Lisey's Story(139)

"I'll try," Amanda said. "But not because I owe you."

"No?"

"Because I love you," Amanda said with simple dignity. Then, in a very small voice:

"You'll come with, won't you?"

"You bet I will."

"Maybe...maybe your boyfriend will get us and I won't have to worry about Greenlawn at all."

"Told you not to call him my boyfriend."

Amanda smiled wanly. "I think I can manage to remember that, if you can drop the Manda-Bunny shit."

Lisey burst out laughing.

"Why don't you get going, Lisey? The rain's letting up. And please turn on the heater. It's getting cold in here."

Lisey flicked it on, backed the BMW out of its parking space, and turned toward the road. "We'll go to your house," she said. "Dooley's probably not watching it if it's raining as hard there as it has been here - at least I hope not. And even if he is, what's he going to see? We go to your house, then we go to my house. Two middle-aged women. Is he going to worry about two middle-aged women?"

"Unlikely," Amanda said. "But I'm glad we sent Canty and Miss Buggy Bumpers off on a long trip, aren't you?"

Lisey was, even though she knew that, like Lucy Ricardo, she was going to have some 'splainin to do down the line. She pulled out onto the highway, which was now deserted. She hoped she wouldn't encounter a tree lying across the road and knew it was very possible that she would. Thunder growled overhead, sounding ill-tempered.

"I can get some clothes that actually fit me," Amanda was saying. "Also, I have two pounds of nice ground chuck in my freezer. It'll thaw nicely in the microwave, and I'm very hungry."

"My microwave," Lisey said, not taking her eyes off the road. The rain had stopped entirely for the time being, but there were more dark clouds up ahead. Black as a stage villain's hat, Scott would have said, and she was struck by the old sick wanting of him, that empty place that could now never be filled. That needing-place.

"Did you hear me, little Lisey?" Amanda asked, and Lisey realized that her sister had been talking. Saying something about something. Twenty-four hours ago she had been afraid Manda would never speak again, and here she was, already ignoring her. But wasn't that the way the world turned?

"No," Lisey admitted. "Guess not. Sorry."

"That's you, always was. Off in your own..." Amanda's voice trailed away, and she made a business of looking out the window.

"Always off in my own little world?" Lisey asked, smiling.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." They came around a curve and Lisey swerved to avoid a large fir branch lying in the road. She considered stopping and tossing it onto the shoulder, and decided to leave it for the next person to come along. The next person to come along would probably not have a psychopath to deal with. "If it's Boo'ya Moon you're thinking of, it's not really my world, anyway. It seems to me that everyone who goes there has his or her own version. What were you saying?"

"Just that I have something else you might want. Unless you're already strapped, that is."

Lisey was startled. She took her eyes off the road for a moment to look at her sister.

"What? What did you say?"

"Just a figure of speech," Amanda said. "I mean I have a gun."

11

There was a long white envelope propped on the sill of Amanda's screen door, well under the porch overhang and thus safe from the rain. Lisey's first alarmed thought on seeing it was Dooley's been here already. But the envelope Lisey had found after discovering the dead cat in her mailbox had been blank on both sides. This one had Amanda's name printed on the front. She handed it over. Amanda looked at the printing, turned the card over to read the embossing on the back - Hallmark - and then spoke a single disdainful word: "Charles."

For a moment the name meant nothing to Lisey. Then she remembered that once upon a time, before this current craziness had begun, Amanda had had a boyfriend. Shootin' Beans, she thought, and made a strangled noise in her throat.

"Lisey?" Amanda asked. Her eyebrows went up.

"Just thinking about Canty and Miss Buggy, charging up to Derry," Lisey said. "I know it's not funny, but - "

"Oh, it has its humorous elements," Amanda said. "Probably this does, too." She opened the envelope and removed the card. Scanned it. "Oh. My. God. Look. What just fell out of. The dog's ass."

"Can I see?"

Amanda passed it over. On the front was a gap-toothed little boy, Hallmark's idea of tough but endearing (too-big sweater, patched jeans), holding out a single droopy flower. Gee, I'm Sorry! read the message below the scamp's battered sneakers. Lisey flipped it open and read this:

I know I hurt your feelin's, and I guess you're feelin' bad,

This is just a note to say you ain't the only one who's sad!

I thought I'd send a card an' apologize to you,

'Cuz to think of you down in the dumps has made me feel so blue!

So get out an' smell the roses! Be happy for a while!

Get that spring back in your step! Put on that cheery smile!

Today I guess I made you feel a tiny bit o' sorrow,