JК
Bag of Bones :: Кинг Стивен
Страница: 128 из 425Unlike the life I’d sensed in Jo’s studio, this one hadn’t been cut short but evolved out of, shed like old skin, andthat was all right. Was, in fact, the natural order of things. There was a photo album on a shelf of knickknacks and I took it down, both curious and wary. No bombshells this time, however; nearly all the pix were landscape shots of Sara Laughs as it had been when we bought it. I found a picture of Join bellbottoms, though (her hair parted in the middle and white lipstick on her mouth), and one of Michael Noonan wearing a flowered shirt and muttonchop sideburns that made me cringe (the bachelor Mike in the photo was a Barry White kind of guy I didn’t want to recognize and yet did). I found Jo’s old broken treadmill, a rake I’d want if I was still around here come fall, a snowblower I’d want even more if I was around come winter, and several cans of paint. What I didn’t find was any plastic owls. My insulation-thumping friend had been right. Upstairs the telephone started ringing. I hurried to answer it, going out through the cellar door and then reaching back in to flick off the lightswitch. This amused me and at the same time seemed like perfectly normal behavior… just as being careful not to step on sidewalk cracks had seemed like perfectly normal behavior to me when I was a kid. And even if it wasn’t normal, what did it matter? I’d only been back at Sara for three days, but already I’d postulated Noonan’s First Law of Eccentricity: when you’re on your own, strange behavior really doesn’t seem strange at all. I snagged the cordless. “Hello?”
“Hi, Mike. It’s Ward.”
“That was quick.”
“The file-room’s just a short walk down the hall,” he said. “Easy as pie.
There’s only one thing on Jo’s calendar for the second week of November in 1993. It says “S-Ks of Maine, Freep, 11 A.M.” That’s on Tuesday the sixteenth. Does it help?”
“Yes,” 1 said. “Thank you, Ward. It helps a lot.” I broke the connection and put the phone back in its cradle. Yes, it helped. S-Ks of Maine was Soup Kitchens of Maine. Jo had been on their board of directors from 1992 until her death. Freep was Freeport.
It must have been a board meeting. They had probably discussed plans for feeding the homeless on Thanksgiving. . and then Jo had driven the seventy or so miles to the TR in order to take delivery of two plastic owls. It didn’t answer all the questions, but aren’t there always questions in the wake of a loved one’s death? And no statute of limitations on when they come up. The UFO voice spoke up then.
“Hi, Mike. It’s Ward.”
“That was quick.”
“The file-room’s just a short walk down the hall,” he said. “Easy as pie.
There’s only one thing on Jo’s calendar for the second week of November in 1993. It says “S-Ks of Maine, Freep, 11 A.M.” That’s on Tuesday the sixteenth. Does it help?”
“Yes,” 1 said. “Thank you, Ward. It helps a lot.” I broke the connection and put the phone back in its cradle. Yes, it helped. S-Ks of Maine was Soup Kitchens of Maine. Jo had been on their board of directors from 1992 until her death. Freep was Freeport.
It must have been a board meeting. They had probably discussed plans for feeding the homeless on Thanksgiving. . and then Jo had driven the seventy or so miles to the TR in order to take delivery of two plastic owls. It didn’t answer all the questions, but aren’t there always questions in the wake of a loved one’s death? And no statute of limitations on when they come up. The UFO voice spoke up then.