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THE REVELATIONS OF BECKA PAULSON ОТКРОВЕНИЯ БЕККИ ПОЛСОН 1984
Позднее модифицирован для одной из сцен романа " Томминокеры " ("The Tommyknocke Tommyknockers"! rs"! #
%$What happened was simple enough - at least, at the start. What happened was that Rebecca Paulson shot herself in the head with her husband Joe's .22-caliber pistol. This occurred during her annual spring cleaning, which took place this ear !as it did most ears" around the middle of June. '#ecka had a wa of falling behind in such things. $he was standing on a short stepladder and rummaging through the accumulated %unk on the high shelf in the downstairs hall closet while the Paulson cat, a big brindle tom named &ie (elson, sat in the li)ing-ro li)ing-room om doorwa doorwa, , watchi watching ng her. *rom behind behind &ie &ie came came the an+iou an+ious s )oices )oices of nother World, blaring out of the Paulsons' big old enith T - which would later become something much more than a T. '#ecka pulled stuff down and e+amined it, hoping for something that was still good, but not reall e+pecting to find such a thing. There were four or fi)e knitted winter caps, all moth-eaten and unra)eling. $he tossed them behind her onto the hall floor. /ere was a Reader's 0igest 1ondensed #ook from the summer of 345, featuring Run $ilent, Run 0eep and /ere's 6oggle. Water damage had swelled it to the sie of a 7anhattan 7anhattan telephone book. $he tossed it behind her. h8 /ere was an umbrella that looked sal)ageable ... and a bo+ with something in it. 9t was a shoebo+. Whate)er was inside was hea). When she tilted the bo+, it shifted. $he took the lid off, also tossing this behind her !it almost hit &ie (elson, who decided to split the scene". 9nside the bo+ was a gun with a long barrel and imitation wood-grip handles. :&h,: she said. :That.: :That.: $he took it out of the bo+, not noticing noticing that it was cocked, and turned it around to look into the small bead ee of the mule, belie)ing that if there was a bullet in there she would see it. $he remembered the gun. ;ntil fi)e ears ago, Joe had been a member of 0err
cocked for ears, as if waiting for her to come along. $he sat down hard in the hallwa and when she did the hammer of the pistol snapped forward. There was a flat, unimportant bang not much louder than a bab firecracker in a tin cup, and a .22 Winchester short entered '#ecka Paulson's brain %ust abo)e the left ee. 9t made a small black hole what was the faint blue of %ust-bloomed irises around the edges. С!"#$%&'()' ) !*!+,&'()' -./0 P12314-5 67768 http://king.bestlibrary.ru
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/er head thumped back against the wall, and a trickle of blood ran from the hole into her left eebrow. The gun, with a tin thread of white smoke rising from its mule, fell into her lap. /er hands drummed lightl up and down on the floor for a period of about fi)e seconds, her right leg fle+ed, then shot straight out. /er loafer flew across the hall and hit the far wall. /er ees remained open for the ne+t thirt minutes, the pupils dilating and constricting, dilating and constricting. &ie (elson came to the li)ing-room door, miaowed at her, and then began washing himself. $he was putting supper on the table that night before Joe noticed the #and-id o)er her ee. /e had been home for an hour and a half, but %ust latel he didn't notice much at all around the house he seemed preoccupied with something, far awa from her a lot of the time. This didn't bother her as much as it might ha)e once - at least he wasn't alwas after her to let him put his manthing into her ladplace. :What'd ou do to our head?: he asked as she put a bowl of beans and a plate of red hot dogs on the table. $he touched the #and-id )aguel. =es - what e+actl had she done to her head? $he couldn't reall remember. The whole middle of the da had a funn dark place in it, like an inkstain. $he remembered feeding Joe his breakfast and standing on the porch as he headed off to the post office in his Wagoneer - that much was crstal clear. $he remembered doing the white load in the new $ears washer while Wheel of *ortune blared from the T. That was also clear. Then the inkstain began. $he remembered putting in the colors and starting the cold ccle. $he had the faintest, )aguest recollection of putting a couple of $wanson's /ungar man froen dinners in the o)en for herself - '#ecka Paulson was a heft eater - but after that there was nothing. (ot until she had awakened sitting on the li)ing-room couch. $he had changed from slacks and her flowed smock into a dress and high heel> she had put her hair in braids. There was something hea) in her lap and on her shoulders and her forehead tickled. 