the same stare coming from the father. The two of them never looked more alike than they did right then. People are amazing. They came up the street, scared but sort of exalted at the idea of getting crucified, just like their boss did. Instead I made the kid admit what he was, it hurt, they both hate me for it.
The important things, though, are these: 1) D.F. is back, and 2) the Hobarts won't talk about it. Sometimes shame is the only gag that works on people. I must think up a yarn to tell Seth, then tell the same one to Herb. The truth just isn't safe.
Feet upstairs, going down to the bathroom. He's up. Please God I hope I'm right about him not being able to see into my thoughts.
Later
Big sigh of relief. And maybe a self-administered pat on the back, as well. I think The Dream Floater Crisis is past, with no harm done (except for some broken dishes my beautiful Waterford glasses, that is). Seth Herb both sleeping. I intend to go up myself as soon as I've written a little in this book (keeping a journal under these circumstances may be dangerous, but God, it can be so soothing), then put it back on top of the kitchen cabinet where I keep it.
Seth getting up when he did, before I had much of a chance to think what I was going to tell him, turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When he came downstairs, still with his eyes mostly puffed shut, I just held D.F. out to him. What happened to his face — the way it opened up in surprise delight, like a flower in the sun — was almost worth the whole damned horror show. I saw both of them in that glad look, Seth and the SLB. The SLB just glad to have his Power Wagon back. Seth, I think, glad for other reasons. Maybe I'm wrong, giving him too much credit, but I don't think so. I think Seth was glad because he knows the SLB will let up on us now. For a little while, anyway.
There was a time when I thought, good college girl that I am, that the SLB was just another aspect of Seth's personality — the amoral part Freudians call the id — but I'm no longer sure. I keep thinking about the trip the Garins took across the country just before Bill June the two oilier kids were killed. Then I think about how our father talked to us when we were teenagers, and going for our drivers' licenses, Bill first, then me. He told us there were three things we were never supposed to do: drive with our tire-pressure low, drive drunk, or pick up hitchhikers.
Could it be that Bill picked up a hitchhiker in the desert without even knowing it? That it's still riding around inside of Seth? Crazy idea, maybe, but I've noticed that this is when most of the crazy ideas come, late at night when the house is quiet the others are asleep. And crazy does not always mean wrong.
Anyhow, with no time to lie fancy, I lied plain. I found it in the cellar, I said, when I went down to see if there were any more vacuum cleaner bags. We'd already poked around down there, of course, but I said it was way back under the stairs. Seth accepted it with no questions (I'm not sure he even cared, he was so happy to have 'Dweem Fwoatah' back, but it was really the SLB I was talking to, anyway). Herb only had one question: how did the PW get down there in the first place? Seth never goes in the cellar, thinks it's spooky, and H. knows that.