Cujo (48 page)
Authors: Stephen King
“What's his name?” Brett asked.
“Doesn't have a name. He's just weaned.”
“Is he a breed?”
“Yes,” she said, and then laughed. “He's a Heinz. Fifty-seven Varieties.”
He smiled back, and the smile was strained. But Charity reckoned it better than no smile at all.
“Could he come in? It's started to snow again.”
“He can come in if you put down papers. And if he piddles around, you clean it up.”
“All right.” He opened the door to go out.
“What do you want to call him, Brett?”
“I don't know,” Brett said. There was a long, long pause. “I don't know yet. I'll have to think on it.”
She had an impression that he was crying, and restrained an impulse to go to him. Besides, his back was to her and she couldn't really tell. He was getting to be a big boy, and as much as it pained her to know it, she understood that big boys often don't want their mothers to know they're crying.
He went outside and brought the dog back in, carrying it cradled in his arms. It remained unnamed until the following spring, when for no reason either of them could exactly pinpoint, they began to call it Willie. It was a small, lively, short-haired dog, mostly terrier. Somehow it just looked like a Willie. The name stuck.
Much later, that spring, Charity got a small pay raise. She began to put away ten dollars a week. Toward Brett's college.
â¢Â  â¢Â  â¢
Shortly following those mortal events in the Camber dooryard, Cujo's remains were cremated. The ashes went out with the trash and were disposed of at the Augusta waste-treatment plant. It would perhaps not be amiss to point out that he had always tried to be a good dog. He had tried to do all the things his
MAN
and his
WOMAN
, and most of all his
BOY
, had asked or expected of him. He would have died for them, if that had been required. He had never wanted to kill anybody. He had been struck by something, possibly destiny, or fate, or only a degenerative nerve disease called rabies. Free will was not a factor.
â¢Â  â¢Â  â¢
The small cave into which Cujo had chased the rabbit was never discovered. Eventually, for whatever vague reasons small creatures may have, the bats moved on. The rabbit was unable to get out and it starved to death in slow, soundless misery. Its bones, so far as I know, still remain there with the bones of those small animals unlucky enough to have tumbled into that place before it.
I'm tellin you so you'll know,
I'm tellin you so you'll know,
I'm tellin you so you'll know,
Ole Blue's gone where the good dogs go.
â
FOLK SONG
September 1977âMarch 1981
Stephen King
is the author of more than fifty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes
Mr. Mercedes,
winner of the 2015 Edgar Award for Best Novel;
Doctor Sleep;
and
Under the Dome
, a major TV miniseries on CBS. 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 best Mystery/Thriller. He is the recipient of the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and a 2014 National Medal of Arts. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King.
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
authors.simonandschuster.com/Stephen-King
Also by Stephen King
FICTION
Carrie
'Salem's Lot
The Shining
Night Shift
The Stand
The Dead Zone
Firestarter
Creepshow
Different Seasons
Cycle of the Werewolf
Christine
Pet Sematary
IT
Skeleton Crew
The Eyes of the Dragon
Misery
The Tommyknockers
The Dark Half
Four Past Midnight
Needful Things
Gerald's Game
Dolores Claiborne
Nightmares & Dreamscapes
Insomnia
Rose Madder
The Green Mile
Desperation
Bag of Bones
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Hearts in Atlantis
Dreamcatcher
Everything's Eventual
From a Buick 8
The Colorado Kid
Cell
Lisey's Story
Duma Key
Just After Sunset
Stephen King Goes to the Movies
Under the Dome
Full Dark, No Stars
11/22/63
Doctor Sleep
Mr. Mercedes
Revival
Finders Keepers
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams
End of Watch
(forthcoming June 2016)
NOVELS IN THE DARK TOWER SERIES
The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
The Wind Through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel
BY STEPHEN KING AS RICHARD BACHMAN
Thinner
The Running Man
The Long Walk
Roadwork
The Regulators
Blaze
WITH PETER STRAUB
The Talisman
Black House
NONFICTION
Danse Macabre
On Writing (A Memoir of the Craft)
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Copyright © 1981 by Stephen King
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ISBN 978-1-5011-4112-6