On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester’s Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field.
Авторы: King Stephen Edwin
afternoon.'»She had so many children she didn’t know what to do.»‘
‘Good one, Mom,’ Joe said, trying not to grin. The middle-school version had been revised to She had so many children her cunt fell off
He looked down at the sock again. ‘So does a sock have a middle?’
Benny and Norrie thought it over. Joe let them. The fact that such a question could interest them was one of the things he dug about them.
‘Not like a circle or square has a center,’ Norrie said at last. ‘Thdse are geometric shapes.’
Benny said, ‘I guess a sock is also a geometric shape—technically—but I don’t know what you’d call it. A socktagon?’
Norrie laughed. Even Claire smiled a little.
‘On the map, The Mill’s closer to a hexagon,’Joe said,’but never mind that. Just use common sense.’
Norrie pointed to the place on the sock where the foot-shaped bott‹bm flowed into the tube top. ‘There. That’s the middle.’
Joe dotted it with the tip of his pen.
‘I’m not sure that’ll come out, mister.’ Claire sighed. ‘But you need new ones anyway, I suppose.’ And, before he could ask the next question, she said: ‘On a map, that would be about where the town common is. Is that where you’re going to look?’
‘It’s where we’re going to look first’ Joe said, a little deflated at having his explicatory thunder stolen.
‘Because if there’s a generator,’ Mrs McClatchey mused, ‘you think it should be in the middle of the township. Or as close to it as possible.’
Joe nodded.
‘Cool, Mrs McClatchey,’ Benny said. He raised one hand. ‘Give me five, mother of my soul-brother.’
Smiling wanly, still holding the picture of her husband, Claire McClatchey slapped Benny five. Then she said, ‘At least the town common’s a safe place.’ She paused to consider that, frowning slightly. ‘I hope so, anyway, but who really knows?’
‘Don’t worry,’ Norrie said. ‘I’ll watch out for them.’
‘Just promise me that if you do find something, you’ll let the experts handle things,’ Claire said.
Mom, Joe thought, I think maybe we’re the experts. But he didn’t say it. He knew it would bum her out even more.
‘Word up,’ Benny said, and held his hand up again. ‘Five more, o mother of my—’
This time she kept both hands on the picture.’I love you, Benny, but sometimes you tire me out.’
He smiled sadly. ‘My mom says the exact same thing.’
5
Joe and his friends walked downhill to the bandstand that stood in the center of the common. Behind them, the Prestile murmured. It was lower now, dammed up by the Dome where it crossed into Chester’s Mill from the northwest. If the Dome was still in place tomorrow, Joe thought it would be nothing but a mudslick.
‘Okay,’ Benny said. ‘Enough with the Freddy Fuckaround. Time for the board-bangers to rescue Chester’s Mill. Let’s fire that baby up.’
Carefully (and with real reverence), Joe lifted the Geiger counter out of the shopping bag. The battery that powered it had been a long-dead soldier and the terminals had been thick with gunk, but a little baking soda took care of the corrosion, and Norrie had found not just one but three six-volt dry cells in her father’s tool closet. ‘He’s kind of a freak when it comes to batteries,’ she had confided, ‘and he’s gonna kill himself trying to learn boarding, but I love him.’
Joe put his thumb on the power switch, then looked at them grimly. ‘You know, this thing could read zilch everywhere we take it and tjiere still might be a generator, just not one that emits alpha or beta wa—’
‘Do it, for God’s sakes!’ Benny said. ‘The suspense is killin me.’
‘He’s right,’ Norrie said. ‘Do it.’
But here was an interesting thing. They had tested the Geiger counter plenty around Joe’s house, and it worked fine—when they tried it on an old watch with a radium dial, the needle jerked appreciably. They’d each taken a turn. But now that they were out here—on-site, so toispeak—Joe felt frozen.There was sweat on his forehead. He could feel it beading up and getting ready to trickle down.
He might have stood there quite awhile if Norrie hadn’t put her Hand over his. Then Benny added his. The three of them ended up pushing the slide-switch together. The needle in the COUNTS PER SECOND window immediately jumped to +5, and Norrie clutched Joe’s shoulder. Then it settled back to +2, and she relaxed her hold. They had no experience with radiation counters, but they all guessed they were seeing no more than a background count.
Slowly, Joe walked around the bandstand with the Geiger-Muller tube| held out on its coiled phone receiver-type cord. The power lamp! glowed a bright amber, and the needle jiggled a little bit from time to time, but mostly it stayed close to the
