He saw himself peering into the cupboard over his kitchen counter, looking for the powdered soup his tired, overstrained mind insisted must be in there someplace. He saw himself poking, pausing, then poking some more. He saw the expression on his face  a look of distant perplexity that could easily have been mistaken for mild mental retardation but which was really simple exhaustion. Then he saw himself drop his hands and simply stand there, as if he expected the packet to jump out on its own. Not until now, at this moment and at this memory, did he realize how totally horrible the last few months had been. Looking back at them was like looking into a wasteland painted in desolate maroons and grays. [So you took us onto the elevator . . . or maybe that wasnt good enough for the likes of us and you just trotted us up the fire stairs. Got us acclimated a little at a time so we wouldnt strip our gears completely, I imagine. And it was easy. All you had to do was rob us of our sleep until we were halfcrazy. Loiss son and daughterinlaw want to put her in a themepark for geriatrics, did you know that? And my friend Bill McGovern thinks Im ready for Juniper Hill. Meanwhile, you little angels] Clotho offered just a trace of his former wide smile. [Were no angels, Ralph.] [Ralph, please dont shout at them.] Yes, he had been shouting, and at least some of it seemed to have gotten through to Faye; he had closed his chess book, stopped picking his nose, and was now sitting bolt upright in his chair, looking uneasily about the room. Ralph looked from Clotho (who took a step backward, losing what was left of his smile) to Lachesis. [Your friend says youre not angels. So where are they? Playing poker six or eight floors farther up? And I suppose Gods in the penthouse and the devils stoking coal in the boiler room.] No reply. Clotho and Lachesis glanced doubtfully at each other. Lois plucked at Ralphs sleeve, but he ignored her. [So what are we supposed to do, guys? Track down your little bald version of Hannibal Lecter and take his scalpel away? Well, fuck you.] Ralph would have turned on his heel and walked out then (he had seen a lot of movies, and he knew a good exitline when he heard one), but Lois burst into shocked, frightened tears, and that held him where he was. The look of bewildered reproach in her eyes made him regret his outburst at least a little. He slipped his arm back around Loiss shoulders, and looked at the two bald men defiantly. They exchanged another glance and something  some communication just above his and Loiss ability to hear or understand  passed between them. When Lachesis turned to them again, he was smiling . . . but his eyes were grave. [I hear your anger, Ralph, but it is not justified. You do not believe that now, but perhaps you may. For the time being, we must set your questions and our answers  such answers as we may give  aside.] [Why?] [Because the time of severing has come for this man. Watch closely, that you may learn and know.] Clotho stepped to the left side of the bed. Lachesis approached from the right, walking through Faye Chapin as he went. Faye bent over, afflicted with a sudden coughingfit, and then opened his book of chess problems again as it eased. [Ralph, I cant watch this! I cant watch them do it!] But Ralph thought she would. He thought they both would. He held her tighter as Clotho and Lachesis bent over Jimmy V. Their faces were lit with love and caring and gentleness; they made Ralph think of the faces he had once seen in a Rembrandt painting  The Night Watch, he thought it had been called. Their auras mingled and overlapped above Jimmys chest, and suddenly the man in the bed opened his eyes. He looked through the two little bald doctors at the ceiling for a moment, his expression vague and puzzled, and then his gaze shifted toward the door and he smiled. Hey! Look whos here! Jimmy V exclaimed. His voice was rusty and choked, but Ralph could still hear his South Boston wiseguy accent, where here came out heah. Faye jumped. The book of chess problems tumbled out of his lap and fell on the floor. He leaned over and took Jimmys hand, but Jimmy ignored him and kept looking across the room at Ralph and Lois. Its Ralph Roberts! And Paul Chasses wife widdim! Say, Ralphie, do you remember the day we tried to get into that tent revival so we could hear em sing Amazing Grace? [I remember, Jimmy.] Jimmy appeared to smile, and then his eyes slipped closed again. Lachesis placed his hands against the dying mans cheeks and moved his head a bit, like a barber getting ready to shave a customer. At the same moment Clotho leaned even closer, opened his scissors, and slid them forward so that the long blades held Jimmy Vs black balloonstring. As Clotho closed the scissors, Lachesis leaned forward and kissed Jimmys forehead. [Go in peace, friend.] There was a small, unimportant snick! sound. The segment of the balloonstring above the scissors drifted up toward the ceiling and disappeared. The deathbag in which Jimmy V lay turned a momentary bright white, then winked out of existence just as Rosalies had done earlier that evening. Jimmy opened his eyes again and looked at Faye. He started to smile, Ralph thought, and then his gaze turned fixed and distant. The dimples which had begun to form at the corners of his mouth smoothed out. Jimmy? Faye shook Jimmy Vs shoulder, running his hand through Lachesiss side to do it. You all right, Jimmy? . . . Oh shit. Faye got up and left the room, not quite running. Clotho [Do you see and understand that what we do we do with love and respect? That we are, in fact, the physicians of last resort? It is vital to our dealings with you, Ralph and Lois, that you understand that.] [Yes.] [Yes.] Ralph hadnt intended to agree with anything either one of them said, but that phrase  the physicians of last resort  sliced cleanly and effortlessly through his anger. It felt true. They had freed Jimmy V from a world where there was nothing left for him but pain. Yes, they had undoubtedly stood in Room 317 with Ralph on a sleety afternoon some seven months ago and given Carolyn the same release. And yes, they went about their work with love and respect  any doubts he might have had on that score had been laid to rest when Lachesis kissed Jimmy Vs forehead. But did love and respect give them the right to put him  and Lois, too  through hell and then send them after a supernatural being that had gone off the rails? Did it give them the right to even dream that two ordinary people, neither of them young anymore, could deal with such a creature? Lachesis [Let us move on from this place. Its going to fill up with people, and we need to talk.] [Do we have any choice?] Their answers [Yes, of course!] [There is always a choice!] came back quickly, colored with overtones of surprise. Clotho and Lachesis walked toward the door; Ralph and Lois shrank back to let them pass. The auras of the little bald doctors swept over them for a moment, however, and Ralph registered them in taste and texture the taste of sweet apples, the texture of dry, light bark. As they left, side by side, speaking gravely and respectfully to each other, Faye came back in, now accompanied by a pair of nurses. These newcomers passed through Lachesis and Clotho, then through Ralph and Lois, without slowing or seeming to notice anything untoward. In the hall outside, life went on at its usual muted pace. No buzzers went off, no lights flashed, no orderlies came sprinting down the hallway, pushing the crashwagon ahead of them. No one cried Stat! over the loudspeaker. Death was too common a visitor here for such things. Ralph guessed that it was not welcome, even under such circumstances as these, but it was familiar and accepted. He also guessed that Jimmy V would have been happy enough with his exit from the third floor of Derry Home  he had done it with no fuss or bother, and he hadnt had to show anyone either his drivers license or his Blue Cross Major Medical card. He had died with the dignity that simple, expected things often hold. One or two moments of consciousness, accompanied by a slightly wider perception of what was going on around him, and then poof. Pack up all my care and woe, blackbird, byebye. 4 They joined the bald docs in the hallway outside Bob Polhursts room. Through the open door, they could see the deathwatch continuing around the old teachers bed. Lois [The man closest to the bed is Bill McGovern, a friend of ours. Theres something wrong with him. Something awful. If we do what you want, could you?] But Lachesis and Clotho were shaking their heads in unison. Clotho [Nothing can be changed.] Yes, Ralph thought. Dorrance knew donebuncantbeundone. Lois [When will it happen?] Clotho [Your friend belongs to the other, to the third. To the one Ralph has already named Atropos. But Atropos could tell you the exact hour of the mans death no more than we could. He cannot even tell whom he will take next. Atropos is an agent of the Random.] This phrase sent a chill through Ralphs heart. Lachesis [But this is no place for us to talk. Come.] Lachesis took one of Clothos hands, then held out his free hand to Ralph. At the same time, Clotho reached toward Lois. She hesitated, then looked at Ralph. Ralph, in his turn, looked grimly at Lachesis. [You better not hurt her.] [Neither of you will be hurt, Ralph. Take my hand.] Im a stranger in paradise, Ralphs mind finished. Then he sighed through his teeth, nodded to Lois, and gripped Lachesiss outstretched hand. That shock of recognition, as deep and pleasant as an unexpected encounter with an old and valued friend, washed over him again. Apples and bark; memories of orchards he had walked through as a kid. He was somehow aware, without actually seeing it, that his aura had changed color and become  at least for a little while  the goldflecked green of Clotho and Lachesis. Lois took Clothos hand, inhaled a sharp little gasp over her teeth, then smiled hesitantly. Clotho [Complete the circle, Ralph and Lois. Dont be afraid. All is well.] Boy, do I ever disagree with that, Ralph thought, but when Lois reached for his hand, he grasped her fingers. The taste of apples and the texture of dry bark was joined by some dark and unknowable spice. Ralph inhaled its aroma deeply and then smiled at Lois. She smiled back  no hesitation in that smile  and Ralph felt a dim, faroff confusion. How could you be afraid? How could you even hesitate when what they brought felt this good and seemed this right? I sympathize, Ralph, but hesitate anyway, a voice counseled. [Ralph? Ralph!] She sounded alarmed and giddy at the same time. Ralph looked around just in time to see the top of the door of Room 315 descending past her shoulders . . . except it wasnt the door going down; it was Lois going up. All of them going up, still holding hands in a circle. Ralph had just gotten this through his head when momentary darkness, sharp as a knifeedge, crossed his vision like a shadow thrown by the slat of a venetian blind. He had a brief glimpse of narrow pipes that were probably part of the hospitals sprinkler system, surrounded by tufted pink pads of insulation. Then he was looking down a long tiled corridor. A gurney cart was rolling straight at his head . . . which, he suddenly realized, had surfaced like a periscope in one of the fourthfloor corridors. He heard Lois cry out and felt her grip on his hand tighten. Ralph closed his eyes instinctively and waited for the approaching gurney to flatten his skull. Clotho [Be calm! Please, be calm! Remember that these things exist on a different level of reality from the one where you are now!] Ralph opened his eyes. The gurney was gone, although he could hear its receding wheels. The sound was coming from behind him now. The gurney, like McGoverns friend, had passed right through him. The four of them were now levitating slowly into the corridor of what had