“My parents were on the way to alcoholism,” Gwendy says. “Looking back on it, I’m almost sure of that. But they stopped drinking.”
“Yes, and who knows how many worse things the box might have prevented during your proprietorship? Not even I know. Mass slaughters? A dirty suitcase bomb planted in Grand Central Station? The assassination of a leader that might have sparked World War III? It hasn’t stopped everything—we both read the newspapers—but I’ll tell you one thing, Gwendy.” He leans forward, pinning her with his eyes. “It has stopped a lot. A lot.”
“And now?”
“Now I’ll thank you to give me the button box. Your work is done—at least that part of your work is done. You still have many things to tell the world… and the world will listen. You will entertain people, which is the greatest gift a man or woman can have. You’ll make them laugh, cry, gasp, think. By the time you’re thirty-five, you’ll have a computer to write on instead of a typewriter, but both are button boxes of a kind, wouldn’t you say? You will live a long life—”
“How long?” Again she feels that mixture of greed and reluctance.
“That I will not tell you, only that you will die surrounded by friends, in a pretty nightgown with blue flowers on the hem. There will be sun shining in your window, and before you pass you will look out and see a squadron of birds flying south. A final image of the world’s beauty. There will be a little pain. Not much.”
He takes a bite of his coffee cake, then stands.
“Very tasty, but I’m already late for my next appointment. The box, please.”
“Who gets it next? Or can you not tell me that, either?”
“Not sure. I have my eye on a boy in a little town called Pescadero, about an hour south of San Francisco. You will never meet him. I hope, Gwendy, he’s as good a custodian as you have been.”
He bends toward her and kisses her on the cheek. The touch of his lips makes her happy, the way the little chocolate animals always did.
“It’s at the bottom of my trunk,” Gwendy says. “In the bedroom. The trunk’s not locked… although I guess that wouldn’t cause you any problems even if it was.” She laughs, then sobers. “I just… I don’t want to touch it again, or even look at it. Because if I did…”
He’s smiling, but his eyes are grave. “If you did, you might want to keep it.”
“Yes.”
“Sit here, then. Finish your coffee cake. It really is good.”
He leaves her.
32
Gwendy sits. She eats her coffee cake in small slow bites, washing each one down with a tiny sip of milk. She hears the squeak her trunk lid makes when it goes up. She hears the squeak when the lid is lowered again. She hears the snap-snap of the latches being considerately closed. She hears his footsteps approach the door to the hall, and pause there. Will he say goodbye?
He does not. The door opens and softly closes. Mr. Richard Farris, first encountered on a bench at the top of Castle View’s Suicide Stairs, has left her life. Gwendy sits for another minute, finishing the last bite of her cake and thinking of a book she wants to write, a sprawling saga about a small town in Maine, one very much like her own. There will be love and horror. She isn’t ready yet, but she thinks the time will come quite soon; two years, five at most. Then she will sit down at her typewriter—her button box—and start tapping away.
At last, she gets up and walks into the living room. There’s a spring in her step. Already she feels lighter. The small black hat is no longer on her desk, but he’s left her something, anyway: an 1891 Morgan silver dollar. She picks it up, turning it this way and that so its uncirculated surface can catch the light. Then she laughs and puts it in her pocket.
About the Authors
Stephen King is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes The Bill Hodges Trilogy, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Revival, Doctor Sleep, and Under the Dome. His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. He is the recipient of the 2014 National Medal of Arts and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.
Richard Chizmar’s fiction has appeared in dozens of publications, including Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and multiple editions of The Year’s 25 Finest Crime and Mystery Stories. He has won two World Fantasy awards, four International Horror Guild awards, and the HWA’s Board of Trustee’s award. His third short story collection, A Long December, was recently published to starred reviews in both Kirkus and Booklist, and was featured in Entertainment Weekly. Chizmar’s work has been translated into many languages throughout the world, and he has appeared at numerous conferences as a writing instructor, guest speaker, panelist, and guest of honor. Please visit the author’s website at RichardChizmar.com.
About the Artists
Ben Baldwin is an artist and illustrator who works with a variety of mediums from photography and digital art programs to more traditional drawing and painting techniques. He has produced book cover designs and magazine illustrations for many clients around the world as well as one-off paintings or drawings for private commissions.
Keith Minnion sold his first short story to Asimov’s SF Adventure Magazine in 1979. He has sold over twenty stories, two novelettes, an art book of his best published illustrations, and one novel since. Keith has illustrated professionally since the early 1990s for such writers as William Peter Blatty, Gene Wolfe, and Neil Gaiman, and has also done extensive graphic design work for the department of Defense. He is a former school teacher, DOD program manager, and officer in the U.S. Navy. He currently lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, pursuing oil and watercolor painting, and fiction writing.
Cemetery Dance Publications
Be sure to visit CemeteryDance.com for more information about all of our great horror and suspense eBooks, along with our collectible signed Limited Edition hardcovers and our award-winning magazine.
Our authors include Stephen King, Gillian Flynn, Dean Koontz, Ray Bradbury, Peter Straub, William Peter Blatty, Joe Hill, Anne Rice, Michael Marshall Smith, Owen King, Ed Gorman, Max Brooks, Gillian Flynn, Tabitha King, Justin Cronin, Bentley Little, Scott Smith, Frank Darabont, Mick Garris, Joe R. Lansdale, Norman Partridge, Richard Laymon, Michael Slade, Graham Masterton, Douglas Clegg, Jack Ketchum, William F. Nolan, Nancy A. Collins, Al Sarrantonio, John Skipp, and many others.