Chapter 24 twenty four

Steve called at about 9:30 and asked Louis if he would like to come to the school to play tennis, and he happily said the tennis court was empty, and it would be fine to play all day if they liked it. Louis understood Steve's excitement. During school hours, if you want to play tennis on the court, you have to make an appointment two days in advance.He politely declined, though, telling Steve that he wanted to follow up with an article for the School Medical Journal. Steve asked, "Really? You know, all work and no play makes people goofy." Louis said, "Call me later, maybe I'll finish by then."

Steve said he would, and hung up.Louis only half lied this time.He really wanted to continue writing articles about how the school infirmary diagnosed and treated infectious diseases such as chickenpox.But the main reason he turned Steve down was that he was in pain all over his body, which he discovered when he went to wash his face and brush his teeth in the morning after a phone call with his wife.His back muscles ached like they were ripping open, his shoulders ached from the weight of the kitten bag, and the tendons in the back of his calves tensed like strings on a guitar.He thought, God, I still have a stupid idea, as if I practice bodybuilding.If he went to play tennis with Steve, wouldn't that look like an old man with arthritis?

Speaking of the old man, he remembered that he didn't bury the kitten by himself last night. He went with a nearly 85-year-old man.Louis wondered if Chad felt as sore as he did this morning. Lewis spent about an hour and a half writing the article, and it didn't go very well.Then the silence and emptiness of the house made him nervous again, and finally he put away the magazines he had ordered from Johns Hopkins University on the shelf in front of the printer, put on his parka, and walked across the street to Chad's house. go. Neither Chad nor Norma was home, but there was a letter with his name nailed to the hall door, and he took it down, opened the envelope, took out the letter, and there it read:

Louis: My wife and I went to Bucksport to do some shopping and then to Gallom Commercial Center to look at a Welsh dresser that Norma had noticed.Maybe we'll have lunch at Meliod's and come back later in the afternoon.Come and have a few beers tonight if you want. Your family is your family, and I don't want to be a nosy person, but if Elle were my daughter, I wouldn't rush to tell her that Church the cat was killed on the road- Why not let her have a happy holiday? Also, Louis, I don't want to be in North Lutheran talking about what we did last night.Some other people also know about the old Mi'k Mike cemetery, and other people in town have buried their pets there too... you can think of that as another part of the "pet cemetery".Believe it or not, a bull was once buried there!It was about 1967 or 1968, and old McKawwin, who used to live on Stackpole Road, buried his prize bull, Hanratty, in the Meek Mike cemetery.Ha, ha!He told me that he and his two sons carried the cows there, and I laughed out loud.But people here don't like to talk about it, they don't like outsiders to know about it, not because of certain superstitions that have been developed over 300 years, but because some of them believe in these superstitions, and they believe that anyone who understands them so Those who do will surely laugh at them.What does it matter?I suspect it doesn't matter at all, but that's the way it is, so help out and keep quiet about it please?

Maybe we can talk more about it tonight and you'll know better then, but let me say you've done a good job and should be proud of it.I knew you would do well. chad PS: Norma has no idea what the letter says - I told her something else.I'd rather she never knew about it, and I hope you do the same.I have lied to her more than once in our 58 years of marriage.I think most men have lied to their wives a lot, but you know, most of these men can stand before God and admit the lies they told and confess themselves. Well, come over tonight and we'll have a few more swigs. chad Louis stood on the top steps leading to Chad's foyer, frowning at the letter.Don't tell Ali that the cat was killed, he didn't tell.Are other animals buried there too?300-year-old superstition?

...you'll know a little more then... Luis touched the line lightly with his hand, and for the first time allowed his mind to consciously recall what they did last night.But the memory is fuzzy, and it feels like a dream like melting cotton candy, or like the action after taking a small amount of drugs.He can remember going over the deadwood piles and in the swamps that weird light, it's warmer in the swamps, 10 or 20 degrees warmer than anywhere else, but it's like before the anesthetist puts you down Same as what you said. ...I think most men have lied to their wives a lot...

Not just to his wife, Louis thought, but to his daughter, too, but it was odd that Chad almost seemed to know what Louis had said on the phone this morning and what was going through his mind. Louis slowly folded the letterhead, a ruled piece of paper like a schoolboy practice handwriting, and put it back in the envelope.He put the letter in the hip pocket of his trousers and crossed the street again to go home.