to be the pediatrics wing  fairytale creatures pranced and gambolled up and down the walls, and characters from Disneys Aladdin and The Little Mermaid were decaled onto the windows of a large, brightly lighted play area. A doctor and a nurse strolled toward them, discussing a case.  further tests seem indicated, but only if we can make at least ninety per cent sure that The doctor walked through Ralph and as he did Ralph understood that he had started smoking again on the sly after five years off the weed and was feeling guilty as hell about it. Then they were gone. Ralph looked down just in time to see his feet emerge from the tiled floor. He turned to Lois, smiling tentatively. [It sure beats the elevator, doesnt it?] She nodded. Her grip on his hand was still very tight. They rose through the fifth floor, surfaced in a doctors lounge on the sixth (two doctors  the fullsized kind  present, one watching an old F Troop rerun and the other snoring on the hideous Swedish Modern sofa), and then they were on the roof. The night was clear, moonless, gorgeous. Stars glittered across the arc of the sky in an extravagant, misty sprawl of light. The wind was blowing hard, and he thought of Mrs Perrine saying Indian summer was over, he could mark her words. Ralph could hear the wind but not feel it . . . although he had an idea he could feel it, if he wanted to. It was just a matter of concentrating in the right way . . . Even as this thought came, he sensed some minor, momentary change in his body, something that felt like a blink. Suddenly his hair was blowing back from his forehead, and he could hear his pants cuffs flapping around his shins. He shivered. Mrs Perrines back had been right about the weather changing. Ralph gave another interior blink and the push of the wind was gone. He looked over at Lachesis. [Can I let go of your hand now?] Lachesis nodded and dropped his own grip. Clotho released Loiss hand. Ralph looked across town to the west and saw the pulsing blue runway lights of the airport. Beyond them was the gridwork of orange arc sodiums that marked Cape Green, one of the new housing developments on the far side of the Barrens. And someplace, in the sprinkle of lights just east of the airport, was Harris Avenue. [Its beautiful, isnt it, Ralph?] He nodded and thought that standing there and seeing the city spread out in the dark like this was worth everything he had been through since the insomnia had started. Everything and then some. But that wasnt a thought he entirely trusted. He turned to Lachesis and Clotho. [All right, explain. Who are you, who is he, and what do you want us to do?] The two bald docs were standing between two rapidly turning heat ventilators which were spraying brownishpurple fans of effluent into the air. They glanced nervously at each other, and Lachesis gave Clotho an almost imperceptible nod. Clotho stepped forward, looked from Ralph to Lois, and seemed to gather his thoughts. [Very well. First, you must understand that the things which are happening, while unexpected and distressing, are not precisely unnatural. My colleague and I do what we were made to do; Atropos does what he was made to do; and you, my ShortTime friends, will do what you were made to do.] Ralph favored him with a bright, bitter smile. [There goes freedom of choice, I guess.] Lachesis [You mustnt think so! Its simply that what you call freedom of choice is part of what we call ka, the great wheel of being.] Lois [We see now through a glass darkly . . . is that what you mean?] Clotho, smiling his somehow youthful smile [The Bible, I believe. And a very good way of putting it.] Ralph [Also pretty convenient for guys like you, but lets pass on that for now. We have a saying that isnt from the Bible, gentlemen, but its a pretty good one, just the same Dont gild the lily. I hope youll keep it in mind.] Ralph had an idea, however, that that might be a little too much to ask. 5 Clotho began to speak then, and he went on for a fair length of time. Ralph had no idea how long, exactly, because time was different on this level  compressed, somehow. At times there were no words at all in what he said; verbal terms were replaced with simple bright images like those in a childs rebus puzzle. Ralph supposed this was telepathy, and thus pretty amazing, but while it was happening it felt as natural as breath. Sometimes both words and images were lost, interrupted by puzzling breaks [           ] in communication. Yet even then Ralph was usually able to get some idea of what Clotho was trying to convey, and he had an idea Lois was understanding what was hidden in those lapses even more clearly than he was himself. [First, know that there are only four constants in that area of existence where your lives and ours, the lives of the [          [overlap. These four constants are Life, Death, the Purpose, and the Random. All these words have meaning for you, but you now have a slightly different concept of Life and Death, do you not?] Ralph and Lois nodded hesitantly. [Lachesis and I are agents of Death. This makes us figures of dread to most ShortTimers; even those who pretend to accept us and our function are usually afraid. In pictures we are sometimes shown as a fearsome skeleton or a hooded figure whose face cannot be seen.] Clotho put his tiny hands on his whiteclad shoulders and pretended to shudder. The burlesque was good enough to make Ralph grin. [But we are not only agents of death, Ralph and Lois; we are also agents of the Purpose. And now you must listen closely, for I would not be misunderstood. There are those of your kind who feel that everything happens by design, and there are those who feel all events are simply a matter of luck or chance. The truth is that life is both random and on purpose, although not in equal measure. Life is like] Here Clotho formed a circle with his arms, like a small child trying to show the shape of the earth, and within it Ralph saw a brilliant and evocative image thousands (or perhaps it was millions) of playing cards fanned out in a flickering rainbow of hearts and spades and clubs and diamonds. He also saw a great many jokers in this huge pack; not so many as to make up a suit of their own, but clearly a lot more, proportionally speaking, than the two or three found in the usual deck. Every one of them was grinning, and every one was wearing a battered Panama with a crescent bitten out of the brim. Every one carried a rusty scalpel. Ralph looked at Clotho with widening eyes. Clotho nodded. [Yes. I dont know exactly what you saw, but I know you saw what I was trying to convey. Lois? What about you?] Lois, who loved playing cards nodded palely. [Atropos is the joker in the deck  thats what you mean.] [He is an agent of the Random. We, Lachesis and I, serve that other force, the one which accounts for most events in both individual lives and in lifes wider stream. On your level of the building, Ralph and Lois, every creature is a ShortTime creature, and has an appointed span. This isnt to say that a child pops out of its mothers womb with a sign around its neck reading CUT CORD84 YEARS, 11 MONTHS, 9 DAYS, 6 HOURS, 4 MINUTES, AND 21 SECONDS. That idea is ridiculous. Yet time passages are usually set, and as both of you have seen, one of the many functions the ShortTime aura serves is as a clock.] Lois stirred, and as Ralph turned to look at her, he saw an amazing thing the sky overhead was growing pale. He guessed it must be five in the morning. They had arrived at the hospital at around nine oclock on Tuesday evening, and now all at once it was Wednesday, October 6th. Ralph had heard of time flying, but this was ridiculous. Lois [Your job is what we call natural death, isnt it?] Her aura flickered with confused, incomplete images. A man (the late Mr Chasse, Ralph was quite sure) lying in an oxygen tent. Jimmy V opening his eyes to look at Ralph and Lois in the instant before Clotho cut his balloonstring. The obituary page from the Derry News, peppered with photographs, most not much bigger than postage stamps, of the weekly harvest from the local hospitals and nursing homes. Both Clotho and Lachesis shook their heads. Lachesis [There is no such thing as natural death, not really. Our job is purposeful death. We take the old and the sick, but we take others, as well. Just yesterday, for instance, we took a young man of twentyeight. A carpenter. Two ShortTime weeks ago, he fell from a scaffold and fractured his skull. During those two weeks his aura was] Ralph got a fractured image of a thunderstruck aura like the one which had surrounded the baby in the elevator. Clotho [At last the change came  the turning of the aura. We knew it would come, but not when it would come. When it did, we went to him and sent him on.] [Sent him on to where?] It was Lois who asked the question, broaching the touchy subject of the afterlife almost by accident. Ralph grabbed for his mental safety belt, almost hoping for one of those peculiar blanks, but when their overlapped answers came, they were perfectly clear. Clotho [To everywhere.] Lachesis [To other worlds than these.] Ralph felt a mixture of relief and disappointment. [That sounds very poetic, but I think what it means  correct me if Im wrong  is that the afterlife is as much a mystery to you guys as it is to us.] Lachesis, sounding a bit stiff [On another occasion we might have time to discuss such things, but not now  as you have no doubt already noticed, time passes faster on this level of the building.] Ralph looked around and saw the morning had already brightened considerably. [Sorry.] Clotho, smiling [Not at all  we enjoy your questions, and find them refreshing. Curiosity exists everywhere along lifes continuum, but nowhere is it as abundant as here. But what you call the afterlife has no place in the four constants  Life and Death, the Random and the Purpose  which concern us now. [The approach of almost every death which serves the Purpose takes a course with which we are very familiar. The auras of those who will die Purposeful deaths turn gray as the time of finishing approaches. This gray deepens steadily to black. We are called when the aura [           , [and we come exactly as you saw last night. We give release to those who suffer, peace to those in terror, rest to those who cannot find rest. Most Purposeful deaths are expected, even welcomed, but not all. We are sometimes called to take men, women, and children who are in the best of health . . . yet their auras turn suddenly and their time of finishing has come.] Ralph remembered the young man in the sleeveless Celtics jersey hed seen bopping into the Red Apple yesterday afternoon. He had been the picture of health and vitality . . . except for the spectral oilslick surrounding him, that was. Ralph opened his mouth, perhaps to mention this young man (or to ask about his fate), then closed it again. The sun was directly overhead now, and a bizarre certainty suddenly came to him that he and Lois had become the subject of lecherous discussion in the secret city of the Old Crocks. Anybody seen em? . . . No? . . . Think they run off together? . . . Eloped, maybe? . . . Naw, not at their age, but they might be shacked up . . . I dunno if Ralphies got any live rounds left in the old ammo dump, but shes always looked like a hot ticket to me . . . Yeah, walks like she knows what to do with it, dont she? The image of his oversized rustbucket waiting patiently behind one of the ivycovered units of the Derry Cabins while the springs boinged and sproinged salaciously inside came to Ralph, and he grinned. He couldnt help it. A moment later the alarming idea that he might be broadcasting his thoughts on his aura came to him, and he slammed the door on the picture at once. Yet wasnt Lois looking at him with a certain amused speculation? Ralph turned his attention hastily back to Clotho. [Atropos serves the