"I do," he said. "I think my dreams mostly have to do with a cantaloupe I cut open when I was a kid, and what was inside. I told you about that, right?"
"Yes."
He could hear the smile in her voice and smiled in return, as if she were in the room with him. "Of course I did, probably more than once. Sometimes I think I'm losing it."
"Not at all. Next time we talk, it will be me calling you, after I dream he's in my closet with Brady Hartsfield's face. And you'll be the one to say you slept fine."
He knew it was true, because it had already happened.
"What you're feeling . . . and I'm feeling . . . that's normal. Reality is thin ice, but most people skate on it their whole lives and never fall through until the very end. We did fall through, but we helped each other out. We're still helping each other."
You're helping me more, Ralph thought. You may have your problems, Holly, but you're better at this than I am. Far better.
"And you're all right?" he asked her. "I mean, really?"
"Yes. Really. And you will be."
"Message received. Call me if you hear the ice cracking under your feet."
"Of course," she said. "And you'll do the same. It's how we go on."
From downstairs, Jeannie called, "Breakfast in ten, honey!"
"I've got to go," Ralph said. "Thanks for being there."
"You're welcome," she said. "Take care of yourself. Be safe. Wait for the dreams to end."
"I will."
"Goodbye, Ralph."
"Goodbye."
He paused and added, "I love you, Holly," but not until he ended the call. It was the way he always did it, knowing if he actually said it to her, she would be embarrassed and tongue-tied. He went into the bathroom to shave. He was in his middle age now, and the first speckles of gray had begun to show in the stubble he covered with Barbasol, but it was his face, the one his wife and son knew and loved. It would be his face forever, and that was good.
That was good.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Thanks are due to Russ Dorr, my able research assistant, and also to a father and son team, Warren and Daniel Silver, who helped me with the legal aspects of this story. They were uniquely qualified to do so, as Warren spent much of his life as a defense attorney in Maine, and his son, although now in private practice, has had a distinguished career as a prosecutor in New York. Thanks to Chris Lotts, who knew about el cuco and las luchadoras; thanks to my daughter, Naomi, who hunted down the children's book about "el cucuy." Thanks to Nan Graham, Susan Moldow, and Roz Lippel of Scribner; thanks to Philippa Pride at Hodder & Stoughton. Special thanks to Katherine "Katie" Monaghan, who read the first hundred or so pages of this story on an airplane, while we were on tour, and wanted more. A writer of fiction never hears more encouraging words than those.
Thanks, as always, to my wife. I love you, Tabby.
A final word, this about the setting. Oklahoma is a wonderful state, and I met wonderful people there. Some of those wonderful people will say I got a lot wrong, and probably I did; you have to be in a place for years before you get the flavor just right. I did the best I could. For the rest, you must forgive me. Flint City and Cap City are, of course, fictional.
Stephen King
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
(c) SHANE LEONARD
STEPHEN KING is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes Sleeping Beauties (co-written with his son Owen King); the short story collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams; the Bill Hodges Trilogy--End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and now an AT&T Audience Network original television series); Doctor Sleep; and Under the Dome. His novel 11/22/63--a Hulu original television series event--was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower and It are the basis for major motion pictures. He is the recipient of the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Scribner hardcover edition May 2018
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Interior design by Erich Hobbing Jacket design and artwork by Will Staehle/Unusual Corporation Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-5011-8098-9
ISBN 978-1-5011-8101-6 (ebook)
Stephen King, The Outsider-Stephen King
(Series: # )
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