Doctor Sleep: A Novel

Dick was about to ring the bell marked TORRANCE 2A. He held out his arms and she rushed into them at once, wishing she could be enfolded there for at least an hour. Maybe two.
    He let go and held her at arm’s length by her shoulders. “You’re lookin fine, Wendy. How’s the little man? He talkin again?”
    “No, but he’ll talk to you. Even if he won’t do it out loud to start with, you can—” Instead of finishing, she made a finger-gun and pointed it at his forehead.
    “Not necessarily,” Dick said. His smile revealed a bright new pair of false teeth. The Overlook had taken most of the last set on the night the boiler blew. Jack Torrance swung the mallet that took Dick’s dentures and Wendy’s ability to walk without a hitch in her stride, but they both understood it had really been the Overlook. “He’s very powerful, Wendy. If he wants to block me out, he will. I know from my own experience. Besides, it’d be better if we talk with our mouths. Better for him. Now tell me everything that happened.”
    After she did that, Wendy took him into the bathroom. She had left the stains for him to see, like a beat cop preserving the scene of a crime for the forensic team. And there had been a crime. One against her boy.
    Dick looked for a long time, not touching, then nodded. “Let’s see if Danny’s up and in the doins.”
    He wasn’t, but Wendy’s heart was lightened by the look of gladness that came into her son’s face when he saw who was sitting beside him on the bed and shaking his shoulder.
    ( hey Danny I brought you a present )
    ( it’s not my birthday )
    Wendy watched them, knowing they were speaking but not knowing what it was about.
    Dick said, “Get on up, honey. We’re gonna take a walk on the beach.”
    ( Dick she came back Mrs. Massey from Room 217 came back )
    Dick gave his shoulder another shake. “Talk out loud, Dan. You’re scarin your ma.”
    Danny said, “What’s my present?”
    Dick smiled. “That’s better. I like to hear you, and Wendy does, too.”
    “Yes.” It was all she dared say. Otherwise they’d hear the tremble in her voice and be concerned. She didn’t want that.
    “While we’re gone, you might want to give the bathroom a cleaning,” Dick said to her. “Have you got kitchen gloves?”
    She nodded.
    “Good. Wear them.”
    6
    The beach was two miles away. The parking lot was surrounded by tawdry beachfront attractions—funnel cake concessions, hotdog stands, souvenir shops—but this was the tag end of the season, and none were doing much business. They had the beach itself almost entirely to themselves. On the ride from the apartment, Danny had held his present—an oblong package, quite heavy, wrapped in silver paper—on his lap.
    “You can open it after we talk a bit,” Dick said.
    They walked just above the waves, where the sand was hard and gleaming. Danny walked slowly, because Dick was pretty old. Someday he’d die. Maybe even soon.
    “I’m good to go another few years,” Dick said. “Don’t you worry about that. Now tell me about last night. Don’t leave anything out.”
    It didn’t take long. The hard part would have been finding words to explain the terror he now felt, and how it was mingled with a suffocating sense of certainty: now that she’d found him, she’d never leave. But because it was Dick, he didn’t need words, although he found some.
    “She’ll come back. I know she will. She’ll come back and come back until she gets me.”
    “Do you remember when we met?”
    Although surprised at the change of direction, Danny nodded. It had been Hallorann who gave him and his parents the guided tour on their first day at the Overlook. Very long ago, that seemed.
    “And do you remember the first time I spoke up inside your head?”
    “I sure do.”
    “What did I say?”
    “You asked me if I wanted to go to Florida with you.”
    “That’s right. And how did it make you feel, to know you wasn’t alone anymore? That you wasn’t the only one?”
    “It was great,” Danny said. “It was so great.”
    “Yeah,” Hallorann said. “Yeah, course it was.”
    They walked in silence for a bit. Little birds—peeps, Danny’s mother called them—ran in and out of the waves.
    “Did it ever strike you funny, how I showed up when you needed me?” He looked down at Danny and smiled. “No. It didn’t. Why would it? You was just a child, but you’re a little older now. A lot older in some ways. Listen to me, Danny. The world