Random. Not all deaths of the sort ShortTimers call senseless and unnecessary and tragic are his work, but most are. When a dozen old men and women die in a fire at a retirement hotel, the chances are good that Atropos has been there, taking souvenirs and cutting cords. When an infant dies in his crib for no apparent reason, the cause, more often than not, is Atropos and his rusty scalpel. When a dog  yes, even a dog, for the destinies of almost all living things in the ShortTime world fall among either the Random or the Purpose  is run over in the road because the driver of the car that hit him picked the wrong moment to glance at his watch] Lois [Is that what happened to Rosalie?] Clotho [Atropos is what happened to Rosalie. Ralphs friend Joe Wyzer was only what we call fulfilling circumstance.] Lachesis [And Atropos is also what happened to your friend, the late Mr McGovern.] Lois looked the way Ralph felt dismayed but not really surprised. It was now late afternoon, perhaps as many as eighteen ShortTime hours had passed since they had last seen Bill, and Ralph had known the mans time was extremely short even last night. Lois, who had inadvertently put her hand inside him, probably knew it even better. Ralph [When did it happen? How long after we saw him?] Lachesis [Not long. While he was leaving the hospital. Im sorry for your loss, and for giving you the news in such clumsy fashion. We speak to ShortTimers so infrequently that we forget how. I didnt mean to hurt you, Ralph and Lois.] Lois told him it was all right, that she quite understood, but tears were trickling down her cheeks, and Ralph felt them burning in his own eyes. The idea that Bill could be gone  that the little shithead in the dirty smock had gotten him  was hard to grasp. Was he to believe McGovern would never hoist that satiric, bristly eyebrow of his again? Never bitch about how cruddy it was to get old again? Impossible. He turned suddenly to Clotho. [Show us.] Clotho, surprised, almost dithering [I . . . I dont think] Ralph [Seeing is believing to us ShortTime schmoes. Didnt you guys ever hear that one?] Lois spoke up unexpectedly. [Yes  show us. But only enough so we can know it and accept it. Try not to make us feel any worse than we already do.] Clotho and Lachesis looked at each other, then seemed to shrug without actually moving their narrow shoulders. Lachesis flicked the first two fingers of his right hand upward, creating a bluegreen peacocks fan of light. In it Ralph saw a small, eerily perfect representation of the ICU corridor. A nurse pushing a pharmacy cart came into this arc and crossed it. At the far side of the viewing area, she actually seemed to curve for a moment before passing out of view. Lois, delighted in spite of the circumstances [Its like watching a movie in a soapbubble!] Now McGovern and Mr Plum stepped out of Bob Polhursts room. McGovern had put on an old Derry High letter sweater and his friend was zipping up a jacket; they were clearly giving up the deathwatch for another night. McGovern was walking slowly, lagging behind Mr Plum. Ralph could see that his downstairs neighbor and sometime friend didnt look good at all. He felt Loiss hand slip into his upper arm and grip hard. He put his hand over hers. Halfway to the elevator, McGovern stopped, braced himself against the wall with one hand, and lowered his head. He looked like a totally blown runner at the end of a marathon. For a moment Mr Plum went on walking. Ralph could see his mouth moving and thought, He doesnt know hes talking to thin air  not yet, at least. Suddenly Ralph didnt want to see any more. Inside the bluegreen arc, McGovern put one hand to his chest. The other went to his throat and began to rub, as if he were checking for wattles. Ralph couldnt tell for sure, but he thought his downstairs neighbors eyes looked frightened. He remembered the grimace of hate on Doc 3s face when he realized a ShortTimer had presumed to step into his business with one of the local strays. What had he said? [Ill fuck you over, Shorts. Ill fuck you over bigtime. And Ill fuck your friends over. Do you get me?] A terrible idea, almost a certainty, dawned in Ralphs mind as he watched Bill McGovern crumple slowly to the floor. Lois [Make it go away  please make it go away!] She buried her face against Ralphs shoulder. Clotho and Lachesis exchanged uneasy looks, and Ralph realized he had already begun to revise his mental picture of them as omniscient and allpowerful. They might be supernatural creatures, but Dr Joyce Brothers they were not. He had an idea they werent much shakes at predicting the future, either; fellows with really efficient crystal balls probably wouldnt have a look like that in their entire repertoire. Theyre feeling their way along, just like the rest of us, Ralph thought, and he felt a certain reluctant sympathy for Mr C and Mr L. The bluegreen arc of light floating in front of Lachesis  and the images trapped inside it  suddenly disappeared. Clotho, sounding defensive [Please remember that it was your choice to see, Ralph and Lois. We did not show you that willingly.] Ralph barely heard this. His terrible idea was still developing, like a photograph one does not wish to see but cannot turn away from. He was thinking of Bills hat . . . Rosalies faded blue bandanna . . . and Loiss missing diamond earrings. [Ill fuck your friends over, Shorts  do you get me? I hope so. I most certainly do.] He looked from Clotho to Lachesis, his sympathy for them disappearing. What replaced it was a dull pulse of anger. Lachesis had said there was no such thing as accidental death, and that included McGoverns. Ralph had no doubt that Atropos had taken McGovern when he had for one simple reason hed wanted to hurt Ralph, to punish Ralph for messing into . . . what had Dorrance called it? Longtime business. Old Dor had suggested he not do that  a good policy, no doubt, but he, Ralph, had really had no choice . . . because these two bald halfpints had messed in with him. They had, in a very real sense, gotten Bill McGovern killed. Clotho and Lachesis saw his anger and took a step backward (although they seemed to do it without actually moving their feet), their faces becoming more uneasy than ever. [You two are the reason Bill McGoverns dead. Thats the truth of it, isnt it?] Clotho [Please . . . if youll just let us finish explaining] Lois was staring at Ralph, worried and scared. [Ralph? Whats wrong? Why are you angry?] [Dont you get it? This little setup of theirs cost Bill McGovern his life. Were here because Atropos has either done something these guys dont like or is getting ready to] Lachesis [Youre jumping to conclusions, Ralph] [ but theres one very basic problem he knows we see him! Atropos KNOWS we see him!] Loiss eyes widened with terror . . . and with understanding. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN 1 A small white hand fell on Ralphs shoulder and lay there like smoke. [Please . . . if youll only let us explain] He felt that change  that blink  happen in his body even before he was fully aware he had willed it. He could feel the wind again, coming out of the dark like the blade of a cold knife, and shivered. The touch of Clothos hand was now no more than a phantom vibration just below the surface of his skin. He could see all three of them, but now they were milky and faint. Now they were ghosts. Ive stepped down. Not all the way back down to where we started, but at least down to a level where they can have almost no physical contact with me. My aura, my balloonstring . . . yes, Im sure they could get at those things, but the physical part of me that lives my real life in the ShortTime world? No way, Jos. Loiss voice, as distant as a fading echo [Ralph! What are you doing to your ] He looked at the ghostly images of Clotho and Lachesis. Now they looked not just uneasy or slightly guilty but downright scared. Their faces were distorted and hard to see, but their fear was none the less unmistakable.


Clotho, his voice distant but audible [Come back, Ralph! Please come back!] If I do, will you quit playing games and be straight with us? Lachesis, fading, disappearing [Yes! Yes!] Ralph made that interior blink happen again. The three of them came back into focus. At the same time, color once more filled up the spaces of the world and time resumed its former sprint  he observed the waning moon sliding down the far side of the sky like a dollop of glowing mercury. Lois threw her arms around his neck, and for a moment he wasnt sure if she was hugging him or trying to strangle him. [Thank God! I thought you were going to leave me!] Ralph kissed her and for a moment his head was filled with a pleasant jumble of sensory input the taste of fresh honey, a texture like combed wool, and the smell of apples. A thought blipped across his mind (what would it be like to make love up here?) and he banished it at once. He needed to think and speak very carefully in the next few (minutes? hours? days?) and thinking about stuff like that would only make it that much harder. He turned to the little bald doctors and measured them with his eyes. [I hope you mean it. Because if you dont, I think wed better call this horserace off right now and go our separate ways.] Clotho and Lachesis didnt bother with the exchanged glance this time; they both nodded eagerly. Lachesis spoke, and he did so in a defensive tone of voice. These fellows, Ralph suspected, were a lot more pleasant to deal with than Atropos, but no more used to being questioned  to being put on their mettle, Ralphs mother would have said  than he was. [Everything we told you was true, Ralph and Lois. We may have left out the possibility that Atropos has a slightly greater understanding of the situation than we would really like, but] Ralph [What if we refuse to listen to any more of this nonsense? What if we just turn and walk away?] Neither replied, but Ralph thought he saw a dismaying thing in their eyes they knew that Atropos had Loiss earrings, and they knew he knew. The only one who didnt know  he hoped  was Lois herself. She was now tugging his arm. [Dont do that, Ralph  please dont. We need to hear them out.] He turned back to them and made a curt motion for them to go on. Lachesis [Under ordinary circumstances, we dont interfere with Atropos, nor he with us. We couldnt interfere with him even if we wanted to; the Random and the Purpose are like the red and black squares on a checkerboard, defining each other by contrast. But Atropos does want to interfere with the way things operate  interfering is, in a very real sense, what he was made to do  and on rare occasions, the opportunity to do so in a really big way presents itself. Efforts to stop his meddling are rare] Clotho [The truth is actually a little stronger, Ralph and Lois; never in our experience has an effort been made to check or bar him.] Lachesis [ and are made only if the situation into which he intends to meddle is a very delicate one, where many serious matters are balanced and counterbalanced. This is one of those situations. Atropos has severed a lifecord he would have done well to leave alone. This will cause terrible problems on all levels, not to mention a serious imbalance between the Random and the Purpose, unless the situation is rectified. We cannot deal with whats happening; the situation has passed far beyond our skills. We can no longer see clearly, let alone act. Yet in this case our inability to see hardly matters, because in the end, only ShortTimers can oppose the will of Atropos. That is why you two are here.] Ralph [Are you saying that Atropos cut the cord of someone who was supposed to die a natural death . . . or a Purposeful death?] Clotho [Not exactly. Some lives  a very few  bear no clear designation. When Atropos touches such lives, trouble is always likely. All bets are off, you say. Such undesignated lives are like] Clotho