9t was &ie (elson. &ie was standing with his hind legs in her crotch and his forepaws on her shoulders. /e was busil licking blood off her forehead and out of her eebrow. $he swotted &ie awa from her lap and then looked at the clock. Joe would be home in an hour and she hadn't e)en started dinner. Then she had touched her head, which throbbed )aguel. :'#ecka?: :What?: $he sat down at her place and began to spoon beans onto her plate. :9 asked ou what ou did to our head?: :#umped it,: she said @ although, when she went down to the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror, it hadn't looked like a bump> it had looked like a hole. :9 %ust bumped it.: :&h,: he said, losing interest. /e opened the new issue of $ports 9llustrated which had come that da and immediatel fell into a dadream. 9n it he was running his hands slowl o)er the bod of (anc oss - an acti)it he had been indulging in the last si+ weeks or so. 6od bless the ;nited $tates Postal uthorit for sending (anc oss from *almouth to /a)en, that was all he could sa. *almouth's loss was Joe Paulson's gain. /e had whole das when he was Auite sure he had died and gone to hea)en, and his pecker hadn't been so frisk since he was nineteen and touring West 6erman with the ;.$. rm. 9t would ha)e taken more than a #and-id on his wife's forehead to engage his full attention. '#ecka helped herself to three hot dogs, paused to debate a moment, and then added a fourth. $he doused the dogs and the beans with ketchup and then stirred e)erthing together. The result looked a bit like the aftermath of a bad motorccle accident. $he poured herself a glass of grape Bool-id from the pitcher on the table !Joe had a beer" and then touched the #and-id with the tips of her fingers - she had been doing that e)er since she put it on. (othing but a cool plastic strip. That was oka @ but she could feel the circular indentation beneath. The hole. That wasn't so oka. :Just bumped it,: she murmured again, as if saing would make it so. Joe didn't look up and '#ecka began to eat. /asn't hurt m appetite an, whate)er it was, she thought. (ot that much e)er does - probabl nothing e)er will. When the sa on the radio that all those missiles are fling and it's the end of the world. 9'll probabl go right on eating until one of those rockets lands on /a)en. $he cut herself a piece of bread from the homemade loaf and began mopping up bean %uice with it. $eeing that @ that mark on her forehead had unner)ed her at the time, unner)ed her plent. (o sense kidding about that, %ust as there was no sense kidding that it was %ust a mark, like a bruise. nd in case anone e)er wanted to know, '#ecka thought, she would tell them that looking into the mirror and seeing that ou had an e+tra hole in our head wasn't one of life's cheeriest e+periences. =our head, after all, was where our brains were. nd as for what she had done ne+t $he tried to sh awa from that, but it was too late. Too late, '#ecka, a )oice tolled in her mind - it sounded like her dead father's )oice. $he had stared at the hole, stared at it and stared at it, and then she had pulled open the drawer to the left of the sink and had pawed through her few meager items of makeup with hands that С!"#$%&'()' ) !*!+,&'()' -./0 P12314-5 67768 http://king.bestlibrary.ru
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didn't seem to belong to her. $he took out her eebrow pencil and then looked into the mirror again. $he raised the hand holding the eebrow pencil with the blunt end towards her, and slowl began to push it into the hole in her forehead. (o, she moaned to herself, stop it, '#ecka, ou don't want to do this #ut apparentl part of her did, because she went right on doing it. There was no pain and the eebrow pencil was a perfect fit. $he pushed it in an inch, then two, then three. $he looked at herself in the mirror, a woman in a flowered dress who had a pencil sticking out of her head. $he pushed it in a fourth inch. (ot much left, '#ecka, be careful, wouldn't want to lose it in there, 9'd rattle when ou turned o)er in the night, wake up Joe $he tittered hstericall. *i)e inches in and the blunt end of the eebrow pencil had finall encountered resistance. 9t was hard, but a gentle push also communicated a feeling of sponginess. t the same moment the whole world turned a brilliant, momentar green and an interlacing of memories %igged through her mind sledding at four in her older brother's snowsuit, washing high school blackboards, a '43 9mpala her ;ncle #ill had owned, the smell of cut ha. $he pulled the eebrow pencil out of her head, shocked back to herself, terrified that blood would come gushing out of the hole. #ut no blood came, nor was there an blood on the shin surface of the eebrow pencil. #lood or @ or @ #ut she would not think of that. $he threw the pencil back into the drawer and slammed the draw shut. /er first impulse, to co)er the hole, came back, stronger than e)er. $he swung the mirror awa from the medicine cabinet and grabbed the tin