(and tommy's dead)
Well, well. She began to cry. She put her hands over her face and sobbed into them. A soft breeze snuffled through the juniper bushes on top of the hill. More fire engines screamed by on Route 6 like huge red hounds in the night.
(the town's burning down o well)
She had no idea how long she sat there, crying in a grainy half-doze. She was not even aware that she was following Carrie's progress toward The Cavalier, no more than she was aware of the process of respiration unless she thought about it. Carrie was hurt very badly, was going on brute determination alone at this point. It was three miles out to The Cavalier, even across-country, as Carrie was going. Sue
(watched? thought? doesn't matter)
as Carrie fell in a brook and dragged herself out, icy and shivering. It was really amazing that she kept going. But of course it was for Momma. Momma wanted her to be the Angel's Fiery Sword, to destroy-
(she's going to destroy that too)
She got up and began to run clumsily, not bothering to follow the trail of blood. She didn't need to follow it any more.
From The Shadow Exploded (pp. 164-165):
Whatever any of us may think of the Carrie White affair, it is over. It's time to turn to the future. As Dean McGuffin points out, in his excellent Science Yearbook article, if we refuse to do this, we will almost certainly have to pay the piper - and the price is apt to be a high one.
A thorny moral question is raised here. Progress is already being made toward complete isolation of the TK gene. It is more or less assumed in the scientific community (see, for instance, Bourke and Hannegan's 'A View Toward Isolation of the TK Gene with Specific Recommendations for Control Parameters' in Mocrobiology Annual, Berkeley: 1982) that when a testing procedure is established, all school-age children will undergo the test as routinely as they now undergo the TB skin-patch. Yet TK is not a germ; it is as much a part of the afflicted person as the colour of his eyes.
If overt TK ability occurs as a part of puberty, and if this hypothetical TK test is performed on children entering the first grade, we shall certainly be forewarned. But in this case, is forewarned forearmed? If the TB test shows positive a child can be treated or isolated. If the TK test shows positive, we have no treatment except a bullet in the head. And how is it possible to isolate a person who will eventually have the power to knock down all walls?
And even if isolation could be made successful, would the American people allow a small, pretty girl-child to be ripped away from her parents at the first sign of puberty to be locked in a bank vault for the rest of her life? I doubt it. Especially when The White Commission has worked so hard to convince the public that the nightmare in Chamberlain was a complete fluke.
Indeed, we seem to have returned to Square One.
From the sworn testimony of Susan Snell, taken before The State Investigatory Board of Maine (from The White Commission Report), pp. 306-472:
Q. Now, Miss Snell, the Board would like to go through your testimony concerning your alleged meeting with Carrie White in The Cavalier parking lot
A. Why do you keep asking the same questions over and over? I've told you twice already.
Q. We want to make sure the record is correct in every
A. You want to catch me in a lie, isn't that what you really mean? You don't think I'm telling the truth, do YOU?
Q. You say you came upon Carrie at
A. Will you answer me?
Q. -at 2:00 on the morning of May 28th. Is that correct?
A I'm not going to answer any more questions until you answer the one I just asked.
Q. Miss Snell, this body is empowered to cite you for contempt if you refuse to answer on any other grounds than Constitutional ones.
A. I don't care what you're empowered to do. I've lost someone I love. Go and throw me in jail. I don't care. I - go to hell. All of you, go to hell. You're trying to ... to ... I don't know, crucify me or something. Just lay off me!
(A short recess)
Q. Miss Snell, are you willing to continue your testimony at this time?
A. Yes. But I won't be badgered. Mr Chairman.
Q. Of course not, young lady. No one wants to badger you. Now you claim to have come upon Carrie in the parking lot of this tavern at 2:00. Is that correct?
A. Yes.
Q. You knew it was 2:00?
A. I was wearing the watch you see on my wrist right now.
Q. To be sure. Isn't The Cavalier better than six miles from where you left your mother's car?
A. It is by the road. It's close to three as the crow flies.
Q. You walked this distance?
X Yes.
Q. Now you testified earlier that you 'knew' you were getting close to Carrie. Can you explain this?
A. No.
Q. Could you smell her?
A. What?
Q. Did you follow your nose?
(Laughter in the galleries)
A. Are you playing games with me?
Q. Answer the question, please.
A. No. I didn't follow my nose.
Q. Could you see her?
A. No.
Q. Hear her?
A. No.
Q. Then how could you possibly know she was there? A. How did Tom Quillan know? Or Cora Simard? Or poor Vic Mooney? How did any of them know?
Q. Answer the question, miss. This is hardly the place or the time for impertinence.
A. But they did say they 'just knew,' didn't they? I read Mrs Simard's testimony in the paper! And what about the fire hydrants that opened themselves? And the gas pumps that broke their own locks and turned themselves on? The power lines that climbed down off their poles! And
Q. Miss Snell, please
A. Those things are in the record of this Commission's proceedings!
Q. This is not an issue here.
A. Then what is? Are you looking for the truth or just a scapegoat?
Chapter Twenty
Q. You deny you had prior knowledge of Carrie White's whereabouts?