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."Tom!" she cried."Keep at him! Give me time!"Tom swung with what seemed renewed strength, drawing the thing's dim attention back to him long enough for Laura to step up to the gas pump, insert the rod in the lock, and pull on it with all her might until she heard the snap of broken metal and the ring of the lock striking the cement.She tossed down the rod, jerked the nozzle out of the boot, and flipped the reset lever, feeling relief flood through her as she heard the inner mechanisms hum.Pulling the hose as far as it would go, she shouted to the thing."Here! I'm here, you bastard!"The thing lurched, and its arm smashed out with a speed Laura had not thought possible, dashing the metal rod from Tom's hand.It came toward her then, step by ponderous step.When it was only a yard away, she pulled the trigger, and gasoline began to splash out of the spout.She splashed it over the living carving, and thought hysterically that it was like watering flowers, wasn't it? Flowers and Trees.And she remembered the walking trees in that old Disney Silly Symphony, and began to giggle, backing away slowly, splashing more and more gasoline on the thing that was stalking her.The Rodman carving glimmered wetly now, and she released the trigger, tossed the nozzle as far as she could.The thing's arms were waving rapidly, reaching for her, but its legs were slow.Nevertheless, she realized that it was not as stupid as she had thought, and was backing her up against the garage building.Tom had picked up his rod and was smashing it against the creature's back and legs, but it paid him no mind.Now.She had to do it now, even if she burned too.Laura dug the box of matches from her pocket and opened it, spilling half of them in the process.Taking one, she held her breath and rubbed the head against the rough striker.She did not have to throw it.The fumes in the air ignited instantly, and the force of the explosion threw her back against the wall of the garage, stunning her.When she opened her eyes a moment later, she realized that her hair was on fire, and she pulled the back of her blouse up over her head, patting it quickly.Then she remembered, and saw in front of her a tall, living torch.The thing's arms, twin ribbons of flame, waved madly in the air, and the heavy legs, also on fire, stumbled backward toward the street.Little pools of flame burned blue on the ground around Laura, but she had thrown the nozzle far enough away so that the tank would not explode.Now Tom was beside her on his hands and knees, his face reddened from the singeing blast of fire."Are you okay?" he asked her.She nodded, and they painfully got to their feet.By now the fiery monster was whirling in ungainly circles, the roar of the fire augmented by a faraway, roaring voice, the kind of sound that might have come from a thick, solid, wooden throat.The thing was across the road now, on the carpet of pine needles that led, unbroken, to the houses of Dreamthorp.It stopped its clumsy dance, raised what remained of its burning arms, gave one final, inarticulate roar, and toppled over like a falling tree, its impact splashing flames in a nimbus all around it.Laura and Tom watched as the fingers of fire rapidly spread across the surface of dry needles, reaching the first of the trees, climbing up them with the speed of frightened squirrels."We've got to call, get help," Laura said, limping to the phone booth."Laura." She felt Tom's hand on her shoulder."No.""But, Tom.""It's the wood, Laura.It's all the wood.All rotten.All filled with hate.Let the fire have it.""But, Tom," she said."Dreamthorp.''"Dreamthorp isn't here anymore.It can be anywhere we want it to be," he said softly, "but not here." He turned and looked at the fire eating the dry trees, the flames leaping from limb to limb, drawing ever closer to the little houses, those houses twitching and reeling with their own vicious life."Not here.Let it go.Let it all go."He knelt and picked up the iron rod."Step away, Laura," he said, and she did as he asked.Then he swung the rod at the pay phone over and over again, until the machine lay in pieces on the metal floor."Gilbert," he said."Gilbert did that too."They sat and watched the town burn, knowing that someone would soon come, but not soon enough to save Dreamthorp.A short time later the first of the Chalmers fire trucks arrived and screamed up Elm Road as far as it could go without being roasted.Others from nearby communities followed, and before too long a Chalmers police car pulled up in front of Ted's Mobil.Bret Walters climbed out and looked at Tom and Laura as if he could not believe what he was seeing."What the hell happened here, Tom?" he asked.But it was Laura who answered."There was a man, sheriff.A man who came here today.His name was Gilbert Rodman.""He started the fire," Tom said."He was responsible for everything, Bret.Everything.""Well.well, where the hell is he?""He's dead now," Laura said."He's dead."Bret Walters looked from one to the other but saw nothing that made any sense to him."But what the hell happened?"Laura looked across the road and up the hill to where the firemen watched Dreamthorp burning."I'm not sure," she said, "but I think the old magic met the new."Dreamthorp is as silent as a picture, the voices of the children are mute.—Alexander Smith, DreamthorpBret Walters drove Tom and Laura to the Lebanon County Hospital, where their wounds were dressed and they were placed in a semiprivate room for the night.Bret said he would come by to take their statements in the morning.After Bret and the nurse had gone, Tom and Laura got into one bed together and, careful of their hurts, lay with their arms around each other, quietly talking, then falling silent, then talking again as the thoughts came to them, as the ideas coalesced, as they tried to make out of it what sense they could."Wood lived," Tom said."And if it lived, it might have had life remaining in it.Like ghosts of men.And if Gilbert's hate for you was so strong, and if he had some power that we can't even conceive of.""I think he did," Laura said."In his coma.or whatever he was in.he might have found it then.""And that hate came ahead of him, maybe without his even knowing it, toward you, and took the form of the wood.""I don't know." Laura shook her head and held Tom more tightly."Maybe the Indians did have something to do with it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]