drew his hands apart and an image  playing cards again  flashed between them. A row of seven cards that were swiftly turned over, one after another, by an unseen hand. An ace; a deuce; a joker; a trey; a seven; a queen. The last card the invisible hand flipped over was blank. Clotho [Does this picture help?] Ralphs brow furrowed. He didnt know if it did or not. Somewhere out there was a person who was neither a regular playing card nor a joker in the deck. A person who was perfectly blank, up for grabs by either side. Atropos had slashed this guys metaphysical airhose, and now somebody  or something  had called a timeout. Lois [Its Ed youre talking about, isnt it?] Ralph wheeled around and stared at her sharply, but she was looking at Lachesis. [Ed Deepneau is the blank card.] Lachesis was nodding. [How did you know that, Lois?] [Who else could it be?] She wasnt smiling at him, precisely, but Ralph felt the sense of a smile. He turned back to Clotho and Lachesis. [Okay, at last were getting somewhere. So who flashed the red light on this deal? I dont think it was you guys  I have an idea that on this one, at least, you two arent much more than the hired help.] They put their heads together for a moment and murmured, but Ralph saw a faint ocher tinge appear like a seam at the place where their greengold auras overlapped and knew he was right. At last the two of them faced Ralph and Lois again. Lachesis [Yes, that is basically the case. You have a way of putting things in perspective, Ralph. We havent had a conversation like this in a thousand years] Clotho [If ever.] Ralph [All you have to do is tell the truth, boys.] Lachesis, as plaintively as a child [We have been!] Ralph [The whole truth.] Lachesis [All right; the whole truth. Yes, it is Ed Deepneaus cord Atropos cut. We dont know this because we have seen it  weve passed beyond our ability to see clearly, as I said  but because it is the only logical conclusion. Deepneau is undesignated, neither of the Random nor of the Purpose, that we do know, and his must have been some sort of mastercord to have caused all this uproar and concern. The very fact that he has lived so long after his lifecord was severed indicates his power and importance. When Atropos severed this cord, he set a terrible chain of events in motion.] Lois shivered and stepped closer to Ralph. Lachesis [You called us hired help. You were more right than you knew. We are, in this case, simply messengers. Our job is to make you and Lois aware of what has happened and what is expected of you, and that job is now almost done. As to who flashed the red light, we cant answer that question because we dont really know.] [I dont believe you.] But he heard the lack of conviction in his own voice (if it was a voice). Clotho [Dont be silly  of course you do! Would you expect the directors of a large automobile company to invite a lowly worker up to the boardroom so they could explain the reasons behind all the companys policies? Or perhaps give him the details on why they decided to close one plant and leave another one open?] Lachesis [Were a little more highly placed than the men who work on automobile assembly lines, but were still what you would call working joes, Ralph  no more and no less.] Clotho [Be content with this beyond the ShortTime levels of existence and the LongTime levels on which Lachesis, Atropos, and I exist, there are yet other levels. These are inhabited by creatures we could call AllTimers, beings which are either eternal or so close to it as to make no difference. ShortTimers and LongTimers live in overlapping spheres of existence  on connected floors of the same building, if you like  ruled by the Random and the Purpose. Above these floors, inaccessible to us but very much a part of the same tower of existence, live other beings. Some of them are marvellous and wonderful; others are hideous beyond our ability to comprehend, let alone yours. These beings might be called the Higher Purpose and the Higher Random . . . or perhaps there is no Random beyond a certain level; we suspect that may be the case, but we have no real way of telling. We do know that it is something from one of these higher levels that has interested itself in Ed, and that something else from up there made a countermove. That countermove is you, Ralph and Lois.] Lois gave Ralph a dismayed look that he hardly noticed. The idea that something was moving them around like chesspieces in Faye Chapins beloved Runway 3 Classic  an idea that would have infuriated him under other circumstances  went right by him for the time being. He was remembering the night Ed had called him on the telephone. Youre drifting into deep water, hed said, and there are things swimming around in the undertow you cant even conceive of. Entities, in other words. Beings too hideous to comprehend, according to Mr C, and Mr C was a gentleman who dealt death for a living. They havent really noticed you yet, Ed had told him that night, but if you keep fooling with me, they will. And you dont want that. Believe me, you dont. Lois [How did you get us up to this level in the first place? It was the insomnia, wasnt it?] Lachesis, cautiously [Essentially, yes. Were able to make certain small changes in ShortTime auras. These adjustments caused a rather special form of insomnia that altered the way you dream and the way you perceive the waking world. Adjusting ShortTerm auras is delicate, frightening work. Madness is always a danger.] Clotho [At times you may have felt that you were going mad, but neither of you was ever even close. Youre much tougher, both of you, than you give yourself credit for.] These assholes actually think theyre being comforting, Ralph marvelled, and then pushed his anger away again. He simply had no time to be angry now. Later, maybe, he could make up for that. He hoped so. For now he simply patted Loiss hands, then turned to Clotho and Lachesis again. [Last summer, after he beat his wife up, Ed spoke to me of a being he called the Crimson King. Does that mean anything to you fellows?] Clotho and Lachesis exchanged another look, one which Ralph at first mistook for solemnity. Clotho [Ralph, you must remember that Ed is insane, existing in a delusional state] [Yeah, tell me about it.] [ but we believe that his Crimson King does exist in one form or another, and that when Atropos cut his lifecord, Ed Deepneau fell directly under this beings influence.] The two little bald doctors looked at each other again, and this time Ralph saw the shared expression for what it really was not solemnity but terror. 2 A new day had dawned  Thursday  and was now brightening its way toward noon. Ralph couldnt tell for sure, but he thought the speed with which the hours were passing down there on the ShortTime level was increasing; if they didnt wrap this thing up soon, Bill McGovern wouldnt be the only one of their friends they outlived. Clotho [Atropos knew that the Higher Purpose would send someone to try to change what he has set in motion, and now he knows who. But you must not allow yourselves to be sidetracked by Atropos; you must remember that he is little more than a pawn on this board. It is not Atropos who really opposes you.] He paused and looked doubtfully at his colleague. Lachesis nodded for him to go on, and he did so confidently enough, but Ralph felt his heart sink a little, just the same. He was sure the two bald doctors had the best of intentions, but they were pretty clearly flying on instruments, just the same. Clotho [You must not approach Atropos directly, either. I cannot emphasize that enough. He has been surrounded by forces much greater than himself, forces that are malignant and powerful, forces that are conscious and will stop at nothing to stop you. Yet we think that, if you stay away from Atropos, you may be able to block the terrible thing which is about to happen . . . which is, in a very real sense, happening already.] Ralph didnt much care for the unspoken assumption that he and Lois were going to do whatever it was these two happy gauchos wanted, but this didnt seem like exactly the right time to say so. Lois [What is about to happen? What is it you want from us? Are we supposed to find Ed and talk him out of doing something bad?] Clotho and Lachesis looked at her with identical expressions of shocked horror. [Havent you been listening to] [ you mustnt even think of] They stopped, and Clotho motioned Lachesis to go ahead. [If you didnt hear us before, Lois, hear us now stay away from Ed Deepneau! Like Atropos, this unusual situation has temporarily invested him with great power. To even go near him would be to risk a visit from the entity he thinks of as the Crimson King . . . and besides, he is no longer in Derry.] Lachesis glanced out over the roof, where lights were coming on in the dusk of Thursday evening, then looked back at Ralph and Lois again. [He has left for [                   .] No words, but Ralph caught a clear sensory impression which was part smell (oil, grease, exhaust, seasalt), part feel and sound (the wind snapping at something  perhaps a flag), and part sight (a large rusty building with a huge door standing open on a steel track). [Hes on the coast, isnt he? Or going there.] Clotho and Lachesis nodded, and their faces suggested that the coast, eighty miles from Derry, was a very good place for Ed Deepneau. Lois tugged his hand again, and Ralph glanced at her. [Did you see the building, Ralph?] He nodded. Lois [Its not Hawking Labs, but its near there. I think it might even be a place I know] Lachesis, speaking rapidly, as if to change the subject [Where he is or what he might be planning really doesnt matter. Your task lies elsewhere, in safer waters, but you still may need to use all of your considerable ShortTime powers to accomplish it, and there still may be great danger.] Lois looked nervously at Ralph. [Tell them we wont hurt anybody, Ralph  we might agree to help them if we can, but we wont hurt anybody, no matter what.] Ralph, however, told them no such thing. He was thinking of how the diamond chips had glittered at Atroposs earlobes, and meditating on how perfectly he had been trapped  and Lois along with him, of course. Yes, he would hurt someone to get the earrings back. That wasnt even a question. But just how far would he go? Would he perhaps kill to get them back? Not wanting to tackle that issue  not wanting to even look at Lois, at least for the time being  Ralph turned back to Clotho and Lachesis. He opened his mouth to speak, but she got there first. [Theres one other thing I want to know before we go any further.] It was Clotho who replied, sounding slightly amused  sounding, in fact, remarkably like Bill McGovern. Ralph didnt care for it much. [What is that, Lois?] [Is Ralph in danger, too? Does Atropos have something of Ralphs we need to take back later on? Something like Bills hat?] Lachesis and Clotho exchanged a quick, apprehensive glance. Ralph didnt think Lois caught it, but he did. Shes getting too close for comfort, that look said. Then it was gone. Their faces were smooth again as they turned their attention back to Lois. Lachesis [No. Atropos has taken nothing from Ralph because, up until now, doing so would not help him in any way.] Ralph [What do you mean, up until now?] Clotho [You have spent your life as part of the Purpose, Ralph, but that has changed.] Lois [When did it change? It happened when we started seeing the auras, didnt it?] They looked at each other, then at Lois, then  nervously  at Ralph. They said nothing, and an interesting idea occurred to Ralph like the boy George Washington of the cherry tree myth, Clotho and Lachesis could not tell a lie . . . and at moments like this they probably regretted it. The only alternative was the one they were employing keeping their lips zipped and hoping the conversation would move on to safer areas. Ralph decided he didnt