King, Stephen - Dreamcatcher by King Stephen

Author:King, Stephen [King, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-10-29T20:23:37+00:00

6

Owen stood with a mug of coffee in his hand, waiting until the guys from the infirmary were gone with their burden, Melrose's sobs mercifully reduced to mutters and moans by a shot of morphine. Pearly followed them out and then Owen was alone with Kurtz.

Kurtz sat in his rocker, looking up at Owen Underhill with curious, head-cocked amusement. The raving crazyman was gone again, put away like a Halloween mask.

'I'm thinking of a number,' Kurtz said. 'What is it?'

'Seventeen,' Owen said. 'You see it in red. Like on the side of a fire engine.'

Kurtz nodded, pleased. 'You try sending one to me.' Owen visualized a speed limit sign: 60 MPH.

'Six,' Kurtz said after a moment. 'Black on white.'

'Close enough, boss.'

Kurtz drank some coffee. His was in a mug with I LUV MY GRANDPA printed on the side. Owen sipped with honest pleasure. It was a dirty night and a dirty job, and Freddy's coffee wasn't bad.

Kurtz had found time to put on his coverall. Now he reached into the inner pocket and brought out a large bandanna. He regarded it for a moment, then got to his knees with a grimace (it was no secret that the old man had arthritis) and began to wipe up the splatters of Melrose's blood. Owen, who thought himself surely unshockable at this point, was shocked.

'Sir . . . Oh, fuck. 'Boss . . .'

'Stow it,' Kurtz said without looking up. He moved from spot to spot, as assiduous as any washerwoman. 'My father always said that you should clean up your own messes. Might make you stop and think a little bit the next time.

What was my father's name, buck?'

Owen looked for it and caught just a glimpse, like a glimpse of slip under a woman's dress. 'Paul?'

'Patrick, actually . . . but close. Anderson believes it's a wave, and it's expending its force now, A telepathic wave. Do you find that an awesome concept, Owen?'

'Yes.'

Kurtz nodded without looking up, wiping and cleaning. 'More awesome in concept than in fact, however — do you also find that?'

Owen laughed. The old man had lost none of his capacity to surprise. Not playing with a full deck, people sometimes said of unstable individuals. The trouble with Kurtz, Owen reckoned, was that he was playing with more than a full deck. A few extra aces in there. Also a few extra deuces, and everyone knew that deuces were wild.

'Sit down, Owen. Drink your coffee on your ass like a normal person and let me do this, I need to.'

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