Gwendy's Button Box Anthology by Stephen King & Richard Chizmar & Playboy

Author:Stephen King & Richard Chizmar & Playboy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Horror, General, Stephen - Prose & Criticism, Sports, Suspense, Horror - General, Fiction - General, king, Mystery, Thriller, Fantasy, Romance, United States, Thrillers & Suspense, Crime, Literature & Fiction, Thriller & Suspense, Thrillers, Crime Fiction

8

She was back in Boo’ya Moon, standing on the warm packed sand of the beach, this time with a bright sun beating down overhead and making not thousands of points of light on the water but what seemed like millions. Because this water was wider. For a moment Lisey looked at it, fascinated, and at the great old hulk of a sailing ship that floated there. And as she looked at it, she suddenly understood something the revenant in Amanda’s bed had told her.

What’s my prize? Lisey had asked, and the thing—which had somehow seemed to be both Scott and Amanda at the same time—had told her that her prize would be a drink. But when Lisey asked if that meant a Coke or an RC, the thing had said, Be quiet. We want to watch the holly-hocks. Lisey had assumed the thing was talking about flowers. She had forgotten there had been a very different meaning for that word, once upon a time. A magical one.

That ship out there in all that blue and shining water was what Amanda had meant . . . for that had been Amanda; Scott would almost surely not have known about that wonderful childhood dreamboat.

This was no pool she was looking at; this was a harbor where only one ship rode at anchor, a ship made for brave pirate-girls who dared to go seeking treasure (and boyfriends). And their captain? Why, the brave Amanda Debusher, to be sure, for once upon a time, had not yonder sailing ship been Manda’s happiest fantasy? Once upon a time before she had become so outwardly angry and so inwardly afraid?

Be quiet. We want to watch the Hollyhocks.

Oh, Amanda, Lisey thought—almost mourned. This was the pool where we all came down to drink, the very cup of imagination, and so of course everyone saw it a little bit differently. This childhood refuge was Amanda’s version. The benches were the same, however, which led Lisey to surmise that they, at least, were bedrock reality. Today she saw twenty or thirty people sitting on them, looking dreamily out at the water, and roughly the same number of shrouded forms. In daylight these latter bore a sickening resemblance to insects wrapped in silk by great spiders.

She quickly spied Amanda, a dozen or so benches up. Lisey skirted two of the silent gazers and one of the scary shrouded things in order to reach her. She sat down beside her and once more took Manda’s hands, which weren’t cut or even scarred over here. And, as Lisey held them, Amanda’s fingers closed very slowly but definitely upon hers. A queer certainty came to Lisey then. Amanda didn’t need the other sip from the pool Lisey had taken, nor did she need Lisey to coax her down to the water for a healing dip. Amanda did indeed want to come home. A large part of her had been waiting to be rescued like a sleeping princess in a fairy tale . . .

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