The Dead Zone(147)

Daddy, I know how crazy this must look. It looks crazy to me. But I have no doubts, no urge to look back over my shoulder and try to second-guess this thing into something less real and urgent than it is. You never knew -no one did - but l didn't run away from the Chatsworths because of that restaurant fire. I guess I was running away from Greg Stillson and the thing I am supposed to do. Like Elijah hiding in his cave or Jonah, who ended up in the fish's belly. I thought I would just wait and see, you know. Wait and see if the preconditions for such a horrible future began to come into place. I would probably be waiting still, but in the fall of last year the headaches began to get worse, and there was an incident on the roadcrew I was working with. l guess Keith Strang, the foreman, would remember that ...

Excerpt from testimony given before the so-called 'Stillson Committee', chaired by Senator William Cohen of Maine. The questioner is Mr. Norman D. Verizer, the Committee's Chief Counsel. The witness is Mr. Keith Strang, of 1421 Desert Boulevard, Phoenix, Arizona. Date of testimony: August 17, 1979.

Verizer: And at this time, John Smith was in the employ of the Phoenix Public Works Department, was he not?

Strang: Yes, Sir, he was.

V: This was early December of 1978.

S: Yes, Sir.

V: And did something happen on December 7 that you particularly remember? Something concerning John Smith?

S: Yes, Sir. It sure did.

V: Tell the Committee about that, if you would.

S: Well, I had to go back to the central motor pool to get two forty-gallon drums of orange paint. We were lining roads, you understand. Johnny - that's Johnny Smith -was out on Rosemont Avenue on the day you're talking about, putting down new lane markings. Well, I got back out there at approximately four-fifteen - about forty-five minutes before knocking-off time - and this fellow Herman Joellyn that you've already talked to, he comes up to me and says, 'You better check on Johnny, Keith. Something's wrong with Johnny. I tried to talk to him and he acted like he didn't hear. He almost run me down. You better get him straight.' That's what he said. So I said, 'What's wrong with him, Hermie?' And Hermie says, 'Check it out for yourself, there's something offwhack with that dude.' So I drove on up the road, and at first everything was all right, and then - wow!

V: What did you see?

S: Before I saw Johnny, you mean.

V: Yes, that's right.

S: The line he was putting down started to go haywire. Just a little bit at first - a jig here and there, a little bubble - it wasn't perfectly straight, you know. And Johnny had always been the best liner on the whole crew. Then it started to get really bad. It started to go all over the road in these big loops and swirls. Some places it was like he'd gone right round in circles a few times. For about a hundred yards he'd put the stripe right along the dirt shoulder.

V: What did you do?

S: I stopped him. That is, eventually I stopped him. I pulled up right beside the lining machine and started yelling at him. Must have yelled half a dozen times. It was like he didn't hear. Then he swooped that thing toward me and put a helluva ding in the side of the car I was driving. Highway Department Property, too. So I laid on the horn and yelled at him again, and that seemed to get through to him. He threw it in neutral and looked over at me. I asked him what in the name of God he thought he was doing.

V: And what was his response?

S: He said hi. That was all. 'Hi, Keith.' Like everything was hunky-dory.

V: And your response was...?

S: My response was pretty blue. I was mad. And Johnny is just standing there, looking all around and holding onto the side of the liner like he would fall down if he let go. That was when I realized how sick he looked. He was always thin, you know, but now he looked as white as paper, and the side of his mouth was kind of ...you know... drawn down. At first he didn't even seem to get what I was saying. Then he looked around and saw the way that line was - all over the road.

V: And he said...?

S: Said he was sorry. Then he kind of - I don't know -staggered, and put one hand up to his face. So I asked him what was wrong with him and he said... oh, a lot of confused stuff. It didn't mean anything.

Cohen: Mr. Strang, the Committee is particularly interested in anything Mr. Smith said that might cast a light on this matter. Can you remember what he said?

S: Well, at first he said there was nothing wrong except that it smelled like rubber tires. Tires on fire. Then he said, 'That battery will explode if you try to jump it.' And something like, 'I got potatoes in the chest and both radios are in the sun. So it's all out for the trees.' That's the best I can remember. Like I say, it was all confused and crazy.

V: What happened then?

S: He started to fall down. So I grabbed him by the shoulder and his hand - he had been holding it against the side of his face - it came away. And I saw his right eye was full of blood. Then he passed out.

V: But he said one more thing before he passed out, did he not?

S: Yes, Sir, he did.

V: And what was that?

S: He said, 'We'll worry about Stillson later, Daddy, he's in the dead zone now.'

V: Are you sure that's what he said?

S: Yes, Sir, I am. I'll never forget it.

3.

... and when I woke up I was in the small equipment. shed at the base of Rosemont Drive. Keith said I'd better get to see a doctor right away, and I wasn't to come back to work until I did. I was scared, Dad, but not for the reasons Keith thought,. I guess. Anyway, I made an appointment to see a neurologist that Sam Weizak had mentioned to me in a letter he wrote in early November. You see, I had written to Sam telling him that I was afraid to drive a car because I was having some incidents of double vision. Sam wrote back right away and told me to go see this Dr. Vann - said he considered the symptoms very alarming, but wouldn't presume to diagnose long-distance.