want it to move on  at least not yet  even though they were dangerously close to allowing Lois to find out where her earrings had gone . . . always assuming she didnt know that already, a possibility that did not strike him as at all remote. An old carny pitchmans line occurred to him Step right up, gentlemen . . . but if you want to play, you have to pay. [Oh no, Lois  the change didnt happen when I started to see the auras. I think a lot of people catch a glimpse into the LongTime world of auras every now and again, and nothing bad happens to them. I dont think I got knocked out of my nice safe place in the Purpose until we started to talk to these two fine fellows. What do you say, fine fellows? You did everything but leave a trail of breadcrumbs, even though you knew perfectly well what was going to happen. Isnt that about the size of it?] They looked down at their feet, then slowly, reluctantly, back up at Ralph. It was Lachesis who answered. [Yes, Ralph. We drew you to us even though we knew it would alter your ka. Its unfortunate, but the situation demanded it.] Now Lois will ask about herself, Ralph thought. Now she must ask. But she didnt. She only looked at the two little bald doctors with an inscrutable expression completely unlike any of her usual Our Lois looks. Ralph wondered again how much she knew or guessed, marvelled again that he didnt have the slightest clue . . . and then these speculations were swallowed in a fresh wave of anger. [You guys . . . man oh man, you guys . . .] He didnt finish, although he might have, if Lois hadnt been standing beside him You guys have done quite a bit more than just mess with our sleep, havent you? I dont know about Lois, but I had a nice little niche in the Purpose . . . which means that you deliberately made me an exception to the very rules youve spent your whole lives upholding. In a way, Ive become as much a blank as this guy were supposed to find. How did Clotho put it? All bets are off. How very fucking true. Lois [You talked about using our powers. What powers?] Lachesis turned to her, clearly delighted at the change of subject. He pressed his hands together, palm to palm, then opened them in a curiously Oriental gesture. What appeared between them were two swift images Ralphs hand producing a bolt of cold blue fire as it cut the air in a karate chop, and Loiss forefinger producing bright bluegray pellets of light that looked like nuclear coughdrops. Ralph [Yes, all right, we have something, but it isnt reliable. Its like] He concentrated and created an image of his own hands opening the back of a radio and removing a pair of AA batteries encrusted with bluegray crud. Clotho and Lachesis frowned at him, not getting it. Lois [Hes trying to say we cant always do that, and when we can, we cant do it for long. Our batteries go flat, you see.] Understanding mixed with amused incredulity broke over their features. Ralph [Whats so damned funny?] Clotho [Nothing . . . everything. You have no concept of how strange you and Lois seem to us  incredibly wise and perceptive at one moment, incredibly nave at the next. Your batteries, as you call them, need never go flat, because the two of you are standing next to a bottomless reservoir of power. We assumed that, since you have both already drunk from it, you must surely know about it.] Ralph [What in the world are you talking about?] Lachesis made that curiously Oriental handopening gesture again. This time Ralph saw Mrs Perrine, walking stiffly upright within an aura the color of a West Pointers dress uniform. Saw a shaft of gray brilliance, as thin and straight as the quill of a porcupine, poke out of this aura. This image was overlaid by one of a skinny woman encased in a smoggy brown aura. She was looking out a car window. A voice  Loiss  spoke Oooh, Mina, isnt that the dearest little house? A moment later there was a soft, indrawn whistle and a narrow ray of the womans aura poked out from behind her neck. This was followed by a third image, brief but strong Ralph reaching through the slot in the bottom of the information booth and gripping the wrist of the woman with the brambly orange aura . . . except that all at once the aura around her left arm no longer was orange. All at once it was the faded turquoise he now thought of as Ralph Roberts Blue. The image faded. Lachesis and Clotho stared at Ralph and Lois; they stared back, shocked. Lois [Oh, no! We cant do that! Its like] Image Two men in striped prison suits and little black masks tiptoeing out of a bank vault, carrying bulging sacks with the  symbol printed on the sides. Ralph [No, even worse. Its like] Image A bat flies in through an open casement window, makes two swooping circles in a silvery shaft of moonlight, then turns into Ralph Lugosi in a cape and oldfashioned tuxedo. He approaches a sleeping woman  not a young, rosy virgin but old Mrs Perrine in a sensible flannel nightgown  and bends over to suck her aura. When Ralph looked back at Clotho and Lachesis, both of them were shaking their heads vehemently. Lachesis [No! No, no, no! You couldnt be more wrong! Have you not wondered why you are ShortTimers, marking the spans of your lives in decades rather than in centuries? Your lives are short because you burn like bonfires! When you draw energy from your fellow ShortTimers, its like] Image A child at the seashore, a lovely little girl with golden ringlets bouncing on her shoulders, runs down the beach to where the waves break. In one hand she carries a red plastic bucket. She kneels and fills it from the vast grayblue Atlantic. Clotho [You are like that child, Ralph and Lois  your fellow ShortTimers are like the sea. Do you understand now?] Ralph [Theres really that much of this aural energy in the human race?] Lachesis [You still dont understand. Thats how much there is] Lois broke in. Her voice was trembling, although whether with fear or ecstasy, Ralph could not tell. [Thats how much there is in each one of us, Ralph. Thats how much there is in every human being on the face of the earth!] Ralph whistled softly and looked from Lachesis to Clotho. They were nodding confirmation. [Youre saying we can stock up on this energy from whoever happens to be handy? That its safe for the people we take it from?] Clotho [Yes. You could no more hurt them than you could empty the Atlantic with a childs beachpail.] Ralph hoped that was so, because he had an idea that he and Lois had been unconsciously borrowing energy like mad  it was the only explanation he could think of for all the compliments he had been getting. People telling him that he looked great. People telling him that he must be over his insomnia, had to be, because he looked so rested and healthy. That he looked younger. Hell, he thought, I am younger. The moon had set again, and Ralph realized with a start that the sun would soon be coming up on Friday morning. It was high time they got back to the central issue of this discussion. [Lets cut to the chase here, fellows. Why have you gone to all this trouble? What is it were supposed to stop?] And then, before either of them could reply, he was struck by a flash of insight too strong and bright to be questioned or denied. [Its Susan Day, isnt it? He means to kill Susan Day. To assassinate her.] Clotho [Yes, but] Lachesis [ but that isnt what matters] Ralph [Come on, you guys  dont you think the time has come to lay the rest of your cards on the table?] Lachesis [Yes, Ralph. That time has come.] There had been little or no touching among them since they had formed the circle and risen through the intervening hospital floors to the roof, but now Lachesis put a gentle, featherlight arm around Ralphs shoulders and Clotho took Lois by the arm, as a gentleman of a bygone age might have led a lady onto a dancefloor. Scent of apples, taste of honey, texture of wool . . . but this time Ralphs delight in that mingled sensory input could not mask the deep disquiet he felt as Lachesis turned him to the left and then walked with him toward the edge of the flat hospital roof. Like many larger and more important cities, Derry seemed to have been built in the most geographically unsuitable place the original settlers could find. The downtown area existed on the steep sides of a valley; the Kenduskeag River flowed sluggishly through the overgrown tangle of the Barrens at this valleys lowest level. From their vantage point atop the hospital, Derry looked like a town whose heart had been pierced by a narrow green dagger . . . except in the darkness, the dagger was black. One side of the valley was Old Cape, site of a seedy postwar housing development and a glossy, flossy new mall. The other side contained most of what people meant when they talked about downtown. Derrys downtown centered around UpMile Hill. Witcham Street took the most direct course up this hill, rising steeply before branching off into the tangle of streets (Harris Avenue was one of them) that made up the west side. Main Street diverged from Witcham halfway up the hill and headed southwest along the valleys shallower side. This area of town was known both as Main Street Hill and as Bassey Park. And, near the very top of Main Streets rise Lois, almost moaning [Dear God, what is it?] Ralph tried to say something comforting and produced nothing but a feeble croak. Near the top of Main Street Hill, a huge black umbrellashape floated above the ground, blotting out stars which had begun to pale toward morning. Ralph tried to tell himself at first that it was only smoke, that one of the warehouses out that way had caught on fire . . . perhaps even the abandoned railroad depot at the end of Neibolt Street. But the warehouses were farther south, the old depot was farther west, and if that evillooking toadstool had really been smoke, the prevailing wind would be driving it across the sky in plumes and banners. That wasnt happening. Instead of dissipating, the silent blotch in the sky simply hung there, darker than the darkness. And no one sees it, Ralph thought. No one but me . . . and Lois . . . and the little bald doctors. The goddam little bald doctors. He squinted to make out the shape within the giant deathbag, although he didnt really need to; he had lived in Derry most of his life, and could almost have navigated its streets with his eyes closed (as long as he did not have to do so behind the wheel of his car, that was). Nevertheless, he could make out the building inside the deathbag, especially now that daylight was beginning to seep over the horizon. The flat circular roof which sat atop the curving glassandbrick faade was a dead giveaway. This throwback to the 1950s, designed very much tongueincheek by the famous architect (and onetime Derry resident) Benjamin Hanscom, was the new Derry Civic Center, a replacement for the one destroyed in the flood of 85. Clotho turned Ralph to look at him. [You see, Ralph, you were right  he does mean to assassinate Susan Day . . . but not just Susan Day.] He paused, glanced at Lois, then turned his grave face back to Ralph. [That cloud  what you two quite correctly call a death bag  means that in a sense he has already done what Atropos has set him on to do. There will be more than two thousand people there tonight . . . and Ed Deepneau means to kill them all. If the course of events is not changed, he will kill them all.] Lachesis stepped forward to join his colleague. [You, Ralph and Lois, are the only ones who can stop that from happening.] 