the stand: chapters 19 & 20

i can somewhat relate to larry underwood as he is in the opening of chapter 19. i've been gone from my hometown for a long time and now when i return, it seems like a foreign land. that's how larry sees times square now: he thought the years would have changed it into something magical but instead it still looked rank and dangerous, the same as it always did, which is a bit unsettling for larry. now it was the same and different, all the old crappy stuff replaced by new crappy stuff. gone is the penny arcade and the newsstand; in their places now lurk massage parlors and x-rated movie theaters. he feels now like a tourist instead of a son of the city, a homeless soul, not at home in los angeles, no longer at home in new york city.

alice underwood is home from work with a bad cold (uh oh), the guest on the news show has the sneezies (double uh oh), heck, larry even recalls the abnormal number of coughing folks on the subway train (triple uh oh). he calls back to L.A. and discovers his buddy wayne is in the hospital with a nasty flu bug. (nice knowing you, wayne.) he also finds out that there's a nice chunk of cash waiting for him in a bank back in california.

larry returns home to find his mother collapsed on the floor, burning up with fever and delirious. she's telling larry to go to the bar and find his father, tell him to come home, he's there with the photographer! i wonder if mr. underwood was stepping out on alice? i dont think the book ever says that specifically but i guess we can infer that he was unfaithful. maybe that's why larry was hesitant to tell his mom that he was out with the dental hygienist? maybe mom has little use for men who just run around without the benefit of some semblance of commitment. so larry calls for an ambulance but just gets an answering machine at the hospital. things must be pretty hectic at the ER if they have a machine picking up the calls. larry is at a loss as to what to do, having never been in this kind of situation before, and decides to go to the hospital to find out what's going on. before he leaves, he goes to a neighbor, mr. freeman, to ask him to sit with alice while larry is gone. the chapter ends with larry approaching the neighbor's door.

chapter 20 is pretty cut and dry: we're back in maine with frannie, who is in a sort of mental limbo about her situation. she tries to type a letter to a friend but it seems more of a chore than a pleasure. she's already arranged a place to live (number 3 in a roommate situation) so that burden is lifted. she thinks that being away from her hometown and her parents (even her father) would be a relief; she feels like she needs to be on the defensive, almost like she expects that everyone is whispering about her or looking at her, or if they arent, that they WILL be. hmm, paranoia anyone? she gets a call from jess and she pretty much tells him she doesnt want anything from him. he insists that he wants to be there to help, but frannie feels like he's just doing it out of obligation, not because he actually wants to. hmm, skepticism anyone?

a phone call from her dad reveals that mother goldsmith is sick with a cold; in fact, she's been asking for it, running herself ragged with all her clubs and social events and even sleeping upright in the parlor the night before after her confrontation with frannie. remembering the whole incident makes frannie feel guilty, thinking that may have contributed to her mom falling ill even though she saw the haggard, run-down look her mother had even when she returned from college to visit. even though they fought and she's never really been close to her mother, frannie still doesnt want her to be sick and is worried about carla. on the way out the door to go visit carla, the phone rings again. frannie has a premonition of sorts that it's her father calling to say that her mother is worse. guilt weighs even heavier on frannie's heart. sure enough, it's peter goldsmith, and he's fighting back tears. carla is in the hospital, taken by ambulance, and peter is near hysteria. peter also tells frannie that the ambulances were busy and that there was a waiting list for the sick to be picked up. chapter 20 concludes with frannie waiting for her father to pick her up so they can go to the hospital to see carla.

so alice underwood and carla goldsmith are sick, while larry, frannie, and peter are not. hundreds of others are sick too; the hospitals in ogunquit and new york city are full!

the stand: chapter 18

chapter 18 opens with nick andros, the deaf-mute who suffered a major ass-whipping via the hands of sheriff baker's brother-in-law ray and ray's cronies back in chapter 9.  sheriff baker gave nick a job sweeping up in the jailhouse to make up for the week of pay he lost when the wayward welcome committee tried to show him the way out of town (and total existence, for that matter).  three of the four culprits now call the shoyo, arkansas jail home; only ray, the sheriff's brother-in-law, avoided capture and is now MIA.

nick has met the sheriff's wife, jane (who also happens to be ray's sister) and had supper with them. she apologizes to nick for her brother's actions, which shows a lot of character, in my opinion. while of course she has no control over her brother, she still shows a level of remorse (not really the word i am looking for but i cannot think of the right one) for what he did. jane baker is also concerned over her husband's health; he's very sick and is running a fever. she orders him to bed, in the way that only a loving wife can do, and he complies, in a way that only a husband who knows what side his bread's buttered on can do. sheriff baker asks nick to go back to the station to ensure the detainees have a meal, but before nick can do that, baker deputizes him. he also gives nick permission to sleep at the station.

