Joyland(72)

"I hate it when she has to help me. I feel like a baby."





STEPHEN KING

Maybe, but he pissed with a healthy kid's vigor. Then, as he leaned forward to push the flush handle, he staggered and almost took a header into the toilet bowl. I had to catch him.

"Thanks, Dev. I already washed my hair once today." That made me laugh, and Mike grinned. "I wish we were going to have a hurricane. That'd be boss."

"You might not think so if it happened." I was remembering Hurricane Doria, two years before. It hit New Hampshire and M aine packing ninety-mile-an-hour winds, knocking down trees all over Portsmouth, Kittery, Sanford, and the Berwicks.

One big old pine just missed our house, our basement flooded, and the power had been out for four days.

"I wouldn't want stuff to fall down at the park, I guess. That's just about the best place in the world. That I've ever been, anyway."

"Good. Hold on, kid, let me get your pants back up. Can't have you mooning your mother."

That made him laugh again, only the laughter turned to coughing. Annie took over when we came out, rolling him down the hall to the bedroom. "Don't you sneak out on me, Devin," she called back over her shoulder.

Since I had the afternoon off, I had no intention of sneaking out on her if she wanted me to stay awhile. I strolled around the parlor, looking at things that were probably expensive but not terribly interesting-not to a young man of twenty-one, anyway. A huge picture window, almost wall-to-wall, saved what would otherwise have been a gloomy room, flooding it with light. The window looked out on the back patio, the boardwalk, and the ocean. I could see the first clouds feathering in from the southeast, but the sky overhead was still joyland





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bright blue. I remember thinking that I'd made it to the big house after all, although I'd probably never have a chance to count all the bathrooms. I remember thinking about the Alice band, and wondering if Lane would see it when he put the wayward car back under cover. What else was I thinking? That I had seen a ghost after all. Just not of a person.

Annie came back. "He wants to see you, but don't stay long."

"Okay."

"Third door on the right."

I went down the hall, knocked lightly, and let myself in. Once you got past the grab bars, the oxygen tanks in the corner, and the leg braces standing at steely attention beside the bed, it could have been any boy's room. There was no baseball glove and no skateboard propped against the wall, but there were posters of Mark Spitz and Miami Dolphins running back Larry Csonka. In the place of honor above the bed, the Beatles were crossing Abbey Road.

There was a faint smell of liniment. Mike looked very small in the bed, all but lost under a green coverlet. Milo was curled up, nose to tail, beside him, and M ike was stroking his fur absently. It was hard to believe this was the same kid who had raised his hands triumphantly over his head at the apogee of the Carolina Spin. He didn't look sad, though. He looked almost radiant.

"Did you see her, Dev? Did you see her when she left?"

I shook my head, smiling. I had been jealous of Tom, but not of Mike. Never of Mike.

"I wish my grampa had been there. He would have seen her, and heard what she said when she left."

"What did she say?''





STEPHEN KING

"Thanks. She meant both of us. And she told you to be careful.

Are you sure you didn't hear her? Even a little?"

I shook my head again. No, not even a little.

"But you know." His face was too pale and tired, the face of a boy who was very sick, but his eyes were alive and healthy.

"You know, don't you?"

"Yes." Thinking of the Alice band. "Mike, do you know what happened to her?"

"Someone killed her." Very low.

"I don't suppose she told you . . . "

But there was no need to finish. He was shaking his head.

"You need to sleep," I said.

''Yeah, I'll feel better after a nap. I always do." His eyes closed, then slowly opened again. "The Spin was the best. The hoister.

It's like flying."

"Yes," I said. "It is like that."

This time when his eyes closed, they didn't re-open. I walked to the door as quietly as I could. As I put my hand on the knob, he said, "Be careful, Dev. It's not white."

I looked back. He was sleeping. I'm sure he was. Only Milo was watching me. I left, closing the door softly .

?

Annie was in the kitchen. ''I'm making coffee, but maybe you'd rather have a beer? I've got Blue Ribbon."

"Coffee would be fine."

"What do you think of the place?"

I decided to tell the truth. "The furnishings are a little elderly for my taste, but I never went to interior decorating school."

"Nor did I," she said. "Never even finished college."





Joyland

"Join the club."

"Ah, but you will. You'll get over the girl who dumped you, and you'll go back to school, and you'll finish, and you'll march off into a brilliant future."

"How do you know about-"