3 In his minds eye Ralph saw the poster of Susan Day which had been propped in the empty storefront between the Rite Aid Pharmacy and Day Break, Sun Down. He remembered the words written in the dust on the outside of the window KILL THIS CUNT. And something like that might well happen in Derry, that was the thing. Derry was not precisely like other places. It seemed to Ralph that the citys atmosphere had improved a great deal since the big flood eight years before, but it was still not precisely like other places. There was a mean streak in Derry, and when its residents got wrought up, they had been known to do some exceedingly ugly things. He wiped at his lips and was momentarily distracted by the silky, distant feel of his hand on his mouth. He kept being reminded in different ways that his state of being had changed radically. Lois, horrified [How are we supposed to do it? If we cant go near Atropos or Ed, how are we supposed to stop it from happening?] Ralph realized he could see her face quite clearly now; the day was brightening with the speed of stopmotion photography in an old Disney nature film. [Well phone in a bombthreat, Lois. That should work.] Clotho looked dismayed at this; Lachesis actually smacked his forehead with the heel of his hand before glancing nervously at the brightening sky. When he looked back at Ralph, his small face was full of something that might have been carefully muzzled panic. [That wont work, Ralph. Now listen to me, both of you, and listen carefully whatever you do in the next fourteen hours or so, you must not underestimate the power of the forces Atropos unleashed when he first discovered Ed and then slashed his lifecord.] Ralph [Why wont it work?] Lachesis, sounding both angry and frightened [We cant just go on and on answering your questions, Ralph  from here on youre going to have to take things on trust. You know how fast time passes on this level; if we stay up here much longer, your chance to stop what is going to happen tonight at the Civic Center will be lost. You and Lois must step down again. You must!] Clotho held up a hand to his colleague, then turned back to Ralph and Lois. [Ill answer this one last question, although Im sure that with a little thought you could answer it yourself. There have already been twentythree bombthreats regarding Susan Days speech tonight. The police have explosivessniffing dogs at the Civic Center, for the last fortyeight hours they have been Xraying all packages and deliveries which have come into the building, and they have been conducting spot searches, as well. They expected bombthreats, and they take them seriously, but their assumption in this case is that they are being made by prolife advocates who are trying to keep Ms Day from speaking.] Lois, dully [Oh God  the little boy who cried wolf.] Clotho [Correct, Lois.] Ralph [Has he planted a bomb? He has, hasnt he?] Bright light washed across the roof, stretching the shadows of the twirling heatventilators like taffy. Clotho and Lachesis looked at these shadows and then to the east, where the suns top arc had broken over the horizon, with identical expressions of dismay. Lachesis [We dont know, and it doesnt matter. You must stop the speech from happening, and there is only one way to do that you must convince the women in charge to cancel Susan Days appearance. Do you understand? She must not appear in the Civic Center tonight! You cant stop Ed, and you darent try to approach Atropos, so you must stop Susan Day.] Ralph [But] It wasnt the strengthening sunlight that shut his mouth, or the growing look of harried fear on the faces of the little bald docs. It was Lois. She put a hand on his cheek and gave a small but decisive shake of the head. [No more. We have to go down, Ralph. Now.] Questions were circling in his mind like mosquitoes, but if she said there was no more time, there was no more time. He glanced at the sun, saw it had entirely cleared the horizon, and nodded. He slipped his arm around her waist. Clotho, anxiously [Do not fail us, Ralph and Lois.] Ralph [Save the peptalk, short stuff. This isnt a football game.] Before either of them could reply, Ralph closed his eyes and concentrated on dropping back down to the ShortTime world. CHAPTER NINETEEN 1 There was that sensation of blink! and a chill morning breeze struck his face. Ralph opened his eyes and looked at the woman beside him.


For just a moment he could see her aura wisping away behind her like the gauzy overskirt of a ladys ballgown and then it was just Lois, looking twenty years younger than she had the week before . . . and also looking extremely out of place, in her light fall coat and good visitingthesick dress, here on the tarandgravel hospital roof. Ralph hugged her tighter as she began to shiver. Of Lachesis and Clotho there was no sign. Although they could be standing right beside us, Ralph thought. Probably are, as a matter of fact. He suddenly thought of that old carny pitchmans line again, the one about how you had to pay if you wanted to play, so step right up, gentlemen, and lay your money down. But more often than not you were played instead of playing. Played for what? A sucker, of course. And why did he have that feeling now? Because there were a lot of things you never found out, Carolyn said from inside his head. They led you down a lot of interesting sidetracks and kept you away from the main point until it was too late for you to ask the questions they might not have wanted to answer . . . and I dont think something like that happens by accident, do you? No. He didnt. That feeling of being pushed by invisible hands into some dark tunnel where anything might be waiting was stronger now. That sense of being manipulated. He felt small . . . and vulnerable . . . and pissed off. WWell, were bbback, Lois said through her briskly chattering teeth. What time is it, do you think? It felt like about six oclock, but when Ralph glanced down at his watch, he wasnt surprised to see it had stopped. He couldnt remember when he had last wound it. Tuesday morning, probably. He followed Loiss gaze to the southwest and saw the Civic Center standing like an island in the middle of a parkinglot ocean. With the early morning sunlight kicking bright sheets of reflection from its curved banks of windows, it looked like an oversized version of the office building George Jetson worked in. The vast deathbag which had surrounded it only moments before was gone. Oh, no its not. Dont kid yourself, buddy. You may not be able to see it right now, but its there, all right. Early, he said, pulling her more tightly against him as the wind gusted, blowing his hair  hair that now had almost as much black in it as white  back from his forehead. But its going to get late fast, I think. She took his meaning and nodded. Where are LLachesis and CC On a level where the wind doesnt freeze your ass off, I imagine. Come on. Lets find a door and get the hell off this roof. She stayed where she was a moment longer, though, shivering and looking across town. What has he done? she asked in a small voice. If he hasnt planted a bomb in there, what can he have done? Maybe he has planted a bomb and the dogs with the educated noses just havent found it yet. Or maybe its something the dogs arent trained to find. A canister stuck up in the rafters, say  a little something nasty Ed whipped up in the bathtub. Chemistry is what he did for a living, after all . . . at least until he gave up his job to become a fulltime psycho. He could be planning to gas them like rats. Oh Jesus, Ralph! She put her hand to her chest just above the swell of her bosom and looked at him with wide, dismayed eyes. Come on, Lois. Lets get off this damned roof. This time she came willingly enough. Ralph led her toward the roof door . . . which, he fervently hoped, they would find unlocked. Two thousand people, she almost moaned as they reached the door. Ralph was relieved when the knob turned under his hand, but Lois seized his wrist with chilly fingers before he could pull the door open. Her uptilted face was full of frantic hope. Maybe those little men were lying, Ralph  maybe theyve got their own axe to grind, something we couldnt even hope to understand, and they were lying. I dont think they can lie, he said slowly. Thats the hell of it, Lois  I dont think they can. And then theres that. He pointed at the Civic Center, at the dirty membrane they couldnt see but which both knew was still there. Lois would not turn to look at it. She put her cold hand over his instead, pulled the roof door open, and started down the stairs. 2 Ralph opened the door at the foot of the stairs, peeped into the sixthfloor corridor, saw that it was empty, and drew Lois out of the stairwell. They headed for the elevators, then stopped together outside an open door with DOCTORS LOUNGE printed on the wall beside it in bright red letters. Inside was the room they had seen on their way up to the roof with Clotho and Lachesis  Winslow Homer prints hanging crooked on the walls, a Silex standing on a hotplate, hideous Swedish Modern furniture. No one was in the room right now, but the TV bolted to the wall was playing nevertheless, and their old friend Lisette Benson was reading the morning news. Ralph remembered the day he and Lois and Bill had sat in Loiss living room, eating macaroni and cheese as they watched Lisette Benson report on the dollthrowing incident at WomanCare. Less than a month ago that had been. He suddenly remembered that Bill McGovern would never watch Lisette Benson again, or forget to lock the front door, and a sense of loss as fierce as a November gale swept through him. He could not completely believe it, at least not yet. How could Bill have died so quickly and so unceremoniously? He would have hated it, Ralph thought, and not just because he would have considered dying of a heart attack in a hospital corridor in bad taste. He wouldve considered it bad theater, as well. But he had seen it happen, and Lois had actually felt it eating away at Bills insides. That made Ralph think of the deathbag surrounding the Civic Center, and what was going to happen there if they didnt stop the speech. He started toward the elevator again, but Lois pulled him back. She was looking at the TV, fascinated.  will feel a lot of relief when tonights speech by feminist abortionrights advocate Susan Day is history, Lisette Benson was saying, but the police arent the only ones who will feel that way. Apparently both prolife and prochoice advocates are beginning to feel the strain of living on the edge of confrontation. John Kirkland is live at the Derry Civic Center this morning, and he has more. John? The pallid, unsmiling man standing next to Kirkland was Dan Dalton. The button on his shirt showed a scalpel descending toward an infant with its knees drawn up in the fetal position. This was surrounded by a red circle with a diagonal red line slashed across it. Ralph could see half a dozen police cars and two news trucks, one with the NBC logo on its side, in the background of the shot. A uniformed cop strolled across the lawn leading two dogs  a bloodhound and a German Shepherd  on leashes. Thats right, Lisette, Im here at the Civic Center, where the mood could be termed one of worry and quiet determination. With me is Dan Dalton, President of The Friends of Life organization which has been so vehemently opposed to Ms Days speech. Mr Dalton, would you agree with that assessment of the situation? That theres a lot of worry and determination in the air? Dalton asked. To Ralph his smile looked both nervous and disdainful. Yes, I suppose you could put it that way. Were worried that Susan Day, one of this countrys greatest unindicted criminals, will succeed in her efforts to confuse the central issue here in Derry the murder of twelve to fourteen helpless unborn children each and every day. But Mr Dalton And, Dalton overrode him, we are determined to show a watching nation that we are not willing to be good Nazis, that we are not all cowed by the religion of political correctness  the dreaded peecee. Mr Dalton We are also determined to show a watching nation that some of us are still capable of standing up for our beliefs, and to fulfill the sacred responsibility which a loving God has Mr Dalton, are The Friends of Life planning any sort of violent