- •It's a dream, he told himself. If you keep telling yourself that, you'll be able to operate.
- •It was useless, of course. Even more useless, he was waving his arms in big go-away gestures.
- •Interdiction? Interdiction? What kind of Fedspeak was that?
- •Xxxx70yyyy
- •Very low, Rose said: 'Barbie, you're scaring me.'
- •I'll have to Xerox the paper. Wliich means seven hundred and fifty copies, max.
- •Xet me finish. Your side of 119 is totally fubar.That means—'
- •It wasn't much, but Barbie was encouraged. 'Stand easy, tellas; stand easy and let's talk this over.'
- •I'm a little scared.
- •In the other bed Judy stirred and spoke. 'Mumma? Is it brefkus? Did I miss the bus?'
- •If it was petit mal, it would stop on its own.
- •In a moment she still wasn't completely there, although her eyes shifted and he knew she was seeing and hearing him now. 'Stop Halloween, Daddy! You have to stop Halloween!'
- •It was time for a demonstration, which he of course would lead.
- •I must see you tonight. God has spoken to me. Now I must speak to you before I speak to the town. Please reply. Richie Killian will carry your message to me.
- •I knew all that high school shotputting would catch up with me someday, he thought.
- •It's all those r-rated movies they watch now, Big Jim thought. Rubbing
- •It was the boy who answered. He spoke while still examining the headlamp. 'I want my mother. And I want my breffus.'
- •It was a bathroom, and it 'was empty. There was, however, a picture of a very Caucasian Jesus on the wall.
- •In Washington, Colonel Cox said:'Roger that, Major. Good luck. Blast the bastard.'
- •Interesting.
- •I like it because it is bitter, she thought. And because it is my heart.
- •Instead of answering the question, Barbie said,'Selectman Rennie could be a dangerous man to press right about now.'
- •It was exactly what she t'ought, and Julia had told him so. She had also planted a kiss on his cheek. 'I owe you for this, Rommie.'
- •It's because he scares you a little, he thought. That's all it is.
- •It's one possibility. It's also possible that some earthly supervillain set it up. A real-world Lex Luthor. Or it could be the work of a renegade country, like North Korea.'
- •It was entirely possible he was the last thing on Brenda's mind, but his radar was pinging and he watched her closely.
- •I'll get up in a minute, she told herself. Get the last bottle of Poland Spring out of the fridge and wash that foul taste out of my mou…
- •II have no idea what you're talking about. I think your grief…' He sighed, spread his blunt-fingered hands.'Come inside.We'll discuss this and I'll set your mind at rest.'
- •It was impossible for Boxer to draw himself up any further, and yet somehow he did. His face was so red it was almost purple. 'Then take me to court! What court? Case closed! Ha!'
- •3 P.M. Julia—
- •If the Dome wasn't bad enough, weird enough, there's the Selectman from Hell.
- •If he was in the storage building, though… that might be a problem.
- •It was a lot to think about, and thinking was easier these days when he was smoked up.
- •In the background she heard the swish of a car, and Benny, faint but clear, hailing someone: 'Dr Rusty! Yo, dude, whoa!'
- •It was Ginny Tomlinson, walking slowly up the hallway toward them.
- •INever mind. I'll be back as soon as I can, Hari. Keep 'em flying.'
- •It isn't a migraine making him do that. At least not any migraine I ever heard of.
- •It all seemed so long ago.
- •If was. She slipped in, a pale and limping ghost.
- •I'm all right. It's just overwork. Nothing seven hours of sleep won't cure.
- •I no longer want this job. No. Not even a little bit.
- •I have gone to the hospital. There has been a shooting there.
- •It had to begin with letting Barbie know he wasn't alone. Then he could plan his own actions accordingly.
- •If you were here, Colonel Cox, I'd give you a taste of what I gave Coggins. With God as my witness, I would.
- •It: was a joke.
- •Isn 't it more likely that the counter's malfunctioning? You could be giving yourself a lethal dose of gamma rays at this very second. The damn thing's a cold war relic.
- •Instead he approached the box again and dropped to his knees before it, a posture too much like worship for his liking.
- •I 'Oh my goodness, Ginny's in love,' Rusty said, grinning.
- •It was true. Andi was still pale, and much too thin, but the dark circles under her eyes had faded a little, and the eyes themselves had a new spark. 'Thanks for saying so.'
- •It now read c fee and doare ot free.
- •It took a moment for Carter to get it. 'She was just having a bunch of dope-ass hallucinations, wasn't she?'
- •I follow it.'
- •It was Chief Randolph, trudging up the hill and mopping his bright red face with a handkerchief.
- •If he sees us, I'm going to run him down, she thought. The idea brought a certain perverse calm.
- •It's an eighth of a mile at most, but Henry doesn't argue. 'Put her in the front seat of my car.'
- •I'm not your son, your son is dead. Carter thought… but didn't say. He went into the bunkrooni to see if there were any candybars on the shelves in there.
- •I'm crazy, he thought. It can't be. No one could have lived through that firestorm.
- •I pushed the wrong button, that's all.
- •It was almost as dark in the ruins of the Town Hall conference room as in the shelter, but with one big difference: the air was worthless.
- •I did. On purpose. Who the hell wants to turn forty? What is it?'
- •II hear you. Give it your best shot.'
- •I don't know, Barbie thought. J don't know what's happening.
- •Very young; barely out of the nursery, in fact. It speaks.
It was Ginny Tomlinson, walking slowly up the hallway toward them.
'You shouldn't be on your feet,' Rusty said.
'Probably not,' Ginny agreed, and sat down on Gina's other side with a sigh of relief. Her taped nose and the adhesive strips running beneath her eyes made her look like a hockey goalie after a difficult game.'But I'm back on duty, just the same.'
