The Dead Zone(130)

'Yes, that's right.'

'Mr. Smith, come on over to this window with me.'

He led Johnny to the lobby window, by the cloakroom door.

'Look out there, Mr. Smith, and tell me what you see.

Johnny looked out, knowing what he would see. Route 9 ran west, now drying from a light afternoon sprinkle. Above, the sky was perfectly clear. The thunderheads had passed.

'Not much. At least, not now. But...

'But nothing.' Bruce Carrick said. 'You know what I think? You want to know frankly? I think you're a nut. Why you picked me for this royal screwing I don't know or care. But if you got a second, sonny, I'll tell you the facts of life. The senior class has paid me six hundred and fifty bucks for this bash. They've hired a pretty good rock 'n roll band, Oak, from up in Maine. The food's out there in the freezer, all ready to go into the microwave. The salads are on ice. Drinks are extra, and most of these kids are over eighteen and can drink all they want ... and tonight they will, who can blame them, you only graduate from a high school once. I'll take in two thousand dollars in the lounge tonight, no sweat. I got two extra barmen coming in. I got six waitresses and a hostess. If I should cancel this thing now, I lose the whole night. plus I got to pay back the six-fifty I already took for the meal. I don't even get my regular dinner crowd because that sign's been there all week. Do you get the picture?'

'Are there lightning rods on this place?' Johnny asked.

Carrick threw his hands up. 'I tell this guy the facts of life and he wants to discuss lightning rods! Yeah, I got lightning rods! A guy came in here, before I added on, must be five years ago now. He gave me a song-and-dance about improving my insurance rates. So I bought the goddam lightning rods! Are you happy? Jesus Christ!' He looked at Roger and Chuck. 'What are you two guys doing? Why are you letting this ass**le run around loose? Get out, why don't you? I got a business to run.

'Johnny...' Chuck began.

'Never mind,' Roger said. 'Let's go. Thank you for your time, Mr. Carrick, and for your polite and sympathetic attention.'

'Thanks for nothing,' Carrick said. 'Bunch of nuts!' He strode back toward the lounge.

The three of them went out. Chuck looked doubtfully at the flawless sky. Johnny started toward the car, looking only at his feet, feeling stupid and defeated. His headache thudded sickly against his temples. Roger was standing with his hands in his back pockets, looking up at the long, low roof of the building.

'What are you looking at, Dad?' Chuck asked.

'There are no lightning rods up there,' Roger Chatsworth said thoughtfully. 'No lightning rods at all.'

4.

The three of them sat in the living room of the big house, Chuck by the telephone. He looked doubtfully at his father. 'Most of them won't want to change their plans this late,' he said.

'They've got plans to go out, that's all,' Roger said. 'They can just as easily come here.'

Chuck shrugged and began dialing.

They ended up with about half the couples who had been planning to go to Cathy's that graduation evening, and Johnny was never really sure why they came. Some probably came simply because it sounded like a more interesting party and because the drinks were on the house. But word traveled fast, and the parents of a good many of the kids here had been at the lawn party that afternoon - as a result, Johnny spent much of the evening feeling like an exhibit in a glass case. Roger sat in the corner on a stool, drinking a vodka martini. His face was a studied mask.

Around quarter of eight he walked across the big bar/ playroom combination that took up three-quarters of the basement level, bent close to Johnny and bellowed over the roar of Elton John, 'You want to go upstairs and play some cribbage?'

Johnny nodded gratefully.

Shelley was in the kitchen, writing letters. She looked up when they came in, and smiled. 'I thought you two masochists were going to stay down there all night. It's not really necessary, you know.'

'I'm sorry about all of this,' Johnny said. 'I know how crazy it must seem.'

'It does seem crazy,' Shelley said. 'No reason not to be candid about that. But having them here is really rather nice. I don't mind.'

Thunder rumbled outside. Johnny looked around. Shelley saw it and smiled a little. Roger had left to hunt for the cribbage board in the dining room welsh dresser.

'It's just passing over, you know,' she said. 'A little thunder and a sprinkle of rain.'

'Yes,' Johnny said.

She signed her letter in a comfortable sprawl, folded it, sealed it, addressed it, stamped it. 'You really experienced something, didn't you, Johnny?'

'Yes.'

'A momentary faintness,' she said. 'Possibly caused by a dietary deficiency. You're much too thin, Johnny. It might have been a hallucination, mightn't it?'

'No, I don't think so.'

Outside, thunder growled again, but distantly. 'I'm just as glad to have him home. I don't believe in astrology and palmistry and clairvoyance and all of that, but ... I'm just as glad to have him home. He's our only chick... a pretty damned big chick now, I suspect you re thinking, but it's easy to remember him riding the little kids' merry-go-round in the town park in his short pants. Too easy, perhaps. And it's nice to be able to share the the last rite of his boyhood with him.'