'Of course it must be.'
Herb's voice strengthened. 'But she can still distinguish between what's real and what's not. She needs time to adjust. So I told her she could face whatever's coming at home as easily as here. I've...' He paused, sounding embarrassed, then cleared his throat and went on. 'I've got to get back to work. I've got jobs. I've signed contracts...
'Sure, of course.' She paused. 'What about insurance? I mean, this must be costing a Denver mint...' It was her turn to feel embarrassed.
'I've talked with Mr. Pelsen, your assistant principal there at Cleaves Mills,' Herb said. 'Johnny had the standard Blue Cross, but not that new Major Medical. The Blue Cross will cover some of it, though. And Vera and I have our savings.'
Sarah's heart sank. Vera and I have our savings. How long would one passbook stand up to expenses of two hundred dollars a day or more? And for what purpose in the end? So Johnny could hang on like an insensible animal, pissing brainlessly down a tube while he bankrupted his dad and mom? So his condition could drive his mother mad with unrealized hope? She felt the tears start to slip down her cheeks and for the first time - but not the last - she found herself wishing Johnny would die and be at peace. Part of her revolted in horror at the thought, but it remained.
'I wish you all the best,' Sarah said.
'I know that, Sarah. We wish you the best. Will you write?'
'I sure will.'
'And come see us when you can. Pownal's not so far away.' He hesitated. 'Looks to me like Johnny had picked himself out the right girl. It was pretty serious, wasn't it?'
'Yes,' Sarah said. The tears were still coming and the past tense was not lost on her. 'It was.'
'Good-bye, honey.'
'Good-bye, Herb.'
She hung up the phone, held the buttons down for a second or two, and then called the hospital and asked about Johnny. There had been no change. She thanked the intensive care nurse and walked aimlessly back and forth through the apartment. She thought about God sending out a fleet of flying saucers to pick up the faithful and buzz them off to Orion. It made as much sense as anything else about a God crazy enough to scramble John Smith's brains and put him in a coma that was probably never going to end - except in an unexpected death.
There was a folder of freshman compositions to correct. She made herself a cup of tea and sat down to them. If there was any one moment when Sarah Bracknell picked up the reins of her post-Johnny life again, that was...
Chapter Four
CHAPTER FOUR
1.
The killer was slick.
He sat on a bench in the town park near the bandstand, smoking a Marlboro and humming a song from the Beatles' white album - 'you don't know how lucky you are, boy, back in the, back in the, back in the USSR...'
He wasn't a killer yet, not really. But it had been on his mind a long time, killing had. It had been itching at him and itching at him. Not in a bad way, no. He felt quite optimistic about it. The time was right. He didn't have to worry about getting caught. He didn't have to worry about the clothespin. Because he was slick.
A little snow began to drift down from the sky. It was November 11, 1970, and a hundred and sixty miles northeast of this middle-sized western Maine town, John Smith's sleep went on and on.
The killer scanned the park - the town common, the tourists who came to Castle Rock and the Lakes Region liked to call it. But there were no tourists now. The common that was so green in the summer was now yellow, balding, and dead. It waited for winter to cover it decently. The wire-mesh backstop behind the Little League home plate stood in rusty overlapping diamonds, framed against the white sky. The bandstand needed a fresh coat of paint.
It was a depressing scene, but the killer was not depressed. He was almost manic with joy. His toes wanted to tap, his fingers wanted to 'snap. There would be no shying away this time.
He crushed his smoke under one boot heel and lit another immediately. He glanced at his watch. 3:05 P.M. He sat and smoked. Two boys passed through the park, tossing a football back and forth, but they didn't see the killer because the benches were down in a dip. He supposed it was a place where the nasty-fuckers came at night when the weather was warmer. He knew all about the nasty-fuckers and the things they did. His mother had told him, and he had seen them.