JК
Bag of Bones :: Кинг Стивен
Страница: 402 из 425She was standing rightthere, but she might have been calling across a wide canyon. Still, I understood her. I read the words off her lips if you prefer the rational, right out of her mind if you prefer the romantical. I prefer the latter. Marriage is a zone, too, you know. Marriage is a zone. — So that’s all right, isn’t it? I glanced down into the gaping roll of canvas and saw nothing but stubs and splinters sticking out of a noxious, uneasy paste. I got a whiff, and even through the Stenomask it made me cough and back away.
Not corruption; lye. When I looked back around at Jo, she was barely there. “Jo! Wait!” —Can’t help. Can’t stay. Words from another star system, barely glimpsed on a fading mouth. Now she was little more than eyes floating in the dark afternoon, eyes which seemed made of the lake behind them. — Hurry… She was gone. I slipped and stumbled to the place where she’d been, my feet crunching over dead birch leaves, and grabbed at nothing. What a fool I must have looked, soaked to the skin, wearing a Stenomask askew over the lower half of my face, trying to embrace the wet gray air. I got the faintest whiffof Red perfume… and then only damp earth, lakewater, and the vile stink of lye running under everything. At least the smell of putrefaction was gone; that had been no more real than…
Than what? Than what? Either it was all real or none of it was real. If none of it was real, I was out of my mind and ready for the Blue Wing at Juniper Hill. I looked over toward the gray rock and saw the bag of bones I had pulled out of the wet ground like a festering tooth. Lazy tendrils of smoke were still rising from its ripped length. That much was real. So was the Green Lady, who was now a soot-colored Black Lady—as dead as the dead branch behind her, the one that seemed to point like an arm. Can’t help… can’t stay… hurry. Couldn’t help with what? What more help did I need? It was done, wasn’t it? Sara was gone: spirit follows bone, good night sweet ladies, God grant she lye stille.
And still a kind of stinking terror, not so different from the smell of putrescence which had come out of the ground, seemed to sweat out of the air; Kyra’s name began to beat in my head, Ki-Ki, Ki-Ki, Ki-Ki, like the call of some exotic tropical bird. I started up the railroad-tie steps to the house, and although I was exhausted, by the time I was halfway up I had begun to run. I climbed the stairs to the deck and went in that way. The house looked the same—save for the broken tree poking in through the kitchen window, Sara Laughs had stood up to the storm very well—but something was wrong.
Not corruption; lye. When I looked back around at Jo, she was barely there. “Jo! Wait!” —Can’t help. Can’t stay. Words from another star system, barely glimpsed on a fading mouth. Now she was little more than eyes floating in the dark afternoon, eyes which seemed made of the lake behind them. — Hurry… She was gone. I slipped and stumbled to the place where she’d been, my feet crunching over dead birch leaves, and grabbed at nothing. What a fool I must have looked, soaked to the skin, wearing a Stenomask askew over the lower half of my face, trying to embrace the wet gray air. I got the faintest whiffof Red perfume… and then only damp earth, lakewater, and the vile stink of lye running under everything. At least the smell of putrefaction was gone; that had been no more real than…
Than what? Than what? Either it was all real or none of it was real. If none of it was real, I was out of my mind and ready for the Blue Wing at Juniper Hill. I looked over toward the gray rock and saw the bag of bones I had pulled out of the wet ground like a festering tooth. Lazy tendrils of smoke were still rising from its ripped length. That much was real. So was the Green Lady, who was now a soot-colored Black Lady—as dead as the dead branch behind her, the one that seemed to point like an arm. Can’t help… can’t stay… hurry. Couldn’t help with what? What more help did I need? It was done, wasn’t it? Sara was gone: spirit follows bone, good night sweet ladies, God grant she lye stille.
And still a kind of stinking terror, not so different from the smell of putrescence which had come out of the ground, seemed to sweat out of the air; Kyra’s name began to beat in my head, Ki-Ki, Ki-Ki, Ki-Ki, like the call of some exotic tropical bird. I started up the railroad-tie steps to the house, and although I was exhausted, by the time I was halfway up I had begun to run. I climbed the stairs to the deck and went in that way. The house looked the same—save for the broken tree poking in through the kitchen window, Sara Laughs had stood up to the storm very well—but something was wrong.