protest here? That shut him up for a moment and at least temporarily drained all the canned vitality from his face. With it gone, Ralph saw a dismaying thing underneath his bluster, Dalton was scared to death. Violence? he said at last. He brought the word out carefully, like something that could give his mouth a bad cut if mishandled. Good Lord, no. The Friends of Life reject the idea that two wrongs can ever make a right. We intend to mount a massive demonstration  we are being joined in this fight by prolife advocates from Augusta, Portland, Portsmouth, and even Boston  but there will be no violence. What about Ed Deepneau? Can you speak for him? Daltons lips, already thinned down to little more than a seam, now seemed to disappear altogether. Mr Deepneau is no longer associated with The Friends of Life, he said. Ralph thought he detected both fear and anger in Daltons tone. Neither are Frank Felton, Sandra McKay, and Charles Pickering, in case you intended to ask. John Kirklands glance at the camera was brief but telling. It said that he thought Dan Dalton was as nutty as a bag of trailmix. Are you saying that Ed Deepneau and these other individuals  Im sorry, I dont know who they are  have formed their own antiabortion group? A kind of offshoot? We are not antiabortion, we are prolife! Dalton cried. Theres a big difference, but you reporters seem to keep missing it! So you dont know Ed Deepneaus whereabouts, or what  if anything  he might be planning? I dont know where he is, I dont care where he is, and I dont care about his . . . offshoots, either. Youre afraid, though, Ralph thought. And if a selfrighteous little prick like you is afraid, I think Im terrified. Dalton started off. Kirkland, apparently deciding he wasnt wrung completely dry yet, walked after him, shaking out his microphone cord as he went. But isnt it true, Mr Dalton, that while he was a member of The Friends of Life, Ed Deepneau instigated several violenceoriented protests, including one last month where dolls soaked with artificial blood were thrown Youre all the same, arent you? Dan Dalton asked. Ill pray for you, my friend. He stalked off. Kirkland looked after him for a moment, bemused, then turned back to the camera. We tried to get hold of Mr Daltons opposite number  Gretchen Tillbury, who has taken on the formidable job of coordinating this event for WomanCare  but she was unavailable for comment. Weve heard that Ms Tillbury is at High Ridge, a womens shelter and halfway house which is owned and operated by WomanCare. Presumably, she and her associates are out there putting the finishing touches on plans for what they hope will be a safe, violencefree rally and speech at the Civic Center tonight. Ralph glanced at Lois and said, Okay  now we know where were going, at least. The TV picture switched to Lisette Benson, in the studio. John, are there any real signs of possible violence at the Civic Center? Back to Kirkland, who had returned to his original location in front of the cop cars. He was holding up a small white rectangle with some printing on it in front of his tie. Well, the private security police on duty here found hundreds of these filecards scattered on the Civic Centers front lawn this morning just after first light. One of the guards claims to have seen the vehicle they were dumped from. He says it was a Cadillac from the late sixties, either brown or black. He didnt get the license number, but says there was a sticker on the back bumper reading ABORTION IS MURDER, NOT CHOICE. Back to the studio, where Lisette Benson was looking mighty interested. Whats on those cards, John? Back to Kirkland. I guess youd have to say its sort of a riddle. He glanced down at the card. If you have a gun loaded with only two bullets and youre in a room with Hitler, Stalin, and an abortionist, what do you do? Kirkland looked back up into the camera and said, The answer printed on the other side, Lisette, is Shoot the abortionist twice. This is John Kirkland, reporting live from the Derry Civic Center. 3 Im starving, Lois said as Ralph carefully guided the Oldsmobile down the series of parkinggarage ramps which would presumably set them free . . . if Ralph didnt miss any of the exit signs, that was. And if Im exaggerating, Im not doing it by much. Me too, Ralph said. And considering that we havent eaten since Tuesday, I guess thats to be expected. Well grab a good sitdown breakfast on the way out to High Ridge. Do we have time? Well make time. After all, an army fights on its stomach. I suppose so, although I dont feel very armyish. Do you know where Hush a second, Lois. He stopped the Oldsmobile short, put the gearshift lever in Park, and listened. There was a clacking sound from under the hood that he didnt like very much. Of course the concrete walls of places like this tended to magnify sounds, but still . . . Ralph? she asked nervously. Dont tell me somethings wrong with the car. Just dont tell me that, okay? I think its fine, he said, and began creeping toward daylight again. Ive just kind of fallen out of touch with old Nellie here since Carol died. Forgotten what kinds of sounds she makes. You were going to ask me something, werent you? If you know where that shelter is. High Ridge. Ralph shook his head. Somewhere out near the Newport town line is all I know. I dont think theyre supposed to tell men where it is. I was kind of hoping you might have heard. Lois shook her head. I never had to use a place like that, thank God. Well have to call her. The Tillbury woman. Youve met her with Helen, so you can talk to her. Shell listen to you. She gave him a brief glance, one that warmed his heart  Anyone with any sense would listen to you, Ralph, it said  but Ralph shook his head. I bet the only calls shes taking today are ones that come from the Civic Center or from wherever Susan Day is. He shot her a glance. You know, that womans got a lot of guts, coming here. Either that or shes donkeydumb. Probably a little of both. If Gretchen Tillbury wont take a call, how will we get in touch with her? Well, I tell you what. I was a salesman for a lot of what Faye Chapin would call my real life, and I bet I can still be inventive when I need to be. He thought of the informationlady with the orange aura and grinned. Persuasive, too, maybe. Ralph? Her voice was small. What, Lois? This feels like real life to me. He patted her hand. I know what you mean. 4 A familiar skinny face poked out of the paybooth of the hospital parking garage; a familiar grin  one from which at least half a dozen teeth had gone AWOL  brightened it. Eyyyy, Ralph, dat you? Goddam if it aint! Beauty! Beauty! Trigger? Ralph asked slowly. Trigger Vachon? None udder! Trigger flipped his lank brown hair out of his eyes so he could get a better look at Lois. And whos dis marigold here? I know her from somewhere, goddam if I dont! Lois Chasse, Ralph said, taking his parking ticket from its place over the sunvisor. You might have known her husband, Paul Goddam right I did! Trigger cried. We was weekend warriors togedder, back in nineteensebny, maybe sebnyone! Closed down Nans Tavern moren once! My suds n body! How is Paul dese days, maam? Mr Chasse passed on a little over two years ago, Lois said. Oh, damn! Im sorry to hear it. He was a champ of a guy, Paul Chasse. Just an allaround champ of a guy. Everybody liked him. Trigger looked as distressed as he might have done if she had told him it had happened only that morning. Thank you, Mr Vachon. Lois glanced at her watch, then looked up at Ralph. Her stomach rumbled, as if to add one final point to the argument. Ralph handed his parking ticket through the open window of the car, and as Trigger took it, Ralph suddenly realized the stamp would show that he and Lois had been here since Tuesday night. Almost sixty hours. What happened to the drycleaning business, Trig? he asked hastily. Ahhh, dey laid me off, Trigger said. Didnt I tell you? Laid almos everybody off. I was downhearted at first, but I caught on here last April, and . . . eyyy! I like dis all kindsa better. I got my little TV for when its slow, and there aint nobody beepin their horns at me if I dont go the firs second a trafficlight turns green, or cuttin me off out dere on the Extension. Everyone in a hurry to get to the nex place, dey are, jus why I dunno. Also, I tell you what, Ralph dat damn van was coldern a witchs tit in the winter. Pardon me, maam. Lois did not reply. She seemed to be studying the backs of her hands with great interest. Ralph, meanwhile, watched with relief as Trigger crumpled up the parking ticket and tossed it into his wastebasket without so much as a glance at the timeanddate stamp. He punched one of the buttons on his cashregister, and 0.00 popped up on the screen in the booths window. Jeez, Trig, thats really nice of you, Ralph said. Eyyy, dont mention it, Trigger said, and grandly punched another button. This one raised the barrier in front of the booth. Good to see you. Say, you member dat time out by the airport? Gosh! Hottern hell, it was, and dose two fella almos got in a punchup? Den it rained like a bugger. Hailed some, too. You was walkin and I give you a ride home. Oney seen you once or twice since den. He took a closer look at Ralph. You look a hell of a lot better today than you did den, Ralphie, Ill tell you dat. Hell, you dont look a day over fiftyfive. Beauty! Beside him, Loiss stomach rumbled again, louder this time. She went on studying the backs of her hands. I feel a little older than that, though, Ralph said. Listen, Trig, it was good to see you, but we ought to Damn, Trigger said, and his eyes had gone distant. I had sumpin to tell you, Ralph. At least I tink I did. Bout dat day. Gosh, aint I got a dumb old head! Ralph waited a moment longer, uncomfortably poised between impatience and curiosity. Well, dont feel bad about it, Trig. That was a long time ago. What the hell . . .? Trigger asked himself. He gazed up at the ceiling of his little booth, as if the answer might be written there. Ralph, we ought to go, Lois said. Its not just wanting breakfast, either. Yes. Youre right. He got the Oldsmobile rolling slowly again. If you think of it, Trig, give me a call. Im in the book. It was good to see you. Trigger Vachon ignored this completely; he no longer seemed aware of Ralph at all, in fact. Was it sumpin we saw? he enquired of the ceiling. Or sumpin we did? Gosh! He was still looking up there and scratching the frizz of hair on the nape of his neck when Ralph turned left and, with a final wave, guided his Oldsmobile down Hospital Drive toward the low brick building which housed WomanCare. 