Gerald's Game(116)

Meggie: Please mail this. If I should call downstairs and ask you notto, please agree...and then mail it anyway.

She went to the window in the parlor and stood there for awhile before going upstairs, looking out over the Bay. It was starting to get dark. For the first time in a long time, this simple realization didn't fill her with terror.

"Oh, what the f**k," she told the empty house. "Bring on the night." Then she turned and slowly climbed the stairs to the second floor.

When Megan Landis came back from running her errands an hour later and saw the letter on the table in the front hall, Jessie was deeply asleep beneath two down comforters in the upstairs guest room... which she now called her room. For the first time in months her dreams were not unpleasant, and a tiny cat's smile curled the corners of her mouth. When a cold February wind blew beneath the eaves and moaned in the chimney, she burrowed deeper beneath the comforters... but that small, wise smile did not fade.

November 16, 1991

Bangor, Maine