Chapter 59 fifty-nine

"Try it, ma'am," said the truck driver, who was fixing the engine of Rachel's rental car. Rachel turned the key, the car's engine roared, and the car worked.The truck driver snapped the lid shut and, wiping his hands with a large blue handkerchief, walked up to Rachel's window; he had a pleasant rosy face and a hat slanted . Rachel almost cried, and she said, "Thank you, I didn't know what I was going to do." "Oh, a little kid could fix it," said the truck driver, "but it's funny, I've never seen anything like this on a truck this new before."

"Why? What's wrong?" "A wire came loose on the car's battery and fell out. No one pulled it out, did they?" "Yes." Rachel said.She remembered how she felt again, the feeling of pulling the rubber band of the world's largest slingshot. "I think the drive must have loosened the wires all the way. But yours won't be a problem anymore, I've got it tight." "Can I give you some money as a token of appreciation?" Rachel asked timidly. The truck driver burst out laughing, and said, "Don't give it to me, ma'am, we guys are road riders and do good things, you know?"

Rachel laughed too, and she said, "Okay then, thank you." "You're welcome." He gave Rachel a broad grin. Rachel smiled back at him, and drove carefully around the parking lot onto the spur.She scanned other vehicles left and right, and five minutes later was on the main road, heading north.She feels wide awake now, the coffee is still working, she doesn't want to doze at all, her eyes are wide open.But then that uneasy feeling came back, and she felt ridiculously manipulated, and the wires on the battery came off the top, like... In this way, she will have to delay for a while, which is enough time...

She laughed nervously, what was enough time for this? Enough that something irreversible happens. The idea was so stupid, so absurd, but Rachel picked up the speed anyway. Five minutes later, while Chad was trying to dodge the slashing scalpel, Ellie woke up screaming from a nightmare, sitting upright on the bed.Rachel turned off the main road and drove towards Hammond Street, which was very close to the cemetery where her son was buried, but she didn't know that there was only a shovel buried in his son's coffin.She drove across the Banger-Bloor Bridge.At a quarter past five, Rachel was on Route 15, headed for Luther House.

Rachel had decided to go straight to Jud's house first, she'd keep her word, it might be good, but her Honda wasn't in the driveway, she guessed it might be in the garage, but the house was silent and peaceful. A feeling of emptiness, a hunch that Louis might not be home. Rachel parked behind Jud's car, got out, and looked around cautiously.The dewdrops on the grass shone in the morning light. A bird chirped a few times, and then fell silent again.There were a few mornings when Rachel woke up alone as a teenager with a feeling of loneliness but also somehow exhilaration, a conflicted sense of what was new and what was past.This morning she just felt that everything was so clean and nice, although there was also a sense of uneasiness, which she thought might be due to the horribly exhausting 24 hours and the recent grief over the death of her son.

Rachel walked up the front steps, opened the screen door, and tried to ring the old-fashioned bell on the front door.She had been drawn to this doorbell before when she first came with Louis.As long as people twist it clockwise, it will make a loud sound like music. Just as Rachel was about to reach out to ring the bell, she caught sight of the hall door and frowned involuntarily.There were mud marks on the mat at the door, and looking around, she saw that the mud marks stretched from the screen door to the door of this door.These mud marks are very small, like a child's footprints, but she drove all night, and it didn't rain, there was only wind, no rain, how could there be mud marks?

Rachel stared at the mud print for a long time...really, too long, then remembered that she had to ring the doorbell, and she grabbed the button...and let go. I was too early, that's all, I was waiting for the doorbell to break the silence.But he's probably still asleep, and it's going to wake him up... But that's not what she's worried about.She has been very nervous, ever since she found out that she always dozed off in the car, she felt a deep fear, this kind of fear is a kind of strange fear, it seems to have something to do with these small footprints, the size of these footprints is similar to...

Rachel's mind didn't go any further, her brain was too tired, too dull. As big as Gage's foot. Oh, don't think about it, can't you miss him?Rachel said to herself. She reached out and rang the doorbell. The bell was much louder than she remembered before, and it wasn't in a musical tone, but in the silence it sounded like a hoarse scream from being suffocated. Rachel was startled, took two steps back, and then didn't find it funny at all let out a nervous laugh.She waited for the sound of Jud's footsteps to open the door, but there was none, just silence, a deeper silence.Rachel struggled with whether she would be able to ring the doorbell one more time.At this time, there was indeed a sound behind the door, which she never expected.

