Under the Dome

'I'm sorry.Audi started to bark, so I turned around. I said, "Honey, are you all right?" She didn't answer, just got out of the swing and sat down underneath—you know, where there's a little dip from all the feet? She didn't fall out or anything, just sat down. She was staring straight ahead and doing that lip-smacking thing you told me to watch for. I ran over… kind of shook her… and she said… let me think…'

Here it comes, Linda thought. Stop Halloween, you have to stop Halloween.

But no. It was something else entirely.

'She said, "The pink stars are falling. The pink stars are falling in lines." Then she said, "It's so dark and everything smells bad." Then she woke up and now everything's fine.'

'Thank God for that,' Linda said, and spared a thought for her five-year-old. 'Is Judy okay? Did it upset her?'

There was a long pause on the line and then Marta said, 'Oh.'

'0h? What does that mean, oh?'

'It was Judy, Linda. Not Janelle. This time it was Judy.'

15

I want to play that other game you said, Aidan had told Carolyn Sturges when they had stopped on the common to talk to Rusty. The other game she had in mind was Red Light, although Carolyn had only the slightest recollection of the rules—not surprising, since she hadn't played it since she was six or seven.

But once she was standing against a tree in the commodious backyard of the 'passionage,' the rules came back to her. And, unexpectedly, to Thurston, who seemed not only willing to play, but eager.

'Remember,' he instructed the children (who somehow seemed to have missed the pleasures of Red Light themselves), 'she can count to ten as fast as she wants to, and if she catches you moving when she turns around, you have to go all the way back.'

'She won't catch me,' Alice said.

'Me, either,' Aidan said stoutly.

'We'll see about that,' Carolyn said, and turned her face to the tree: 'One, two, three, four… five, six, seven… eight-nine-ten RED LIGHT!'

She whirled around. Alice was standing with a smile on her mouth and one leg extended in a big old giant step. Thurston, also smiling, had his hands extended in Phantom of the Opera claws. She caught the slightest movement from Aidan, but didn't even think about sending him back. He looked happy, and she had no intention of spoiling that.

'Good,' she said. 'Good little statues. Here comes Round Two.' She turned to the tree and counted again, invaded by the old, childishly delicious fear of knowing people were moving in while her back was turned. 'Onetwo threefour fivesix seveneightnineten REDLIGHT!'

She whirled. Alice was now only twenty paces away. Aidan was ten p^ces or so behind her, trembling on one foot, a scab on his knee very visible. Thurse was behind the boy, one hand on his chest like an orator, smiling. Alice was going to be the one to catch her, but that Was all right; in the second game the girl would be 'it' and her brother would win. She and Thurse would see to it.

She turned to the tree again. 'Onetwothreefo—'

Then Alice screamed.

Carolyn turned and saw Aidan Appleton lying on the ground. At fifst she thought he was still trying to play the game. One knee—the one with the scab on it—was up, as if he were trying to run on his back. His wide eyes were staring at the sky. His lips were folded into a poochy little O. There was a dark spot spreading on his shorts. She rushed to him.

'What's wrong with him?' Alice asked. Carolyn could see all the sfress of the terrible weekend crushing in on her face. 'Is he all right?'

'Aidan?'Thurse asked. 'You okay big fella?'

Aidan went on trembling, his lips seeming to suck at an invisible Straw. His bent leg came down… then kicked out. His shoulders twitched.

'He's having some kind of seizure,' Carolyn said.'Probably from overexcitement. I think he'll come out of it if we just give him a few m—'

'The pink stars are falling,' Aidan said. 'They make lines behind themL It's pretty. It's scary. Everyone is watching. No treats, only tricks. Hard to breathe. He calls himself the Chef. It's his fault. He's the one.'

Carolyn and Thurston looked at each other. Alice was kneeling by her brother, holding his hand.

'Pink stars,' Aidan said. 'They fall, they fall, they f—'

'Wake upT Alice shouted into his face. 'Stop scaring us!'

Thurston Marshall touched her shoulder gently. 'Honey, I don't think that's helping.'

Alice paid him no mind.' Wake up, you… you CRAPHEAD!'

And Aidan did. He looked at his sister's tear-streaked face, puzzled. Then he looked at Carolyn and smiled—the sweetest goddam smile she had ever seen in her life.

'Did I win?' he asked.

16

The gennie in the Town Hall's supply shed was badly maintained (someone had shoved an old-timey galvanized tin washbasin under it to catch the dripping oil, and, Rusty guessed, about as energy-efficient as Big Jim Rennie s Hummer. But he was more interested in the silver tank attached to it.