The Shining

“Da

“Looks sort of like a doe, doesn't be?” He wrinkled his nose at Da

Da

(Sure you don't want to go to Florida, doe?)

to him, very clearly. He heard every word. He looked at Hallora

Wendy looked from the cook's broad, serge-clad back to her son. She had the oddest feeling that something had passed between them, something she could not quite follow.

“You got twelve packages of sausage, twelve packages of bacon,” Hallora

“Real butter?” Jack asked.

“The A-number-one.”

“I don't think I've had real butter since I was a kid back in Berlin, New Hampshire.”

“Well, you'll eat it up here until oleo seems a treat,” Hallora

“Down here you got your fish. Brain food, right, doe?”

“Is it, Mom?”

“If Mr. Hallora

Da

“You're dead wrong,” Hallora

“Oh yeah, I like tuna.”

“and five pounds of the sweetest-tasting sole that ever swam in the sea. My boy, when next spring rolls around, you're go

“Mr. Hallora

“That's right! And you bein a friend, you make it Dick.”

As he led them into the far corner, Jack and Wendy exchanged a puzzled glance, both of them trying to remember if Hallora

“And this here I put in special,” Hallora

“Oh really, you shouldn't have,” Wendy said, touched. It was a twenty-pound turkey wrapped in a wide scarlet ribbon with a bow on top.

“You got to have your turkey on Thanksgiving, Wendy,” Hallora

“Right!”

There were more wonders in the cold-pantry. A hundred boxes of dried milk (Hallora

“My word,” Wendy said as they came out. But seeing all that fresh food after her thirty-dollar-a-week grocery budget so stu

“I'm ru

“Stop,” she said, holding up a hand and laughing. “I'll never remember it all. It's super. And I promise to leave the place clean.”

“That's all I ask.” He turned to Jack. “Did Mr. Ullman give you the rundown on the rats in his belfry?”

Jack gri

“That Watson,” Hallora

“He's quite a character,” Jack agreed. His own father had been the foulesttalking man Jack had ever run on.

“It's sort of a pity,” Hallora

“So I was told,” Jack said.

“What happened?” Wendy asked.

“Well, they couldn't make it go,” Hallora

“It is sort of a pity,” Wendy said.

“What happened to him? The old man?” Jack asked.

“He plugged his finger into a light socket by mistake and that was the end of him,” Hallora

“Anyway, Jack, I'd appreciate it if you and your wife would keep an eye out for rats in the kitchen, as well. If you should see them… traps, not poison.”

Jack blinked. “Of course. Who'd want to put rat poison in the kitchen?”

Hallora

Jack threw his head back and bellowed laughter. “What did Ullman say?”

Hallora

This time they all laughed, even Da

The four of them passed through the dining room, empty and silent now, with its fabulous western exposure on the snow-dusted peaks. Each of the white linen tablecloths had been covered with a sheet of tough clear plastic. The rug, now rolled up for the season, stood in one corner like a sentinel on guard duty.

Across the wide room was a double set of batwing doors, and over them an oldfashioned sign lettered in gilt script: The Colorado Lounge.

Following his gaze, Hallora

“I don't drink,” Jack said shortly. They went back to the lobby.

It had cleared greatly during the half hour they'd spent in the kitchen. The long main room was begi