First published in 1977, The Shining quickly became a benchmark in the literary career of Stephen King.
Авторы: King Stephen Edwin
the, uh…” Faint rattle of papers. “The Torrance family. While I had you on hold I tried to telephone. It’s out, which is nothing unusual. There are still twenty-five miles of aboveground telephone lines between the hotel and the Sidewinder switching station. My conclusion is that you must be some sort of crank.”
“Oh man, you stupid…” But his despair was too great to find a noun to go with the adjective. Suddenly, illumination. “Call them!” he cried.
“Sir?”
“You got the CB, they got the CB. So call them! Call them and ask them what’s up!”
There was a brief silence, and the humming of long-distance wires.
“You tried that too, didn’t you?” Hallorann asked. “That’s why you had me on hold so long. You tried the phone and then you tried the CB and you didn’t get nothing but you don’t think nothing’s wrong… what are you guys doing up there? Sitting on your asses and playing gin rummy?”
“No, we are not,” Staunton said angrily. Hallorann was relieved at the sound of anger in the voice. For the first time he felt he was speaking to a man and not to a recording. “I’m the only man here, sir. Every other ranger in the park, plus game wardens, plus volunteers, are up in Hasty Notch, risking their lives because three stupid assholes with six months’ experience decided to try the north face of King’s Ram. They’re stuck halfway up there and maybe they’ll get down and maybe they won’t. There are two choppers up there and the men who are flying them are risking their lives because it’s night here and it’s starting to snow. So if you’re still having trouble putting it all together, I’ll give you a hand with it. Number one, I don’t have anybody to send to the Overlook. Number two, the Overlook isn’t a priority here-what happens in the park is a priority. Number three, by daybreak neither one of those choppers will be able to fly because it’s going to snow like crazy, according to the National Weather Service. Do you understand the situation?”
“Yeah,” Hallorann had said softly. “I understand.”
“Now my guess as to why I couldn’t raise them on the CB is very simple. I don’t know what time it is where you are, but out here it’s nine-thirty. I think they may have turned it off and gone to bed. Now if you-”
“Good luck with your climbers, man,” Hallorann said. “But I want you to know that they are not the only ones who are stuck up high because they didn’t know what they were getting into.”
He had hung up the phone.
At 7:20 A. M. the TWA 747 backed lumberingly out of its stall, turned, and rolled out toward the runway. Hallorann let out a long, soundless exhale. Carlton Vecker, wherever you are, eat your heart out.
Flight 196 parted company with the ground at 7:28, and at 7:31, as it gained altitude, the thought-pistol went off in Dick Hallorann’s head again. His shoulders hunched uselessly against the smell of oranges and then jerked spasmodically. His forehead wrinkled, his mouth drew down in a grimace of pain.
(!!! DICK PLEASE COME QUICK WE’RE IN BAD TROUBLE DICK WE NEED)
And that was all. It was sudd enly gone. No fading out this time. The communication had been chopped off cleanly, as if with a knife. It scared him. His hands, still clutching the seat rests, had gone almost white. His mouth was dry. Something bad happened to the boy. He was cure of it. If anyone had hurt that little child-
“Do you always react so violently to takeoffs?”
He looked around. It was the woman in the horn-rimmed glasses.
“It wasn’t that,” Hallorann said. “I’ve got a steel plate in my head. From Korea. Every now and then it gives me a twinge. Vibrates, don’t you know. Scrambles the signal.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“It is the line soldier who ultimately pays for any foreign intervention,” the sharp-faced woman said grimly.
“Is that so?”
“It is. This country must swear off its dirty little wars. The CIA has been at the root of every dirty little war America has fought in this century. The CIA and dollar diplomacy.”
She opened her book and began to read. The No SMOKING sign went off. Hallorann watched the receding land and wondered if the boy was all right. He had developed an affectionate feeling for that boy, although his folks hadn’t seemed all that much.
He hoped to God they were watching out for Danny.
Jack stood in the dining room just outside the batwing doors leading into the Colorado Lounge, his head cocked, listening. He was smiling faintly.
Around him, he could hear the Overlook Hotel coming to life.
It was hard to say just how he knew, but he guessed