bo+ of #and-ids. 9t fell from her trembling fingers and cluttered into the basin. '#ecka had cried out at the sound and then told herself to stop it, %ust stop it. 1o)er it up, make it gone. That was the thing to do> that was the ticket. (e)er mind the eebrow pencil, %ust forget that - she had none of the signs of brain in%ur she had seen on the afternoon stories and 7arcus Welb, 7.0., that was the important thing. $he was all right. s for the eebrow pencil, she would %ust forget that part. nd so she had, at least until now. $he looked at her half-eaten dinner and realied with a sort of dull humor that she had been wrong about her appetite - she couldn't eat another bite. $he took her plate o)er to the garbage and scrapped what was left into the can, while &ie wound restlessl around her ankles. Joe didn't look up from his magaine. 9n his mind, (anc oss was asking him again if that tongue of his was as long as it looked. $he woke up in the middle of the night from some confusing dream in which all the clocks in the house had been talking in her father's )oice. Joe la beside her, flat on his back in his bo+er shorts, snoring. /er hand went to the #and-id. The hole didn't hurt, didn't e+actl throb, but it itched. $he rubbed at it gentl, afraid of another of those daling green flashes. (one came. $he rolled o)er on her side and though@ =ou got to go to the doctor, '#ecka. =ou got to get that seen to. 9 don't know what ou did, but (o, she answered herself. (o doctor. $he rolled to her other side, thinking she would be awake for hours now, wondering, asking herself frightened Auestions. 9nstead, she was asleep again in moments. 9n the morning the hole under the #and-id hardl itched at all, and that made it easier not to think about. $he made Joe his breakfast and saw him off to work. $he finished washing the dishes and took out the garbage. The kept it in a little shed beside the house that Joe had built, a structure not much bigger than a doghouse. =ou had to lock it up or the coons came out of the woods and made a mess. $he stepped in, wrinkling her nose at the smell, and put the green bag down with the others. innie would be b in *rida or $aturda and then she would gi)e the shed a good airing. s she was backing out, she saw a bag that hadn't been tied up like the others. cur)ed handle, like the handle of a cane protruded from the top. 1urious, she pulled it out and saw it was an umbrella. number of moth-eaten, unra)eling hats came out with the umbrella. dull warning sound in her head. *or a moment she could almost see through the inkstain to what was behind it, to what had happened to her !bottom it's in the bottom something hea) something in a bo+ what Joe don't remember won't" esterda. #ut did she want to know? (o. $he didn't. $he wanted to forget. $he backed out of the little shed and rebolted the door with hands that trembled the slightest bit. week later !she still changed the band-id each morning, but the wound was closing up - she could see the pink new tissue filling it when she shone Joe's flashlight into it and peered into the С!"#$%&'()' ) !*!+,&'()' -./0 P12314-5 67768 http://king.bestlibrary.ru
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bathroom mirror" '#ecka found out what half of ha)e alread either knew or surmised - that Joe was cheating on her. Jesus told her. 9n the last three das or so, Jesus had told her the most amaing, terrible, distressing things imaginable. The sickened her, the destroed her sleep, the were destroing her sanit @ but were the wonderful? Weren't the %ust8 nd would she stop listening, simpl tip Jesus o)er on /is face, perhaps scream at /im to shut up? bsolutel not. *or one thing, he was the $a)ior. *or another thing, there was a grisl sort of compulsion in knowing the things Jesus told her. Jesus was on top of the Paulsons' enith tele)ision and /e had been in that same spot for %ust about twent ears. #efore resting atop the enith, /e had rested atop two R1s !Joe Paulson had alwas bought merican". This was a beautiful C-0 picture of Jesus that Rebecca's sister, who li)ed in Portsmouth, had sent her. Jesus was dressed in a simple white robe, and /e was holding a $hepard's staff. #ecause the picture had been created !'#ecka considered :made: much too mundane a word for a likeness which seemed so real ou could almost stick our hand into it" before the #eatles and the changes the had wreaked on male hairstles, /is hair was not too long, and perfectl neat. The 1hrist on '#ecka Paulson's T combed /is hair a little bit like at about the same time the pawings had stopped the perfume smells had begun, old 1harlie