"Woo! Woo! Woo!" "Church?" Rachel called, surprised and confused.She stooped to look ahead, but it was impossible to see inside, and the glass on the door blocked the white curtain that Norma had hung before.Rachel called again, "Church, is that you?" "Woohoo!" Rachel tried to push the door, but it was unlocked. Church was inside, squatting on the aisle with her tail crossed, and there was something black about her fur.It's mud, Rachel thought, but then she saw the red fluid dripping from Church's beard. The kitten raised a paw and began to lick, keeping its eyes on Rachel.

"Chad?" Rachel yelled, genuinely scared now, as she walked through the door. There was no answering voice in the house, only silence. Rachel tried to gather her thoughts, but suddenly the image of her sister appeared in her mind, messing with her thoughts.Rachel thought of Zelda's twisted hands, how she would sometimes bang her head against the wall when she was angry, and the wallpaper on the wall was smashed and the plaster fell off the wall.This wasn't the time to think about Zelda, when Chad was probably injured, maybe fell down?He is an old man. Think about this and stop thinking about those childhood dreams.The dreams of opening the closet to find Zelda grinning and grinning, the dreams of being in the bathroom and feeling Zelda's eyes peeping, the dreams of Zelda wandering in the basement behind the fireplace, ...

Churchill opened his mouth, bared his sharp teeth, and yelled again: "Woo!" Luis was right, we shouldn't have neutered the kitten, he hasn't been normal since then.But Lewis says that after neutering, the kittens don't have that aggressive instinct.Anyway, he was wrong, Church still preyed, it... Woohoo!Church yelled again, then turned and sprinted up the stairs. "Chad?" Rachel called again. "Are you upstairs?" Woohoo!Church yelped at the top of the stairs, as if to give Rachel an affirmative answer, and it disappeared into the upstairs hall. How did the kitten get in?Did Chad let it in?why? Rachel shifted her feet a bit, wondering what to do next.The worst part of it was that it all seemed... as if it had been planned, as if something had brought her here, and then... Then there was a moan of pain from upstairs, a low voice that seemed to be full of pain, it was Chad's voice, it must be Chad's voice.He fell in the bathroom, maybe tripped, broke a leg, or sprained his thigh, maybe; the old man's bones are fragile, what are you still thinking here, silly woman, standing here, nervous It's like going to the toilet.There was blood on Church, blood, and Chad was hurt.And all you know is standing here!what happened to you? "Chad!" The groan came again.Rachel ran upstairs. She had never been upstairs before.Since the only window in the stair hall is to the west, it is still dark in the stair hall, and there is a picture on the wall of the hall.The moaning sounded again, very low, coming from behind the second door on the right. As Rachel walked toward the door, her heels clicking against the floor, she felt as though she were traveling through a deviation, not of time or space but of size.She felt that she was getting smaller and smaller, but the paintings on the wall were getting taller, and the doorknob seemed to be at the same level as her eyes soon.She reached out to pull the doorknob... before her hand touched the doorknob, the door opened. Zelda stood in the door. Zelda was hunched over, so deformed that she was actually a dwarf, only two feet tall; for some reason she was wearing the clothes Gage was buried in, but it was Zelda, yes, There was a crazy light in her eyes, and her face was purple.Rachel heard Zelda's voice calling, "I'm back to find you at last, Rachel, and I'm going to bend your back like mine; you'll never be able to do it again." Got out of bed, can't get out of bed again, can't get out of bed again..." Church the cat was on Zelda's shoulder, and Zelda's face flickered and changed; Rachel watched with dizzying horror, and she saw that it wasn't Zelda at all—she How could it be so stupidly wrong?This was Gage, and his face was not black and purple, but covered with mud and blood, and the face was swollen as if it had been badly damaged and put together by careless hands.Rachel called her son's name and stretched out her hands, and it came running and rushed into Rachel's arms, keeping one of its hands behind its back like it was holding a bouquet it plucked in someone's yard. bouquet of flowers. "I'll give you something, Mom!" it screamed, "I'll give you something, Mom! I'll give you something, I'll give you something!"