The Shining

“Mr. Torrance,” Ullman called peremptorily. “Would you come over here, please? “

Jack walked over, nodding to Wendy and Da

The clerk, who had gone into the back, now came out again wearing an overcoat. “Have a pleasant winter, Mr. Ullman.”

“I doubt it,” Ullman said distantly. “May twelfth, Braddock. Not a day earlier. Not a day later.”

“Yes, sir.”

Braddock walked around the desk, his face sober and dignified, as befitted his position, but when his back was entirely to Ullman, he gri

Now Wendy began to notice the silence of the place. It had fallen over the hotel like a heavy blanket muting everything but the faint pulse of the afternoon wind outside. From where she stood she could look through the i

“I thought I would take a few extra minutes and show you through the Hotel,” Ullman said, and Wendy reflected that you could always hear that capital H in Ullman's voice. You were supposed to hear it. “I'm sure your husband will get to know the ins and outs of the Overlook quite well, Mrs. Torrance, but you and your son will doubtless keep more to the lobby level and the first floor, where your quarters are.”

“Doubtless,” Wendy murmured demurely, and Jack shot her a private glance.

“It's a beautiful place,” Ullman said expansively. “I rather enjoy showing it off.”

I'll bet you do, Wendy thought.

“Let's go up to third and work our way down,” Ullman said. He sounded positively enthused.

“If we're keeping you-” Jack began.

“Not at all,” Ullman said: “The shop is shut. Tout fins, for this season, at least. And I plan to overnight in Boulder-at the Boulderado, of course. Only decent hotel this side of Denver… except for the Overlook itself, of course. This way.”

They stepped into the elevator together. It was ornately scrolled in copper and brass, but it settled appreciably before Ullman pulled the gate across. Da

“Don't you worry, little man,” Ullman said. “Safe as houses.”

“So was the Titanic,” Jack said, looking up at the cut-glass globe in the center of the elevator ceiling. Wendy bit the inside of her cheek to keep the smile away.

Ullman was not amused. He slid the i

“That's reassuring,” Jack said. He ruffed Da

Ullman threw the lever over, and for a moment there was nothing but a shuddering beneath their feet and the tortured whine of the motor below them. Wendy had a vision of the four of them being trapped between floors like flies in a bottle and found in the spring… with little bits and pieces gone… like the Do

(Stop it!)

The elevator began to rise, with some vibration and clashing and banging from below at first. Then the ride smoothed out. At the third floor Ullman brought them to a bumpy stop, retracted the gate, and opened the door. The elevator car was still six inches below floor level. Da

“What are you looking at, doc?” Jack inquired humorously. “See any spots there?”

“Of course not,” Ullman said, nettled. “All the rugs were shampooed just two days ago.”

Wendy glanced down at the hall ru

“Do you like the rug?” Wendy asked Da

“Yes, Mom,” he said colorlessly.

They walked down the hall, which was comfortably wide. The wallpaper was silk, a lighter blue to go against the rug. Electric flambeaux stood at ten-foot intervals at a height of about seven feet. Fashioned to look like London gas lamps, the bulbs were masked behind cloudy, cream-hued glass that was bound with crisscrossing iron strips.

“I like those very much,” she said.

Ullman nodded, pleased. “Mr. Derwent bad those installed throughout the Hotel after the war-number Two, I mean. In fact most-although not all-of the thirdfloor decorating scheme was his idea. This is 300, the Presidential Suite.”

He twisted his key in the lock of the mahogany double doors and swung them wide. The sitting room's wide western exposure made them all gasp, which had probably been Ullman's intention. He smiled. “Quite a view, isn't it?”

“It sure is,” Jack said.

The window ran nearly the length of the sitting room, and beyond it the sun was poised directly between two sawtoothed peaks, casting golden light across the rock faces and the sugared snow on the high tips. The clouds around and behind this picture-postcard view were also tinted gold, and a sunbeam glinted duskily down into the darkly pooled firs below the timberline.

Jack and Wendy were so absorbed in the view that they didn't look down at Da

Great splashes of dried blood, flecked with tiny bits of grayish-white tissue, clotted the wallpaper. It made Da

(So if you should see something… just look the other way and when you look back, it'll be gone. Are you diggin me?)

He deliberately looked out the window, being careful to show no expression on his face, and when his mommy's hand closed over his own he took it, being careful not to squeeze it or give her a signal of any kind.

The manager was saying something to his daddy about making sure to shutter that big window so a strong wind wouldn't blow it in. Jack was nodding. Da

Then Ullman was leading them out. Mommy asked him if he thought the mountains were pretty. Da