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e+actl what was going on, it became impossible to ignore. $he knew that something would ha)e to be done. The picture first spoke at %ust past three in the afternoon on Thursda. This was eight das after shooting herself in the head and about four das after her resolution to forget it was a hole and not %ust a mark had begun to take effect. '#ecka was coming back into the li)ing room from the kitchen with a little snack !half a coffeecake and a beer stein filled with Bool-id" to watch 6eneral /ospital. $he no longer reall belie)ed that Euke would e)er find Eaura, but she could not Auite find it in her heart to completel gi)e up hope. $he was bending down to turn on the enith when Jesus said, :'#ecka, Joe is putting the boots to that /usse down at the pee-oh %ust about e)er lunch hour and sometimes after punching out time in the afternoon. &nce he was so rand he dro)e it to her while he was supposed to be helping her sort the mail. nd do ou know what? $he ne)er e)en said 't least wait until 9 get the first-class into the bo+es.' : '#ecka screamed and spilled her Bool-id down the front of the T. 9t was a wonder, she thought later, when she was able to think at all, that the picture tube didn't blow. /er coffeecake went on the rug. :nd that's not all,: Jesus told her. /e walked halfwa across the picture, /is robe fluttering around /is ankles, and sat down on a rock that %utted out of the ground. /e held /is staff between his knees and looked at her griml. :There's a lot going on in /a)en. Wh, ou wouldn't belie)e the half of it.: '#ecka screamed again and fell on her knees. &ne of them landed sAuarel on her coffeecake and sAuirted raspberr filling into the face of &ie (elson, who had crept into the li)ing room to see what was going on. :7 Eord8 7 Eord8: '#ecka shrieked. &ie ran, hissing, for the kitchen, where he crawled under the sto)e with red goo dripping from his whiskers. /e staed under there the rest of the da. :Well, none of the Paulsons was e)er an good,: Jesus said. sheep wandered towards /im and /e whacked it awa, using /is staff with an absentminded impatience that reminded '#ecka, e)en in her current froen state, of her long-dead father. The sheep went, rippling slightl through the C-0 effect. 9t disappeared from the picture, actual seeming to cur)e as it went off the edge @ but that was %ust an optical illusion, she felt sure. :(o good at all, :Jesus went on. :Joe's granddad was a whoremaster of the purest sense, as ou well know, '#ecka. $pent his whole life pecker-led. nd when he came up here, do ou know what we said? '(o room8' that's what we said.: Jesus leaned forward, still holding /is staff. :'6o see 7r. $plitfoot down below,' we said. '=ou'll find our ha)enhome, all right. #ut ou ma find ou new landlord a hard taskmaster,' we said.: 9ncredibl, Jesus winked at her @ and that was when '#ecka fled, shrieking, from the house. $he stopped in the backard, panting, her hair, a mous blond that was reall not much of an color at all, hanging in her face. /er heart was beating so fast in her chest that it frightened her. (o one had heard her shriekings and carrings-on, thank the Eord> she and Joe li)ed far out on the (ista Road, and their nearest neighbors were the #rodsks were half a mile awa. 9f anone had heard her, the would ha)e thought there was a crawoman down at Joe and '#ecka Paulson's. Well there is a crawoman at the Paulsons', isn't there? she thought. 9f ou reall think that picture of Jesus started to talk to ou, wh, ou reall must be cra. 0add'd beat ou three shades of blue for thinking such a thing - one shade for ling, another shade for belie)ing the lie, and a third for raising our )oice. '#ecka, ou are cra. Pictures don't talk. (o @ and it didn't, another )oice spoke up suddenl. That )oice came out of our own head, '#ecka. 9 don't know how it could be @ how ou could know such things @ but that's what happened. 7abe it had something to do with what happened to ou last week, or mabe not, but ou made that picture of Jesus talk our own self. 9t didn't reall no more than that little rubber Topo 6igio mouse on the
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:(o,: '#ecka whimpered. :(o, 9 ain't heard an )oices in m head.: $he stood b her clothesline in the hot backard, looking blankl off toward the woods on the other side of the (ista Road, blue-gra-ha in the heat. $he wrung her hands in front of her and begun to weep. :9 ain't no heard no )oices in m head.: 1ra, her dead father's implacable )oice replied. 1ra with the heat. =ou come on o)er here, '#ecka #ouchard, 9'm gonna beat ou three shades of blister-blue for that cra talk. :9 ain't heard no )oices in m head,: '#ecka moaned. :That picture reall did talk, 9 swear, 9 can't do )entriloAuism8: #etter belie)e the picture. 9f it was the hole, it was a brain tumor, sure. 9f it was the picture, it was a miracle. 