while he's at the station having some down-time, nick pens a shorthand autobiography for baker. by the age of nine, nick was an orphan and living in a baptist orphanage. having been born a deaf-mute, his learning was already stunted, but living at the orphanage made it worse as no one knew how to help him. he was on his way to becoming a recluse of sorts until another deaf-mute, an adult man named rudy, showed up at the orphanage to help him. nick was stubborn at first but rudy got through his wall. when nick was 16, the orphanage went belly-up and nick ran away because he didnt want to live in a foster home with strangers.

sheriff baker seems to be making a recovery from his "summer cold," and he and nick have a little heart to heart. the local doctor comes by to check nick out and pronounces him bruised and battered but otherwise healthy. nick will probably lose his two front teeth, courtesy of ray's fraternity ring, but other than that, he'll be okay. i happen to know exactly what's going to happen to nick because i've read the book but i wont spoil it for you this early in the story. unless you want me to. then i probably still wont. HAHA

doc soames takes a peek at sheriff baker per mrs baker's request and discovers that the lawman is having a relapse with his cold. the fever is back, along with some glandular swelling (sound familiar??). doc orders the sheriff home to bed. the doctor divulges to the sheriff that the cold is making the rounds through town: a whole slew of town folk have come down with the sickness. oh me oh my, whatever do we make of this? captain trips is making his rounds right along with doc soames. even two townspeople who stopped in to check on nick are sick.

that night, nick dreams of being in a cornfield and being terribly afraid of something behind him. so nick is apparently dreaming about the same thing stu redman dreamed of. it's interesting that they both are not just "afraid" but they both experienced "terrible" fear. whatever's in the cornfield must be very evil. *shudder*

two or three times in this chapter it's noted that while nick is in the holding area, billy and mike (two of the four who assaulted him) are constantly verbally harassing him, even though they KNOW he is deaf and cannot hear them. i think they are half-brained brutes who probably dont know their asses from a hole in the ground. vince, the third assailant (and the one who spilled his guts when questioned by the sheriff) isnt harassing nick. i think vince is remorseful for what they did and for his part in it. he's also sick, very sick.

by 8 AM the next morning, sheriff baker hasnt shown up for work, and no breakfast has been delivered for the prisoners. nick starts to feel a bit uneasy. he sees that vince has gotten even sicker and decides to go for the doctor. he finds the doctor, who is sick himself. he breaks the bad news that sheriff baker has died and mrs. baker is sick. as a matter of fact, several people in shoyo have died since yesterday and many more are sick and dying, thus running doc soames nearly ragged. the doctor reveals that all the phone lines are down and no calls can be made outside of the town and all exits are blocked off for road construction. in fact, the road crew look suspiciously like soldiers. never seen road crew salute each other, right? the good doc also suggests that someone somewhere made a mistake, a big mistake, and that's why everyone is sick. old doc couldnt be closer to the truth.

things are really starting to heat up now. i can imagine that mass panic is happening all around the country, perhaps even the world. people dropping like flies with no respect to class, race, or gender. the illness has likely traveled by plane, train, and automobile to all parts of the world by now. we see this kind of apocalyptic event in movies a lot but could you imagine if it REALLY did happen? think of all the things that would cease to exist: electricity, running water, HOT water, refrigerated food and drink. we'd all be back to living in pre-industrial america. and it wouldnt be just "the good guys" who survived. there would be less-than-admirable people among them too. so we wouldnt be faced with just the hardship of living in a different world, we'd also have to watch our backs constantly. no security cameras, no 911, we'd be right back to frontier justice. very scary.

this chapter was very long. it was difficult for me to blog, too, for some unknown reason. maybe the next chapter wont be the same.

(where oh where has my stu redman gone? i miss him and want to visit with him soon....)

the stand: chapters 16 & 17

ever rode in a lincoln continental? well that's what we're doing in chapter 16. trouble is, we're riding with a couple of dope-smoking murderers, lloyd and poke. poke is the brains of the operation (i use the term "brains" very lightly), and lloyd, well, he does all the jumping. poke just tells him how high. and speaking of high, they are both three sheets in the wind, which is no surprise, seeing as how they have a trash bag full of marijuana, some hash, and a dash of cocaine. along for the ride are a stash of guns and some stolen credit cards. oh, and for good measure, the car is stolen. stolen from a family whom poke and lloyd killed. this story just keeps getting better doesnt it? so from nevada to arizona and then back into nevada, poke and lloyd are on a robbing and killing spree, taking what they need and killing anyone who gets in the way. poke and lloyd met in prison, but only one will go back, because at the end of this chapter, the other is in the morgue.

this is one of the few instances where i HOPE the virus jumps on someone.

