Chapter 10 ten

As Louis sat with Chad and Norma on the porch of Chad's house in the evenings drinking iced tea, he thought about his wife's cold, almost frosty, day.Tomorrow, I will be on duty at school for a day. The students have returned to school for the past two days, and they are almost settled. "I hope Ellie can understand this easily," Chad said.Louis still wondered if Rachel would be in bed when they got back that night and Gage would be sleeping next to her because they were afraid that their son would fall out of the crib. "I said I hoped—" Chad repeated. "I'm sorry," Louis replied, "I was a little distracted. Yes, Ellie was a little depressed. How did you guess that?"

Chad took his wife's hand lightly and smiled at her. "Like I said, we see the kids come and go, so we know them, don't we, honey?" "Yeah," Norma said, "lots of kids, we love kids." "Sometimes the pet cemetery is where they really face death for the first time," Chad said. "Kids have seen people die on TV, but they know it's fake, like those old people they see on Saturday afternoons. Like westerns. On TV and movies, people clutch their bellies or fall over their chests and die. But a pet cemetery on the hill makes death more real to kids than movies, TV, don’t you think?”

Louis nodded and thought: Why don't you tell my wife these things? "Some kids won't be affected at all, at least not in the way you'd imagine. But I think most of them will, as if they've collected something else, put it in their pocket, come home and savor it, and think about it. Pet cemetery and death. But, most of them are fine. But, there are some... Norma, do you remember that little boy named Holloway?" Norma held the ice cube in her hand Teacup, nodding his head and saying, "Remember, that boy used to have nightmares about dead bodies coming out of graves and all. And then his little dog died—people say he died from poison, didn't he?" Chad?"

"Yes, it's mostly thought to have been poisoned. It was 1925, when Holloway was maybe 10 years old. He became a state senator. Then he ran for state senator and lost. That was probably before the Korean War." "He and his friends had a funeral for the dog," recalls Norma. "It was a mutt, but the kid loved him. I remember the kid's parents were a bit against it because of the nightmares and stuff, but the funeral went well. Two of the older kids made a coffin for the dog, didn't they, Chad?" Chad took a sip of his iced tea, nodded and said, "It's Dean and Danal Hall, they and Billy...there's one I can't remember his name, it seems to be one of the Bowie kids, they Good friends. Norma, do you remember the Bowie family who lived in the old Browchett house off the Middle Highway?"

"Of course I remember!" Norma said excitedly, as if it happened yesterday. "It's one of the Bowies' boys, called Alan or Potter—" "It could have been Kendall, too," agreed Chad. "Anyway, I remember they had an argument over who carried the coffin. The dog wasn't too big, so two of them would do. One of the kids said they should be allowed to carry it because they made the coffin and because they were twins--a couple, you know. Billy said they didn't know Bowser--the dog, so they couldn't do the coffin-carrier His point of view is: only close friends can lift, not some carpenters."

Both Chad and Norma laughed, and Louis grinned too. "They were about to type a result when Billy's sister, Mandy, pulled out an Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume Four. Louis, Mandy's father, Stephen, was the only doctor in the area at the time, and they were the only ones. Every family can afford a set of encyclopedias." "They were the first to have electric lights, too," Norma interrupted. "Anyway," Chad went on, "Mandy, eight, came running with the big book. Billy and the Bowie kid—Kendall, I think, who later died in early 1942 Crashed and burnt in Pensacola while training as a fighter pilot—the two kids were going to take the place of the Hall twins to carry the drugged mongrel to the grave."

Louis started giggling, and soon burst into laughter.He could feel the tension from the day after his fight with Rachel began to unwind. Chad went on: "So Mandy said, 'Wait, wait, look at the top of this book!' And the kids all stopped and looked at her. If the fuck if she—" "Chad!" Norma warned him. "I'm sorry, dear, but you know I can't help myself when I start telling stories." "I think you do too," Norma said. "Mandy took the encyclopedia and turned to the page of the funeral. The book was about the funeral of Queen Victoria. There were countless people on both sides of her coffin, some carrying the coffin with sweat, and some wearing mourning clothes. On both sides. Mandy said, 'When it comes to funerals, you can have as many people as you want. It says so in the book!'"