5 Now that the sun was up, there was only a single security guard, and no demonstrators at all. Their absence made Ralph remember all the jungle epics hed seen as a young man, especially the part where the native drums would stop and the hero  Jon Hall or Frank Buck  would turn to his head bearer and say he didnt like it, it was too quiet. The guard took a clipboard from under his arm, squinted at Ralphs Olds, and wrote something down  the plate number, Ralph supposed. Then he came ambling toward them along the leafstrewn walk. At this hour of the morning, Ralph had his pick of the tenminute spaces across from the building. He parked, got out, then came around to open Loiss door, as he had been trained. How do you want to handle this? she asked as he took her hand and helped her out. Well probably have to be a little cute, but lets not get carried away. Right? Right. She ran a nervous, patting hand down the front of her coat as they crossed, then flashed a megawatt smile at the security guard. Good morning, officer. Morning. He glanced at his watch. I dont think theres anyone in there just yet but the receptionist and the cleaning woman. The receptionist is who we want to see, Lois said cheerfully. It was news to Ralph. Barbie Richards. Her aunt Simone has a message for her to pass along. Very important. Just say its Lois Chasse. The security guard thought this over, then nodded toward the door. That wont be necessary. You go on right ahead, maam. Lois said, smiling more brilliantly than ever,We wont be two shakes, will we, Norton? Shake and a half, more like it, Ralph agreed. As they approached the building and left the security man behind he leaned toward her and murmured Norton? Good God, Lois, Norton? It was the first name that came into my head, she replied. I guess I was thinking of The Honeymooners  Ralph and Norton, remember? Yes,he said. One of these days, Alice . . . pow! Right to da moon! Two of the three doors were locked, but the one on the far left opened and they went in. Ralph squeezed Loiss hand and felt her answering squeeze. He sensed a strong focusing of his concentration at the same moment, a narrowing and brightening of will and awareness. All around him the eye of the world seemed to first blink and then open wide. All around them both. The reception area was almost ostentatiously plain. The posters on the walls were mostly the sort foreign tourist agencies send out for the price of postage. The only exception was to the right of the receptionists desk a large blackandwhite photo of a young woman in a maternity smock. She was sitting on a barstool with a martini glass in one hand. WHEN YOURE PREGNANT, YOU NEVER DRINK ALONE, the copy beneath the photo read. There was no indication that in a room or rooms behind this pleasant, unremarkable business space, abortions were done on demand. Well, Ralph thought, what did you expect? An advertisement? A poster of aborted fetuses in a galvanized garbage pail between the one showing the Isle of Capri and the one of the Italian Alps? Get real, Ralph. To their left, a heavyset woman in her late forties or early fifties was washing the top of a glass coffeetable; there was a little cart filled with various cleaning implements parked beside her. She was buried in a dark blue aura speckled with unhealthylooking black dots which swarmed like queer insects over the places where her heart and lungs were, and she was looking at the newcomers with undisguised suspicion. Straight ahead, another woman was watching them carefully, although without the janitors suspicion. Ralph recognized her from the TV news report on the day of the dollthrowing incident. Simone Castonguays niece was darkhaired, about thirtyfive, and close to gorgeous even at this hour of the morning. She sat behind a severe gray metal desk that perfectly complemented her looks and within a forestgreen aura which looked much healthier than the cleaning womans. A cutglass vase filled with fall flowers stood on one corner of her desk. She smiled tentatively at them, showing no immediate recognition of Lois, then wiggled the tip of one finger at the clock on the wall. We dont open until eight, she said, and I dont think we could help you today in any case. The doctors are all off  I mean, Dr Hamilton is technically covering, but Im not even sure I could get to her. Theres a lot going on  this is a big day for us. I know, Lois said, and gave Ralphs hand another squeeze before letting it go. He heard her voice in his mind for a moment, very faint  like a bad overseas telephone conversation  but audible [Stay where you are, Ralph. Shes got] Lois sent him a picture which was even fainter than the thought, and gone almost as soon as Ralph glimpsed it. This sort of communication was a lot easier on the upper levels, but what he got was enough. The hand with which Barbara Richards had pointed at the clock was now resting easily on top of the desk, but the other was underneath it, where a small white button was mounted on one side of the kneehole. If either of them showed the slightest sign of odd behavior, she would push the button, summoning first their friend with the clipboard who was posted outside, and then most of the private security cops in Derry. And Im the one shes watching most carefully, because Im the man, Ralph thought. As Lois approached the reception desk, Ralph had an unsettling thought given the current atmosphere in Derry, that sort of sexdiscrimination  unconscious but very real  could get this pretty blackhaired woman hurt . . . maybe even killed. He remembered Leydecker telling him that one of Eds small cadre of cocrazies was a woman. Pasty complexion, hed said, lots of acne, glasses so thick they make her eyes look like poached eggs. Sandra something, her name was. And if Sandra Something had approached Ms Richardss desk as Lois was approaching it now, first opening her purse and then reaching into it, would the woman dressed in the forestgreen aura have pushed the hidden alarm button? You probably dont remember me, Barbara, Lois was saying, because I havent seen you much since you were in college, when you were going with the Sparkmeyer boy Oh my God, Lennie Sparkmeyer, I havent thought of him in years, Barbara Richards said, and gave an embarrassed little laugh. But I remember you. Lois Delancey. Aunt Simones poker buddy. Do you guys still play? Its Chasse, not Delancey, and we still do. Lois sounded delighted that Barbara had remembered her, and Ralph hoped she wouldnt lose track of what they were supposed to be doing here. He neednt have worried. Anyway, Simone sent me with a message for Gretchen Tillbury. She brought a piece of paper out of her purse. I wonder if you could give it to her? I doubt very much if Ill even talk to Gretchen on the phone today, Richards said. Shes as busy as the rest of us. Busier. Ill bet. Lois tinkled an amazingly genuine little laugh. I guess theres no real hurry about this, though. Gretchen has got a niece whos been granted a full scholarship at the University of New Hampshire. Have you ever noticed how much harder people try to get in touch when its bad news they have to pass on? Strange, isnt it? I suppose so, Richards said, reaching for the folded slip of paper. Anyway, Ill be happy to put this in Gretchens Lois seized her wrist, and a flash of gray light  so bright Ralph had to squint his eyes against it to keep from being dazzled  leaped up the womans arm, shoulder, and neck. It spun around her head in a brief halo, then disappeared. No, it didnt, Ralph thought. It didnt disappear, it sank in. What was that? the cleaning woman asked suspiciously. What was that bang? A car backfired, Ralph said. Thats all. Huh, she said. Goshdarn men think they know everything. Did you hear that, Barbie? Yes, Richards said. She sounded entirely normal to Ralph, and he knew that the cleaning woman would not be able to see the pearl gray mist which had now filled her eyes. I think hes right, but would you check with Peter outside? We cant be too careful. You goshdarn bet, the cleaning woman said. She set her Windex bottle down, crossed to the doors (sparing Ralph a final dark look which said Youre old but I just goshdarn bet you still have a penis down there somewhere), and went out. As soon as she was gone, Lois leaned over the desk. Barbara, my friend and I have to talk to Gretchen this morning, she said. Face to face. Shes not here. Shes at High Ridge. Tell us how to get there. Richardss gaze drifted to Ralph. He found her gray, pupilless eye sockets profoundly unsettling. It was like looking at a piece of classic statuary which had somehow come to life. Her dark green aura had paled considerably as well. No, he thought. Its been temporarily overlaid by Loiss gray, thats all. Lois glanced briefly around, followed Barbara Richardss gaze to Ralph, then turned back to her again. Yes, hes a man, but this time its okay. I promise you that. Neither one of us means any harm to Gretchen Tillbury or any of the women at High Ridge, but we have to talk to her, so tell us how to get there. She touched Richardss hand again, and more gray flashed up Richardss arm. Dont hurt her, Ralph said. I wont, but shes going to talk. She bent closer to Richards. Where is it? Come on, Barbara. You take Route 33 out of Derry, she said. The old Newport Road. After youve gone about ten miles, therell be a big red farmhouse on your left. There are two barns behind it. You take your first left after that The cleaning woman came back in. Peter didnt hear  She stopped abruptly, perhaps not liking the way Lois was bent over her friends desk, perhaps not liking the blank look in her friends eyes. Barbara? Are you all ri Be quiet, Ralph said in a low, friendly voice. Theyre talking. He took the cleaning womans arm just above the elbow, feeling a brief but powerful pulse of energy as he did so. For a moment all the colors in the world brightened further. The cleaning womans name was Rachel Anderson. Shed been married once, to a man whod beaten her hard and often until he disappeared eight years ago. Now she had a dog and her friends at WomanCare, and that was enough. Oh sure, Rachel Anderson said in a dreamy, thoughtful voice. Theyre talking, and Peter says everythings okay, so I guess I better just be quiet. What a good idea, Ralph said, still holding her upper arm lightly. Lois took a quick look around to confirm Ralph had the situation under control, then turned back to Barbara Richards once again. Take a left after the red farmhouse with the two barns. Okay, Ive got that. What then? Youll be on a dirt road. It goes up a long hill  about a mile and a half  and then ends at a white farmhouse. Thats High Ridge. Its got the most lovely view Ill bet, Lois said. Barbara, it was great to see you again. Now my friend and I Great to see you, too, Lois, Richards said in a distant, uninterested voice. Now my friend and I are going to leave. Everything is all right. Good. You wont need to remember any of this, Lois said. Absolutely not. Lois started to turn away, then turned back and plucked up the piece of paper she had taken from her purse. It had fallen to the desk when Lois grabbed the womans wrist. Why dont you go back to work, Rachel? Ralph asked the cleaning lady. He let go of her arm carefully, ready to grab it again at once if she showed signs of needing reinforcement. Yes, I better go back to work, she said, sounding much more friendly. I want to be done here by noon, so I can go out to High Ridge and help make signs. Lois joined Ralph as Rachel Anderson drifted back to her cart of cleaning supplies. Lois looked both amazed and a little shaky. Theyll be okay, wont they, Ralph? Yes, Im sure they will be. Are you all right? Not going to faint or anything like that? Im okay. Can you remember the directions? Of course  shes talking about the place that used to be Barretts Orchards. Carolyn and I used to go out there every fall to pick apples and buy cider until they sold out in the early eighties. To think thats High Ridge. Be amazed later, Ralph  I really am starving to death. All right. What was the note, by the way? The note about the niece with the full scholarship at UNH? She flashed him a little smile and handed it to him. It was her lightbill for the month of September. 6 Were you able to leave your message? the security guard asked as they came out and started down the walk. Yes, thanks, Lois said, turning on the megawatt smile again. She kept moving, though, and her hand was gripping Ralphs very tightly. He knew how she felt; he hadnt the slightest idea how long the suggestions they had given the two women would hold. Good, the guard said, following them to the end of the walk. This is gonna be a long, long day. Ill be glad when its over. You know how many security people were gonna have here from noon until midnight? A dozen. And thats just here. Theyre gonna have over forty at the Civic Center  thats in addition to the local cops. And it wont do a damned bit of good, Ralph thought. And what for? So one blonde with an attitude can run her mouth. He looked at Lois as if he expected her to accuse him of being a male sexist oinker, but Lois only renewed her smile.