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Carol ate a spoonful of spuht Here’s e’ll do Jane and I will leave for the , just as we planned You stay here, finish your scene, and then drive up to join us whenever you’re ready"
He frowned "I’ood idea"
"Why not?"
"Well, is it really wise for the two of you to go up there alone? Ito be many campers in the woods now, and most of the other cabins will be deserted"
"For heaven’s sake," Carol said, "there’s no
Abo around in those mountains, Paul We’re in Pennsylvania, not Tibet" She smiled "It’s nice to know you’re so concerned about us, darling But we’ll be perfectly safe"
Later, after Jane had gone to bed, Paul h he knew the effort would be wasted
He leaned against the frame of the closet door and watched as Carol selected clothes for the suitcases
"Listen, be straight with irl Is there any chance she’s dangerous?"
Carol turned from the clothes rack and stared at hierous? Well, a girl as pretty as she is will probably
break a lot of hearts over the years And if cuteness could kill, she’d leave the streets littered with bodies behind her"
He refused to be amused "I don’t want you to be flippant about this I think it’s iht"
"I don’t need to give it a lot of thought, Paul She’s lost her memory, sure But she’s a stable, ly stable personality to handle amnesia the way she’s handled it I don’t know that I’d do half as well if I were in her shoes right now I’d either be a nervous wreck or sunk neck-deep in depression She’s resilient, flexible Resilient and flexible people aren’t dangerous"
"Never?"
"Hardly ever It’s the rigid ones who crack"
"But after what’s happened in your therapy sessions with her, isn’t it reasonable to wonder about what she irl I believe she’s been through a truly terrifying experience, so so awful that she refuses to relive it, even under hypnosis She obfuscates, misdirects, and holds back vital inforerous Just scared It seems evident to ical violence at some time in her life The victim, Paul, not the perpetrator"
She carried a few pairs of jeans to the suitcases that were open on the bed
Paul followed her "Are you going to continue her therapy while you’re at the cabin?"
Yes I think it’s best to keep chipping away at the Wall of confusion she’s thrown up"
"No fair"
"Huh?’
"That’s work," he said "I’oing to work
That’s a double standard, Dr Tracy"
"Double standard, my ass, Dr Tracy I’ll need only half an hour a day for Jane’s therapy That’s a lot different than lugging an IBM Selectric into the piny woods and pounding on the keys ten hours a day Don’t you realize that all the squirrels and deer and bunny rabbits would complain about the noise?"
Later still, when they were in bed and the lights were out, he said, "Hell, I’ this book take possession of me Why can’t I let the scene lie unfinished for ten days? I ht even do a better job with it if I take the ti with you and Jane to the typewriter Okay? I won’t even bring a pencil"
"No," Carol said
"No?"
"When you do get to the mountains, I want you to be able to put the book co walks in the forest I want us to go boating on the lake and do so and read a couple of books and act like bums who never even heard the word ‘work’ if you don’t finish that scene before you go, you’ll just brood about it during the entire vacation You won’t have a moment’s real peace, which means I won’t have aI know you better than I know myself, buster: You
stay here, write the end of that scene, and then join us on Sunday"
She kissed hiht, fluffed her pillows, and settled down to sleep
He lay in the dark, thinking about the words in yesterday’s Scrabble game
BLADE
KILL
O
O
DEATH
O
M
B
And the one word he had refused to reveal:
CAROL
He still didn’t think anything would be gained by telling her what the last of those six words had been What could she do about it other than worry? Nothing She could do nothing, and he could do nothing Except wait and see A threat--if one actually arose--could come from any of ten thousand or a hundred thousand sources It could come anytime, anywhere At hoerous--as the other
Anyway, maybe the appearance of those six words had been less coincidence
He stared into the darkness, trying hard to convince hies, oo, he wouldn’t have needed convincing
Blood
Get it off, scrub it off, every sticky drop of it, wash it off, quickly, quickly, down the drain, every incri drop of it, off, before someone finds out, before someone sees and knohat’s been done, wash it off, off