7iracles came from 6od. 7iracles came from &utside. miracle could dri)e ou cra - and the dear 6od knew she felt like she was going cra now - but it didn't mean ou were cra, or that our brains were scrambled. s for belie)ing that ou could hear other people's thoughts @ that was %ust cra. '#ecka looked down at her legs and saw blood gushing from her left knee. $he shrieked again and ran back into the house to call the doctor, 7<09F, somebod. $he was in the li)ing room again, pawing at the dial with the phone to her ear, when Jesus said@ :That's raspberr filling from our coffeecake, '#ecka. Wh don't ou %ust rela+, before ou ha)e a heart attack?: $he looked at the T, the telephone recei)er falling to the table with a clunk. Jesus was still sitting on the rock outcropping. 9t looked as though /e had crossed /is legs. 9t was reall surprising how much /e looked like her own father @ onl /e didn't seem forbidding, read to be hitting angr at a moment's notice. /e was looking at her with a kind of e+asperated patience. :Tr it and see if 9'm not right,: Jesus said. $he touched her knee gentl, wincing, e+pecting pain. There was none. $he saw the seeds in the red stuff and rela+ed. $he licked the raspberr filling off her fingers. :lso,: Jesus said, :ou ha)e got to get these ideas about hearing )oices and going cra out of our head. 9t's %ust 7e. nd 9 can talk to anone 9 want to, an wa 9 want to.: :#ecause ou're the $a)ior,: '#ecka whispered. :That's right,: Jesus said, and looked down. #elow /im, a couple of animated salad bowls were dancing in appreciation of the hidden alle Ranch 0ressing which the were about to recei)e. :nd 9'd like ou to please turn that crap off, if ou don't mind. We don't need that thing running. lso, it makes 7 feet tingle.: '#ecka approached the T and turned it off. :7 Eord,: she whispered. (ow it was $unda, Jul Gth. Joe was ling fast asleep out in the backard hammock with &ie ling limpl across him ample stomach like a black and white fur stole. $he stood in the li)ing room, holding the curtain back with her left hand and looking out at Joe. $leeping in the hammock, dreaming of The /uss, no doubt - dreaming of throwing her down in a great big pile of catalogs from 1arroll Reed and fourth-class %unk mail and then - how would Joe and his pigg poker-buddies out it? - :putting the boots to her.: $he was holding the curtain with her left hand because she had a handful of sAuare nine-)olt batteries in her right. $he had bought them esterda down at the town hardware store. (ow she let the curtain drop and took the batteries into the kitchen, where she was assembling a little something on the counter. Jesus had told her how to make it. $he told Jesus she couldn't build things. Jesus told her not to be a cussed fool. 9f she could follow a recipe, she could build this little gadget. $he was delighted to find that Jesus was absolutel right. 9t was not onl eas, it was fun. lot more fun than cooking, certainl> she had ne)er reall had the knack for that. /er cakes almost alwas fell and her breads almost ne)er rose. $he had begun this little thing esterda, working with the toaster, the motor from her old /amilton-#each blender, and a funn board full of electronic things which had come from the back of an old radio in the shed. $he thought she would be done long before Joe woke up and came in to watch the Red $o+ on T at two o'clock. ctuall, it was funn how man ideas she'd had in the last few das. $ome Jesus had told her about> others %ust seemed to come to her at odd moments. /er sewing machine, for instance - she'd alwas wanted one of those attachments that made the igag stitches, but Joe had told her she would ha)e to wait until he could afford to bu her a new machine !and that would probabl be along about the twelfth of (e)er, if she knew Joe". Just four das ago she had seen how, if she %ust mo)ed the button stitcher and added a second needle where it had been at an angle of fort-fi)e degrees to the first needle, she could make all the igags she wanted. ll it took was a screwdri)er - e)en a dumm like her could use one of those - and it worked %ust as well as ou could want. $he saw that the camshaft would probabl warp out of true before long because of the weight differential, but there were was to fi+ that, too, when it С!"#$%&'()' ) !*!+,&'()' -./0 P12314-5 67768 http://king.bestlibrary.ru
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happened. Then there was the ou can't let :a: be ero or that spoils it. #ut otherwise $he had lain awake a while longer, considering this, and then had fallen asleep, unaware that she had %ust rein)ented the Auadratic eAuation, and polnomials, and the concept of factoring. 9deas. uite a few of them %ust latel. '#ecka picked up Joe's little blowtorch and lit it deftl with a kitchen match. $he would ha)e laughed last month if ou'd told her she would e)er be working with something like this. #ut it was eas. Jesus had told her e+actl how to solder the wires to the electronics board from the old radio. 