'Maybe tomorrow—' Rusty began.
'No, now.' She took Gina's hand. 'And so are you, hon. Back in nursing school, this tough old RN had a saying: "You can quit when the blood dries and the rodeo's over.'"
'What if I make a mistake?' Gina whispered.
'Everybody does. The trick is to make as few as possible. And I'll help you.You and Harriet both. So what do you say?'
Gina gazed doubtfully at Ginny's swollen face, the damage accented by an old pair of spectacles Ginny had found somewhere. 'Are you sure you're up to it, Ms Tomlinson?'
'You help me, I help you. Ginny and Gina, the Fighting Females.' She raised her fist. Managing a little smile, Gina tapped Ginny's knuckles with her own.
'That's all very hot shit and rah-rah,' Rusty said,'but if you start to feel faint, find a bed and lie down for a while. Orders from Dr Rusty'
Ginny winced as the smile her lips were trying on pulled at the wings of her nose. 'Never mind a bed, I'll just hosey Ron Haskell's old couch in the lounge.'
Rusty s cell phone rang. He waved the women away. They talked as they went, Gina with an arm around Ginny's waist.
'Hello, this is Eric,' he said.
'This is Eric's wife,' a subdued voice said. 'She called to apologize to Eric'
Rusty walked into a vacant examining room and closed the door. 'No apology necessary,' he said… although he wasn't sure that was true. 'Heat of the moment. Have they let him go?' This seemed to him a perfectly reasonable question, given the Barbie he was coming to know.
.'I'd rather not discuss it on the phone. Can you come to the house, honey? Please? We need to talk.'
Rusty supposed he could, actually. He'd had one critical patient, whoj had simplified his professional life considerably by dying. And while he was relieved to be on speaking terms again with the woman he loved, he didn't like the new caution he heard in her voice.
'I can,' he said, 'but not for long. Ginny's back on her feet, but if I don't monitor her, she'll overdo. Dinner?'
'Yes.' She sounded relieved. Rusty was glad. 'I'll thaw some of the thicken soup. We better eat as much of the frozen stuff as we can jwhile "we've still got the power to keep it good.'
'One thing. Do you still think Barbie's guilty? Never mind what the rest of them think, do you?'
A long pause. Then she said,'We'll talk when you get here.'And with that, she was gone.
Rusty was leaning with his butt propped against the examination table. He held the phone in his hand for a moment, then pressed the END button. There were many things he wasn't sure of just now—he felt like a man swimming in a sea of perplexity—but he felt sure of one thing: his wife thought somebody might be listening. But who? The Army? Homeland Security?
Big Jim Rennie?
'Ridiculous,' Rusty said to the empty room. Then he went to find Twitch and tell him he was leaving the hospital for a little while.
9
Twitch agreed to keep an eye on Ginny and make sure she didn't overdo, but there was a quid pro quo: Rusty had to examine Henrietta Clavard, who had been injured during the supermarket melee, before leaving.
'What's wrong with her?' Rusty asked, fearing the worst. Henrietta was strong and fit for an old lady, but eighty-four was eighty-four.
'She says, and I quote, "One of those worthless Mercier sisters broke my goddam ass." She thinks Carla Mercier. Who's Venziano now.'
'Right,' Rusty said, then murmured, apropos nothing: 'It's a small town, and we all support the team. So is it?'
'Is it what, sensei?'
'Broken.'
'I don't know. She won't show it to me. She says, and I also quote, "I will only expose my smithyriddles to a professional eye."'
They burst out laughing, trying to stifle the sounds.
From beyond the closed door, an old lady's cracked and dolorous voice said: 'It's my ass that's broke, not my ears. I hear that.'
Rusty and Twitch laughed harder. Twitch had gone an alarming shade of red.
From behind the door, Henrietta said: 'If it was your ass, my buddies, you'd be laughing on the other side of your faces.'
Rusty went in, still smiling. 'I'm sorry, Mrs Clavard.'
She was standing rather than sitting, and to his immense relief, she smiled herself. 'Nah,' she said. 'Something in this balls-up has got to be funny. It might as well be me.' She considered. 'Besides, I was in there stealing with the rest of them. I probably deserved it.'
10
Henrietta's ass turned out to be badly bruised but not broken. A good thing, because a smashed coccyx was really nothing to laugh about. Rusty gave her a pain-deadening cream, confirmed that she had Advil at home, and sent her away, limping but satisfied. As satisfied, anyway, as a lady of her age and temperament was ever likely to get.
On his second escape attempt, about fifteen minutes after Linda's call, Harriet Bigelow stopped him just short of the door to the parking lot. 'Ginny says you should know Sammy Bushey's gone.'
'Gone where?' Rusty asked. This under the old grade-school assumption that the only stupid question was the one you didn't ask.
'No one knows. She's just gone.'
'Maybe she went down to Sweetbriar to see if they're serving dinner. I hope that's it, because if she tries to walk all the way back to her place, she's apt to bust her stitches.'
Harriet looked alarmed.'Could she, like, bleed to death? Bleeding to death from your woo-woo… that would be bad!
Rusty had heard many terms for the vagina, but this one was new to him. 'Probably not, but she could end up back here for an extended stay. What about her baby?'
Harriet looked stricken. She was an earnest little thing who had a way of blinking distractedly behind the thick lenses of her glasses when she was nervous; the kind of girl, Rusty thought, who might treat herself to a mental breakdown about fifteen years after graduating summa cum laude from Smith orVassar.
'The baby! Omigod, Little Walter!' She dashed down the hall before Rusty could stop her and came back looking relieved. 'Still here. He's not very lively, but that seems to be his nature.'
'Then she'll probably be back. Whatever other problems she might have, she loves the kid. In an absentminded sort of way.'
'Huh?' More furious blinking.