Stephen King - Needful Things

Sure you have. Sure. I never forget a face.

Come on over here, let me shake your hand! Tell you something: I recognized you by the way you walk even before I saw your face good.

You couldnt have picked a better day to come back to Castle Rock.

Aint she a corker? Hunting season will be starting up soon, fools out in the woods bangin away at anything that moves and dont wear blaze orange, and then comes the snow and sleet, but all thats for later.

Right now its October, and in The Rock we let October stay just as long as she wants to.

As far as Im concerned, its the best time of year. Springs nice here, but Ill take October over May every time. Western Maines a part of the state thats mostly forgotten once the summer has run away and all those people with their cottages on the lake and up on the View have gone back to New York and Massachusetts.

People here watch them come and go every year-hello, hello, hello; goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. Its good when they come, because they bring their city dollars, but its good when they go, because they bring their city aggravations, too.

Its aggravations I mostly want to talk about-can you sit a spell with me? Over here on the steps of the bandstand will be fine. The suns warm and from here, spang in the middle of the Town Common, we can see just about all of downtown. You want to mind the splinters, thats all. The steps need to be sanded off and then repainted. Its Hugh Priests job, but Hugh aint got around to it yet. He drinks, you know. It aint much of a secret. Secrets can and are kept in Castle Rock, but you have to work mighty hard to do it, and most of us know its been a long time since Hugh Priest and hard work were on good terms.

What was that?

Oh! That! Say, boy-aint that a piece of work? Them fliers is up all over town! I think Wanda Hemphill (her husband, Don, runs Hemphills Market) put most of em up all by herself. Pull it off the post and hand it to me. Dont be shy-no ones got any business stickin up fliers on the Town Common bandstand in the first place.

Hot damn! just look at this thing, will you? DICE AND THE DEVIL printed right up at the top. In big red letters with smoke comin off em, like these things was mailed special delivery from Tophet! Ha!

Someone who didnt know what a sleepy little place this town is would think were really goin to the dogs, I guess. But you know how things sometimes get blown out of proportion in a town this size. And the Reverend Willies got a bee under his blanket for sure this time. No question about it. Churches in small towns well, I guess I dont have to tell you how that is. They get along with each other-sort of-but they aint never really happy with each other. Everything will go along peaceful for awhile, and then a squabble will break out.

Pretty big squabble this time, though, and a lot of hard feelings.

The Catholics, you see, are planning something they call Casino Nite at the Knights of Columbus Hall on the other side of town.

Last Thursday of the month, I understand, with the profits to help pay for repairs on the church roof. Thats Our Lady of Serene Waters-you must have passed it on your way into town, if you came by way of Castle View. Pretty little church, aint it?

Casino Nite was Father Brighams idea, but the Daughters of Isabella are the ones who really picked up the ball and ran with it.

Betsy Vigue in particular. I think she likes the idea of dollin up in her slinkiest black dress and dealin blackjack or spinnin a roulette wheel and sayin, Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen, please place your bets. Aw, but they all kind of like the idea, I guess. Its only nickel-dime stuff, harmless, but it seems a wee bit wicked to em just the same.

Except it dont seem harmless to Reverend Willie, and it seems a lot more than a wee bit wicked to him and his congregation. Hes actually the Reverend William Rose, and he aint never liked Father Brigham much, nor does the Father have much use for him. (In fact, it was Father Brigham who started calling Reverend Rose Steamboat Willie, and the Reverend Willie knows it.) Sparks has flown between those two particular witch-doctors before, but this Casino Nite business is a little more than sparks; I guess you could call it a brushfire. When Willie heard that the Catholics meant to spend a night gamblin at the K of C Hall, he just about hit the roof with the top of his pointy little head. He paid for those DICE-AND-THE-DEVIL fliers out of his own pocket, and Wanda Hemphill and her sewing circle buddies put em up everywhere. Since then, the only place the Catholics and the Baptists talk to each other is in the Letters column of our little weekly paper, where they rave and rant and tell each other theyre goin to hell.

Looka down there, youll see what I mean. Thats Nan Roberts who just came out of the bank. She owns Nans Luncheonette, and I guess shes just about the richest person in town now that old Pop Merrills gone to that big flea-market in the sky. Also, shes been a Baptist since Hector was a pup. And comin the other way is big Al GendronHes so Catholic he makes the Pope look kosher and his best friend is Irish Johnny Brigham. Now, watch close! See their noses go up? Ha!

Aint that a sketch? Ill bet you dollars to doughnuts that the temperature dropped twenty degrees where they passed each other by.

Its like my mother used to say-people have more fun than anybody,

except for horses, and they cant.

Now lookit over there. See that Sheriffs cruiser parked by the curb near the video shop? Thats John LaPointe inside. Hes supposed to be keepin an eye out for speeders-downtowns a go-slow zone, you know, especially when school lets out-but if you shade your eyes and look close, youll see that what hes really doin is starin at a picture he took out of his wallet. I cant see it from here, but I know what it is just as well as I know my mothers maiden name. Thats the snapshot Andy Clutterbuck took of John and Sally Ratcliffe at the Fryeburg State Fair, just about a year ago. Johns got his arm around her in that picture, and shes holdin the stuffed bear he won her in the shootin gallery, and they both look so happy they could just about split. But that was then and this is now, as they say; these days Sally is engaged to Lester Pratt, the high school Phys Ed coach. Hes a true-blue Baptist, Just like herself. John hasnt got over the shock of losing her yet. See him fetch that sigh? Hes worked himself into a pretty good case of the blues. Only a man whos still in love (or thinks he is) can fetch a sigh that deep.

Trouble and aggravations mostly made up of ordinary things, did you ever notice that? Undramatic things. Let me give you a forinstance. Do you see the fellow just going up the courthouse steps?

No, not the man in the suit; thats Dan Keeton, our Head Selectman.

I mean the other one the black guy in the work fatigues. Thats Eddie Warburton, the night-shift janitor in the Municipal Building.

Keep your eye on him for a few seconds, and watch what he does.

There! See him pause on the top step and look upstreet? Id bet you more dollars to more doughnuts that hes looking at the Sunoco station. The Sunocos owned and operated by Sonny jackett, and theres been bad blood between the two of em ever since Eddie took his car there two years ago to get the drive-train looked at.