The Regulators - Stephen King [57]
2
Belinda Josephson held the kitchen door for her husband, then straightened up and looked around. The overhead light wasn't on, but the room was still a little brighter than it had been. The storm was slackening, and she supposed that in another hour or two it would be hot and bright again.
She looked at the wall-clock over the kitchen table, and she felt a mild burst of unreality. 4:03? Was it possible so little time had gone by? She took a closer look and saw that the second-hand wasn't moving. She reached for the light-switch beside the door as Johnny crawled into the kitchen on his hands and knees and then stood up.
'Don't bother,' Jim Reed said. He was sitting on the floor between the fridge and the stove with Ralphie Carver on his lap. Ralphie's thumb was in his mouth. His eyes were glazed and apathetic. Belinda had never liked him very much, didn't know anyone on the street who did (except for his mother and his dad, she supposed), but still her heart went out to him.
'Don't bother with what?' Johnny asked.
'The light-switch. Power's off.'
She believed him but snapped the switch a couple of times anyway. Nothing.
There were a lot of people in this room — she made it eleven, counting herself — but the numb silence which had settled over them made it seem like less. Ellie Carver was still giving an occasional watery gasp, but her face was against her mother's breast, and Belinda thought she might actually be asleep. David Reed had his arm around Susi Geller. Sitting on the girl's other side, also with an arm around her (lucky girl, all that comfort, Belinda thought), was her mother. Cammie Reed, the twins' mother, was sitting against a door with a sign on it reading YE OLDE PANTRIE. Belinda didn't think Cammie was quite as out of it as some of the others; her eyes had a cool, thoughtful look.
'You said you heard screaming,' Johnny said to Susi. 'I don't hear any screaming.'
'It's over,' the girl said dully. 'I think maybe it was Mrs Soderson.'
'Sure it was,' Jim said. He shifted Ralphie on his lap, wincing a little as he did. 'I recognized it. We've been listening to her scream at Gary for most of our lives. Haven't we, Dave?'
Dave Reed nodded. 'Id've murdered her by now. Honest.'
'Ah, but you don't imbibe, my boy,' Johnny said in his best W. C. Fields voice. He took the kitchen phone out of its cradle, listened, bopped the O button a couple of times, then hung it up again.
'Debbie's dead, isn't she?' Susi asked Belinda.
'Shhh, baby, don't,' Kim Geller said, sounding alarmed.
Susi took no notice. 'She didn't go over next door at all. Did she? Don't lie about it, either.'
Belinda thought about doing just that, but it didn't seem the right way to go on, somehow. In her experience, even well-intentioned lies usually made things worse. More crazy. Belinda thought things were crazy enough on Poplar Street already.
'Yes, honey,' she said, marvelling at how southern she always sounded — to herself, anyway — when she had to give someone bad news. Perhaps it was part of the black experience that no one had yet gotten around to teaching in a college course. What made it particularly interesting in her case was that she had never been south of the Mason-Dixon line in her whole life. Tes, honey, I'm afraid she is.'
Susi put her hands over her face and began to sob. Dave Reed pulled her to him and Susi put her face against his shoulder. When Kim tried to pull her back, Susi stiffened her body and resisted. Her mother gave Dave Reed a dirty look which the boy missed entirely. She turned her angry face to Belinda instead. 'Why did you tell her that?'
'Girl's lying right out there on the stoop, and with all that red hair, she is kinda hard to miss.'
'Hushnow,' Brad told her. He took her by the wrist and drew her over to the sink. 'Don't you upset her.'
Oh dear, too late, Belinda thought, but prudently said nothing.
There was a screened window behind the sink. Looking through it to the right, she could see the stake fence