Louis asked, "Problem solved?" "Nope. In the end they were just like the picture in the book, with twenty or so kids in attendance, just not in mourning. Mandy presided over the ceremony, and the kid was fine. She had the kids stand in a row, and Everyone sends a wildflower, or a dandelion, or a daisy. Mandy I keep thinking Mandy never ran for Congress, what a loss to the country if she did I'm sure she Will win." Chad laughed, shook his head and went on, "Anyway, Billy hasn't had any more nightmares about the pet cemetery since he got there. He's sad about the dog's death, but after the grief, it's all over. That's it again. I think that's what all of us should do."

Louis thought again of Rachel's near-hysterical episodes during the day. "Your Ellie will get over this fear." Norma said, shifting her body, "Louis, you must be thinking that we talk about death all the time. Chad and I are getting old, but I Let's hope we're both not damned—" Louis said quickly: "No, of course not, don't be silly." "But it's okay to admit it to acquaintances. No one seems to want to talk about it or think about it these days, I don't know why. It's not shown on children's TV, people are afraid it will hurt children , hurt their souls, people just want to close the coffin quickly so they don't have to look at the dead body to say goodbye. It's like people want to forget about death."

"And at the same time people see all kinds of death stories on cable TV." Chad cleared his throat, looked at Norma and said, "how many strange things people can't understand in this generation, What do you say?" Louis said, "Yeah, I thought so too." Chad sounded apologetic and said, "Oh, we're two generations, Norma and I are near death, we've had the flu pandemic since the war, we've seen a lot of mothers and children Dying at the same time, children dying of infections and fevers, it was as if the doctor was waving a magic wand to kill people. When Norma and I were young, if anyone had cancer, it meant death notice. In There was no radiotherapy in the twenties! The two wars, the murders, the suicides..." Chad paused for a moment, then continued, "We know death as we know friends and foes. My brother Pat died of acute appendicitis in 1912 , when Taft was president. My brother was 14 years old and he played baseball farther than any kid in town. Back then, people didn't have to go to college to study death. Back then it said Come on, it can show up sometimes while you're eating. Sometimes you can fucking feel it." This time Chicken Noel didn't correct his swearing, but nodded.

