Pet Sematary(119)

"Don't you worry about the truant officer," he said. "I'll take care of the school, and you can start again in the fall with no trouble."

"I hope I'll be okay in the fall," Ellie said. "I never was in a grade before.

Only kindergarten. I don't know what kids do in grades. Homework, probably."

"You'll be fine."

"Daddy, are you still pissed off at Grandda?"

He gaped at her. "Why in the world would you think I was that I didn't like your grandda, Effie?"

She shrugged as if the topic held no particular interest for her. "When you talk about him, you always look pissed off."

"Ellie, that's vulgar."

"Sorry."

She gave him that strange, fey look and then drifted off to look at the racks of kid books-Mercer Meyer and Maurice Sendak and Richard Scarry and Beatrix Potter and that famous old standby, Dr. Seuss. How do they find this stuff out? Or do they just know? How much does Ellie know? How's it affecting her? Ellie, what's behind that pale little face? Pissed off at him-Christ!

"Can I have these, Daddy?" She was holding out a Dr. Seuss and a book Louis hadn't seen since his own childhood-the story of Little Black Sambo and how the tigers had gotten his clothes one fine day.

I thought they'd made that one an unbook, Louis thought, bemused.

"Yes," he said, and they stood in a short line at the cash register. "Your grandda and I like each other fine," he said and thought again of his mother's story of how when a woman really wanted a baby, she "found" one. He remembered his own foolish promises to himself that he would never lie to his own children.

Over the last few days he had developed into quite a promising liar, he felt, but he would not let himself think about it now.

"Oh," she said and fell silent.
Chapter 6

"Never mind. I'll call them right now... if that's what you really want."

"It is," he said, and the words seemed to echo in his mind with an iron clang.

"It might even be best... for Ellie." She looked at him with her red-rimmed eyes, still slightly glazed from Valium. "You look feverish, Louis. As if you might be coming down with something."

She went to the telephone and called the motel where her parents were staying before Louis could reply.

The Goldmans were overjoyed at Rachel's proposal. They were not so wild about the idea of Louis joining them in three or four days, but in the end they wouldn't have to worry about it all, of course. Louis had not the slightest intention of going to Chicago. He had suspected that if there was to be a snag, it would be getting air reservations this late. But luck was with him there too.

There were still available seats on Delta's Bangor to Cincinnati run, and a quick check showed two cancellations on a Cincinnati to Chicago flight. It meant that Rachel and Ellie would be able to travel with the Goldmans only as far as Cincinnati, but they would get to Chicago less than an hour after.

It's almost like magic, Louis thought, hanging up the telephone, and Jud's voice responded promptly, It's been full of power before, and I'm ascared.

Oh, get f**ked, he told Jud's voice rudely. I've learned to accept a great many strange things in the last ten months, my good old friend. But am I ready to believe that a haunted patch of ground can influence airline ticketing? I don't think so.

"I'll have to pack," Rachel said. She was looking at the flight information Louis had jotted down on the pad by the phone.

"Take just the one big suitcase," Louis said.

She looked at, him wide-eyed, mildly startled. "For both of us? Louis, you're joking."

"All right, take a couple of tote bags too. But don't exhaust yourself packing a different outfit for the next three weeks," he said, thinking, Especially since you may be back in Ludlow very soon. "Take enough for a week, ten days. You've got the checkbook and the credit cards. Buy what you need."

"But we can't afford-" she began doubtfully. She seemed doubtful about everything now, malleable, easily confused. He remembered her odd, dangling comment about the Winnebago he had once spoken idly about buying.

"We have the money," he said.

"Well... I suppose we could use Gage's college fund if we needed to, although it would take a day or two to process the savings account and a week to get the treasury bills cashed-"

Her face began to crumple and dissolve again. Louis held her. She's right. It just keeps right on hitting you, it never lets up. "Rachel, don't," he said.

"Don't cry."

But of course she did-she had to.

While she was upstairs packing, the phone rang. Louis sprang for it, thinking it would be someone from Delta ticketing, saying a mistake had been made, no flights were available. I should have known everything was going too smoothly.

But it wasn't Delta ticketing. It was Irwin Goldman.

"I'll get Rachel," Louis said.

"No." For a moment there was nothing else, only silence. He's probably sitting there and trying to decide which name to call you first.

When Goldman spoke again, his voice was strained. He seemed to be pushing the words out against some great inner resistance. "It's you I want to talk to. Dory wanted me to call and apologize for my... for my behavior. I guess... Louis, I guess I wanted to apologize too."