The Land Of Laughs

I cleared my throat a couple of times before speaking. "Hello?"

"Oh, Thomas, you are there. It's me, Saxony. I'm down at the bus station. I'm here. I'm in Galen."

"Oh, Christ!"

"Well, thanks a lot! I'm sorry if –"

"Shut up, Sax, shut up. Look, uh, look – I'll be down there in ten minutes. Just wait for me. Be out there in front and wait for me. Don't move."

"What is the matter with you? What – ?"

"Look, do what I say. Stay where you are."

She must have sensed the fear in my voice because she only said, "All right. I'll be in front," and hung up.

I wrapped a green blanket completely around my suitcase and carried it outside, held in front of me. If anyone was watching, I wanted them to think that it was only a package or some dry cleaning to be done. I pushed a half-smile onto my lips and walked jauntily to the car. I skidded on a patch of ice and almost fell down. When I regained my balance, I was sure that hundreds of eyes were boring into me from everywhere. I stared straight ahead.

"Abbey just came out."

"What's he doing?"

"He's got some kind of package or something in his arms."

"It isn't a suitcase, is it?"

"I don't think so. It looks like… No, I don't know what it looks like. Maybe you should have a look for yourself."

"Or maybe we should call A

By the time I had the keys out and was fumbling by the car door, I knew any moment I would hear a shout and a stampede of feet. I got the door unlocked and oh-so-casually leaned in and placed the blanket-wrapped suitcase on the backseat.

Key in the ignition. Vroom. I had to wait two minutes to let it warm up because I always warmed the car in the morning. No Le Mans start today, much as I wanted to. Nothing suspicious. My eyes flicked from the windshield to the rearview mirror looking for A

The wheels spun when I pulled out onto the street, but then they caught and moved forward. That was the first of a dozen heart attacks I had on the way to the bus station. Once I thought I saw the Dodge. Once my car started to fishtail in the middle of the street. Then a freight train went by with 768 cars, all crawling along at a snail's pace.

While I waited there, some smart-ass kid threw a snowball at the car. It hit a side window and I pulled a muscle in my neck wrenching around to see what was about to eat me. The only thing I saw was his little measly body ru

The last car of the train passed and the crossing gates went up. The bus station was two blocks away. My plan was to pick up Saxony, take the road right out to the Interstate, and drive for at least two hours before I stopped again to breathe.

She was talking to Mrs. Fletcher. The two of them were standing in front of the blue bus station. I could see the vapor of their breath puff out in cold smoke signals.

"Well, what do you think of this, Tom? I was coming back from shopping, and there she was, standing out in the cold. She came in on the morning bus."

Saxony tried to smile but gave up.

"Now, I won't hold you up any longer. I'm on my way home. I'll see you two later." She touched Saxony's arm, gave me a dirty look, and disappeared around the corner of a building.

"Come on." I picked up her suitcase and started back across the street. I heard her behind me. She coughed. It was a thick, wet, racking cough that went on and on. She barely managed to get out a "Wait!" I turned around and she was bent over, one hand on her stomach, the other over her mouth.

"Are you all right?"

She kept coughing but shook her head at the same time.

I put my arm around her and pulled her to me. Panting, wheezing, she leaned into me and gave me her full weight. I led her around to the other side of the car and opened the door for her. She sat down and let her head fall back on the headrest. The coughing stopped but her eyes were teary from exhaustion.

"I'm really sick, Thomas. I've been sick ever since I left you. But it's gotten much worse recently." She rolled her head on the headrest and looked at me. "Camille, huh?" Her eyes tightened and she started coughing again.

"Nothing. There's nothing that can be done."

"A

I got Saxony home and put her into bed. Luckily she went right to sleep. As soon as I could, I shot out of the house and over to A

"It has nothing to do with me, Thomas. It was in the journals. It was written. It is done."

"But everything else in the journals is screwed up. Why can't you screw this up too? She went away, didn't she? She did what you wanted."

"She shouldn't have come back." Her voice was very cold.

"She didn't know anything, A

"Thomas, the journals say that if u

I knew long before anyone else that it was either Saxony's presence, or her proofreading the manuscript, or our combined presence that normalized Galen.

As soon as she was rested, she read over everything that I had written since she'd left-and cut it to pieces. This was wrong. Why didn't I talk about this here instead of this? This had no bearing whatsoever, this was just silly to include…. She told me to keep perhaps a third of what I had done.

Mrs. Collins went into the kitchen to feed the bull terrier four days after I started rewriting with Saxony's suggestions in front of me. The woman found a baby girl asleep on the freshly torn newspaper in the box beside the stove.

Sharon Lee, who had taken to staying inside the house all the time (along with a number of other people, including the Priest of Spiders), was seen in town shopping again, smiling as if she had won the Irish Sweepstakes.

And Saxony stopped coughing. I told her that A

When I understood how necessary it was for her to be there for the success of the book, I spent a morning with A

Nothing more unexpected happened in Galen.