9t was %ust like fi+ing up the )acuum cleaner, onl this idea was e)en better. Jesus had told her a lot of other things in the last three das or so. The had murdered her sleep !and what little sleep she had gotton was nightmare-dri)en", the had made her afraid to show her face in the )illage itself !9'll alwas know when ou')e done something wrong, '#ecka, her father had told her, because our face %ust can't keep a secret", the had made her lose her appetite. Joe, totall bound up in his work, the Red $o+, and his /uss, noticed none of these tings @ although he had noticed the other night as the watched tele)ision that '#ecka was gnawing her fingernails, something she had ne)er done before - it was, in fact, one of the man things she nagged him about. #ut she was doing it now, all right> the were bitten right down to the Auick. Joe Paulson considered this for all of twel)e seconds before looking back at the $on T and losing himself in dreams of (anc oss's billow white breasts. /ere were %ust a few of the afternoon stories Jesus had told her which had caused '#ecka to sleep poorl and to begin biting her fingernails at the ad)anced age of fort-fi)e@ 9n 3DC, 7oss /arlingen, one of Joe's poker buddies, had murdered his father. The had been hunting deer up in 6reen)ille and it had supposedl been one of those tragic accidents, but the shooting of bel /arlingen had been no accident. 7oss simpl la up behind a fallen tree with his rifle and waited until his father splashed towards him across a small stream about fift ards down the hill from where 7oss was. 7oss shot his father carefull and deliberatel through the head. 7oss thought he had killed his father for mone. /is !7oss's" business, #ig 0itch 1onstruction, had two notes falling due with two different banks, and neither bank would e+tend because of the other. 7oss went to bel, but bel refused to help, although he could afford to. $o 7oss shot his father and inherited a lot of mone as soon as the count coroner handed down his )erdict of death b misad)enture. The note was paid and 7oss /arlingen reall belie)ed !e+cept perhaps in his deepest dreams" that he had committed the murder for gain. The real moti)e had been something else. *ar in the past, when 7oss was ten and his little brother
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awake in the dark anmore, ling awake in mortal terror and watching the doorwa for the shadow of his father. /e had absolutel no recollection of ling with his mouth pressed against his forearm, hot salt tears of shame and rage sAueeing out of his ees and coursing down his face to his mouth as bel /arlingen slathered lard onto his cock and then slid it up his son's back door with a grunt and a sigh. 9t had all made so little impression on 7oss that he could not remember biting his arm until it bled to keep from cring out, and he certainl could not remember
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to the enith's &( button. picture popped up on the T. 9t showed Joe and (anc oss screwing on the post office floor in a litter of catalogues and 1ongressional newsletters and sweepstakes announcements from Publishers' 1learing /ouse. :(o8: '#ecka screamed, and the picture changed. (ow she saw 7oss /arlingen behind a fallen pine, slightl down the barrel of a .CG-.CG. the picture changed and she saw 0arla 6aines and her bofriend doing the horiontal bop in 0arla's upstairs bedroom while Rick $pringfield stared at them from the wall. Joe Paulson's clothes burst into flames. The li)ing room was filled with the hot smell of cooking beer. moment later, the C-0 picture of Jesus e+ploded. :(o8: '#ecka shrieked, suddenl understanding that it had been her all along, her, her, her, she had thought e)erthing up, she had read their thoughts, somehow read their thoughts, it had been the hole in her head and it had done something to her mind - had suped it up somehow. The picture on the T changed again and she saw herself backing down the stepladder with the .22 pistol in her hand, pointed toward her - she looked like a woman bent on suicide rather than on cleaning. /er husband was turning black before her )er ees. $he ran to him, seied his shredded, wet hand and @ and was herself gal)anied b electricit. $he was no more able to let go than #rer Rabbit had been after he slapped the tar bab for insolence. Jesus oh Jesus, she thought as the current slammed into her, dri)ing her up on her toes. nd a mad, cackling )oice, the )oice of her father, rode in her brain@ *ooled ou, '#ecka8 *ooled ou, didn't 9? *ooled ou good8 The back of the tele)ision, which she had screwed back on after she had finished with her alterations !on the off-chance that Joe might look back there", e+ploded backward in a might blue flash of light. Joe and '#ecka Paulson tumbled to the carpet. Joe was alread dead. nd b the time the smouldering wallpaper behind the T had ignited the, '#ecka was dead, too.
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