from one killing spree to another, we'll leave nevada for california for chapter 17. we're back at the army base that our contagious mr. campion ran from back in chapter one. starkey is still there and 2nd class frank bruce is still bobbing for beef in his campbell's chunky soup. more towns besides arnette, texas have had widespread outbreaks of project blue and the press has gotten wind of it. now starkey is forced to make an executive decision in what he perceives is protecting his military. on a call with an unidentified soldier, starkey gives the order for something code-named "troy." shortly thereafter, two reporters are stopped short of town and end up taking a one-way detour to the morgue.

these kinds executive decisions by high-ranking military personnel is something i've read about and watched in movies a countless number of times. i wonder if it really happens? i guess the idea had to come from somewhere....

i like the way king takes us from one story-line to the next; it keeps us on our toes. we have to remember what's going on with each character and where their stories ended when we left them last. 

tonight's the night....

....that i have to go to bed early because i have to work in the morning at the ungodly hour of 4:30! it should be illegal and unethical to have to wake up that early!!! BUT: on the good side, i am making money, so i'll grit my teeth and bear it. it's not so bad anyways. all i do is bullchit with people all day and do a little bit of actual work in between, so all in all, i'm okay with it.

cousteau (my little black kitten) has a nasty upper respiratory infection and has to go to the vet tomorrow, so as soon as i'm off work that's where i'll be heading. poor little critter is miserable, i just know he is. : (

classes start back next monday so this week is my last of vacation for a while. i'm looking forward to getting back in class. i am ready to get this show on the road, folks.

well, i have an app on facebook that i want to get caught up so let me go over there and get it done. until next time, faithful reader....

~t

the stand: chapters 13 - 15

from maine back to georgia, chapter 13 finds us in atlanta again, with stu redman. he's still locked up tight behind the steel doors of the "hospital," (i think it's some part of the CDC), and he's still madder than a wet hen. he still hasnt gotten the low-down on what's going on. but then, the steel door opens and enter dick deitz, the man with the plan, the guy who is going to get everything straight with stu. yeah. sure.

so stu and deitz have a little mano e mano, during which deitz tells stu that geraldo the guinea pig has been breathing stu's air and has yet to fall ill. (apparently project blue is harmful to those critters too.) so by the powers vested in deitz and the CDC in atlanta, he now pronounces stu healthy as a horse, but by no means a free man. of all stu's fellow townspeople from arnette, the only other person who isn't sick is eva hodges, one of the three children lila bruett was babysitting way back in the beginning. everyone else is either dying or already dead. in a bright moment of genius, stu, angered at being told everything is "classified" and can't be divulged, begins to hack and cough. deitz becomes scared and runs for the hills but before he can get out of the room, stu tells him it was a fake cough. haha i loves me some stu redman. he's a hoot! even in his sadness at the loss of his friends, he still found a way to deliver one below the belt to the people keeping him in the dark. but since they ARE trying to find a vaccine and/or a cure for the virus, stu finally concedes and agrees to be a willing test subject. deitz leaves, and stu sleeps, and dreams. he dreams of a country road flanked on both sides by corn fields. stu thinks that he should get to there, but in the corn fields lurks something evil, a pair of red eyes that fills stu with hopeless terror. stu wakes up only to think that he's never been to a place like that before in his life.

let's stay at the CDC/hospital/wherever the hell they are for chapter 14. deitz has retired to his office to log his session with stu redman. we learn that stu redman and eva hodges are code-named prince and princess. he talks on about stu's strength and stu's actions during the meeting. we find out how one person reacted positively to a possible vaccine but then died suddenly when the virus regrouped and came back for round two. deitz laments on the general population and how they will likely neglect seeking medical help for what they think is a "common cold" until it's too late, therefore the chances of finding a vaccine are slim. and sadly, we learn that the princess is now sick.

we're becoming familiar faces at the CDC/hospital/whatever place because we're sticking around here for chapter 15 too. if we keep meeting like this, people might start to talk. but that's okay because i dont know how many are gonna be around to spread the rumor! HAHA anyway, enter nurse patty greer, the little lady who got the short end of the stick way back when she tried to get vitals from stu. we can sum this chapter up very quickly: she just started sneezing. she's busy, though, and absently ignores it, thus infecting a bunch of folks throughout the facility. oh this is not going to turn out well. poor stu is locked behind a steel door and project blue is on the loose. captain trips is making his rounds and the prognosis isnt good.

although i've read this book several times, it's getting harder and harder to stop reading after our assigned chapters. i am really getting into it again even though i know what happens. i can feel the characters as real people and i am anxious to keep reading their stories. please, if you havent read it yet, i implore you to give it a try. it really is an epic adventure and a thought-provoking storyline. i doubt you will be disappointed.