The Outsider_A Novel by Stephen King

Author:Stephen King [King, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2018-05-22T07:00:00+00:00

7

Grace and Sarah sat in the living room, on the couch. Marcy was between them, with an arm around each. Howie Gold sat in the easy chair that had been Terry’s until the world turned upside down. A hassock went with it. Ralph Anderson drew it in front of the couch and sat on it, his legs so long that his knees almost framed his face. He supposed he looked comical, and if that set Grace Maitland a bit at ease, that was all to the good.

“That must have been a scary dream, Grace. Are you sure it was a dream?”

“Of course it was,” Marcy said. Her face was tight and pale. “There was no man in this house. There was no way he could have gotten upstairs without us seeing him.”

“Or heard him, at least,” Sarah put in, but she sounded timid. Afraid. “Our stairs creak like mad.”

“You’re here for one reason, to ease my daughter’s mind,” Marcy said. “Would you please do that?”

Ralph said, “Whatever it was, you know there’s no man here now, don’t you, Grace?”

“Yes.” She seemed sure of this. “He’s gone. He said he would go if I gave you the message. I don’t think he will come back anymore, whether he was a dream or not.”

Sarah sighed dramatically and said, “Isn’t that a relief.”

“Hush, munchkin,” Marcy said.

Ralph pulled out his notebook. “Tell me what he looked like. This man in your dream. Because I’m a detective, and now I’m sure that’s what it was.”

Although Marcy Maitland didn’t like him and probably never would, her eyes thanked him for this much, at least.

“Better,” Grace said. “He looked better. His Play-Doh face was gone.”

“That’s what he looked like before,” Sarah told Ralph. “She said.”

Marcy said, “Sarah, go into the kitchen with Mr. Gold and get everybody a piece of cake, would you do that?”

Sarah looked at Ralph. “Cake even for him? Do we like him now?”

“Cake for everyone,” Marcy said, neatly dodging the question. “It’s called hospitality. Go on, now.”

Sarah got off the couch and crossed the room to Howie. “I’m getting kicked out.”

“Couldn’t happen to a nicer person,” Howie said. “I will join you in purdah.”

“In what?”

“Never mind, kiddo.” They went out to the kitchen together.

“Make this brief, please,” Marcy said to Ralph. “You’re only here because Howie said it was important. That it might have something to do with . . . you know.”

Ralph nodded without taking his eyes from Grace. “This man who had the Play-Doh face the first time he showed up . . .”

“And straws for eyes,” Grace said. “They stuck out, like in a cartoon, and the black circles people have in their eyes were holes.”

“Uh-huh.” In his notebook, Ralph wrote, Straws for eyes? “When you say his face looked like Play-Doh, could it have been because he was burned?”

She thought about it. “No. More like he wasn’t done. Not . . . you know . . .”

“Not finished?” Marcy asked.

Grace nodded, and put her thumb in her mouth. Ralph thought, This ten-year-old thumb sucker with the wounded face .

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