Louis stood up, stretched, and said, "I have to go, good luck tomorrow." Chad stood up too and said, "Yeah, tomorrow your work merry-go-round is starting, isn't it?" Louis saw Norma trying to get up too and gave her a hand.She stood up with a pained face. Louis asked her, "Not feeling well tonight, are you?" Norma replied, "Not too bad." "Put a hot compress on it when you go to bed." Norma said, "I will, I do it all the time. Louis, don't worry about Ellie. She'll be too busy making new friends this fall to forget about the cemetery. Maybe one day they'll hike up the hill together, pull out Grass and flowers and retrace those tombstones. That's what kids do sometimes. Elle will feel better and she'll get used to it." If it was my wife she wouldn't talk like that, Louis said to himself. Chad said, "Come over tomorrow night if you're free, and tell me how it's going at school. We'll play cards and keep score, and I'll drink you." Louis said, "Okay, maybe I'll double you, you got drunk first." Chad said sincerely, "Doctor, you can't beat me. The day I lose to you at poker is the day I let a charlatan like you treat me." Both Chad and Norma laughed, and Louis, amidst their laughter, walked away across the road, home. Rachel was already asleep with her son, curled up in her own half of the bed in a defensive position.Louis thought that his wife's anger would pass. They also had quarrels and cold wars after they got married, but this time was the worst.He felt sad and angry and unhappy.I want to reconcile with my wife, but I don't know how to do it.He worried that one day he would not be reading the news of his divorce from his friend, but someone else would be reading the notice of breaking up with his wife written by himself or published in the newspaper.Louis quietly undressed, set the alarm clock to 6:00 a.m., showered, shaved, cleaned up, and went to bed, but couldn't sleep.While listening to the alternate breathing of his wife and son, he thought about what had happened in the past two days, as if something was condemning him.He seemed to see Ellie screaming angrily again, I don't want Church to die...it's not God's cat!Let God take his own cat!He also seemed to see Rachel say angrily, as a doctor, you should know... He seemed to hear Norma say again, as if people were forgetting death... Then there was Jud's very certain voice, as if from another source. A generation: sometimes you are eating, it can also appear.Sometimes you can fucking feel it. Chad's voice mingled with that of Louise's mother.Louis' mother lied when he was 4 years old that the baby was picked from the grass and did not tell him about sex.But told him the truth about death when he was 12, when Louise's cousin Lucy was killed in a stupid car accident.A kid got Lucy's father's car keys and decided to take Lucy for a drive, but he didn't know how to stop the car when it started.The child was only slightly injured, while Lucy's father's car was all over, and his cousin Lucy was killed in the car.He couldn't react when his mother told Louise that his cousin had died.She can't die, what do you mean, she's dead?what are you talking about?Then, as if suddenly remembered: Who will bury her then?Because although Lucy's father, Louis' uncle, was an undertaker himself, Louis couldn't imagine Uncle Carl doing it.Confused, grieved and frightened, Louis felt at the time that this was the most important question, like who cut the town barber's hair.Louis remembers his mum replying: "I think Tony came to bury Lucy.He is your uncle's best friend and colleague.Oh sweet little Lucy...I can't think of what she's suffering...Pray with me, Louise, will you?Join me in praying for Lucy, I need you to help me...Louis remembers her mother saying those words with red eye circles and looking tired and sick.So they knelt down in the kitchen and prayed for Lucy together.While praying, Louis thought that if his mother prayed for Lucy's soul, it would mean that Lucy's body had passed away.The reason was that in front of his closed eyes there seemed to be Lucy, her rotting eyeballs hanging on her cheeks, her red hair covered with blue-green mildew, and she had come to Louis's thirteenth birthday party.The image of Lucy made him feel disgusted, horrified but also a kind of predestined love.He cried out in pain, "She can't die! Mother, she can't die—I love her!" and his mother's voice was flat and full of winter cemetery atmosphere, and his mother replied, "She's dead, dear. .I'm sorry, but she's dead. Lucy's dead." Trembling with fear, Louis thought: Death is death—what more explanation do you need? Suddenly, Louis realizes that he forgot to do one thing, which is why he can't sleep on the first night of his new job thinking about sad things. He got up and walked to the stairs, and suddenly detoured to his daughter's room, and saw her sleeping peacefully, with her mouth open, wearing her already small blue children's pajamas.Louis thought: Jesus, Ally, you're growing so fast.The kitten was lying at her daughter's feet, also asleep.Louis went downstairs to the phone, and there was a notepad on the wall filled with all sorts of messages, memos, and bills to pay.At the top was Rachel's neat handwriting: Things to put off as long as possible.Louis took down the phone book, looked up a number, and wrote it down on a piece of paper. Under the number, he wrote: make an appointment for Churchy to make an appointment with the veterinarian Joland, and if he does not castrate animals, ask him to recommend another veterinarian.He looked at the note, thinking that it was time to castrate the kitten, he didn't want it to run around on the road, what if it was crushed to death?But there was another feeling in his heart, that neutering the kitten would turn it into a fat lazy cat, sleeping next to the heater, waiting for others to feed it.Louis didn't want the cat to become like this. He liked the original image of Church, lanky and flexible, good at hunting.But a rumbling truck outside on Route 15 reassured him that he would neuter the kitten, and he hung the memo on the wall and went to bed.