Under the Dome

  "Not the same things, are they?" the old man whispered.

  "No. Not at all."

  "Pity's for strong people," he said, and sighed. "I can only be sorry. What I done was because of the booze, but I'm still sorry. I'd take it back if ever I could."

  "Whatever it was, you made up for it in the end," Barbie said. He took Sam's left hand. The wedding ring hung on the third finger, grotesquely large for the scant flesh.

  Sam's eyes, faded Yankee blue, shifted to him, and he tried to smile. "Maybe I did ... for the doin. But I was happy in the doin. I don't think you can ever make up for a thing like--" He began to cough again, and more blood flew from his mostly toothless mouth.

  "Stop now," Julia said.

  "Stop trying to talk." They were kneeling on either side of him. She looked at Barbie. "Forget about carrying him. He tore something inside. We'll have to go for help."

  "Oh, the sky !" Sam Verdreaux said.

  That was the last. He sighed his chest flat, and there was no next breath to lift it. Barbie moved to close his eyes but Julia took his hand and stopped him.

  "Let him look," she said. "Even if he's dead, let him look as long as he can."

  They sat beside him. There was birdsong. And somewhere, Horace was still barking.

  "I suppose I ought to go and find my dog," Julia said.

  "Yes," he said. "The van?"

  She shook her head. "Let's walk. I think we can handle half a mile if we go slow--don't you?"

  He helped her up. "Let's find out," he said.

  18

  As they walked, hands linked above the grassy crown of the old supply road, she told him as much as she could about what she called "being inside the box."

  "So," he said when she had finished. "You told her about the terrible things we're capable of--or showed them to her--and she still let us go."

  "They know all about terrible things," she said.

  "That day in Fallujah is the worst memory of my life. What makes it so bad is ..." He tried to think how Julia had put it. "I was the doer instead of the one done by."

  "You didn't do it," she said. "That other man did."

  "It doesn't matter," Barbie said. "The guy's just as dead no matter who did it."

  "Would it have happened if there had only been two or three of you in that gym? Or if it had been just you been alone?"

  "No. Of course not."

  "Then blame fate. Or God. Or the universe. But stop blaming yourself."

  He might not ever be able to do that, but he understood what Sam had said at the end. Sorrow for a wrong was better than nothing, Barbie supposed, but no amount of after-the-fact sorrow could ever atone for joy taken in destruction, whether it was burning ants or shooting prisoners.

  He had felt no joy in Fallujah. On that score he could find himself innocent. And that was good.

  Soldiers were running toward them. They might have another minute alone. Perhaps two.

  He stopped and took her by the arms.

  "I love you for what you did, Julia."

  "I know you do," she said calmly.

  "What you did was very brave."

  "Do you forgive me for stealing from your memories? I didn't mean to; it just happened."

  "Totally forgiven."

  The soldiers were closer. Cox was running with the rest, Horace dancing at his heels. Soon Cox would be here, he'd ask how Ken was, and with that question the world would reclaim them.

  Barbie looked up at the blue sky, breathed deeply of the clearing air. "I can't believe it's gone."

  "Will it ever come back, do you think?"

  "Maybe not to this planet, and not because of that bunch. They'll grow up and leave their playroom, but the box will stay. And other kids will find it. Sooner or later, the blood always hits the wall."

  "That's awful."

  "Maybe, but can I tell you something my mother used to say?"

  "Of course."

  He recited, "'For every night, twice the bright.'"

  Julia laughed. It was a lovely sound.

  "What did the leatherhead girl say to you at the end?" he asked. "Tell me quick, because they're almost here and this belongs just to us."

  She seemed surprised that he didn't know. "She said what Kayla said. 'Wear it home, it'll look like a dress.'"

  "She was talking about the brown sweater?"

  She took his hand again. "No. About our lives. Our little lives."

  He thought it over. "If she gave it to you, let's put it on."

  Julia pointed. "Look who's coming!"

  Horace had seen her. He put on speed and wove through the running men and, once he was past them, dropped low to the ground and hit fourth gear. A large grin wreathed his chops. His ears were laid back flat to his skull. His shadow raced along beside him on the soot-stained grass. Julia knelt and held out her arms.

  "Come to mama, sweetheart!" she shouted.

  He leaped. She caught him and sprawled backward, laughing. Barbie helped her to her feet.

  They walked back into the world together, wearing the gift that had been given them: just life.

  Pity was not love, Barbie reflected ... but if you were a child, giving clothes to someone who was naked had to be a step in the right direction.

  November 22, 2007-March 14, 2009

  AUTHOR'S NOTE

  I first tried to write Under the Dome in 1976, and crept away from it with my tail between my legs after two weeks' work that amounted to about seventy-five pages. That manuscript was long lost on the day in 2007 when I sat down to start again, but I remembered the opening section--"The Airplane and the Woodchuck"--well enough to recreate it almost exactly.

  I was overwhelmed not by the large cast of characters--I like novels with generous populations--but by the technical problems the story presented, especially the ecological and meteorological consequences of the Dome. The fact that those very concerns made the book seem important to me made me feel like a coward--and lazy--but I was terrified of screwing it up. So I went on to something else, but the idea of the Dome never left my mind.

  In the years since, my good friend Russ Dorr, a physician's assistant from Bridgeton, Maine, has helped me with the medical details in many books, most notably The Stand. In the late summer of 2007, I asked him if he would be willing to take on a much larger role, as head researcher on a long novel called Under the Dome. He agreed, and thanks to Russ, I think most of the technical details here are right. It was Russ who researched computer-guided missiles, jet stream patterns, methamphetamine recipes, portable generators, radiation, possible advances in cell phone technology, and a hundred other things. It was also Russ who invented Rusty Everett's homemade radiation suit and who realized people could breathe from tires, at least for a while. Have we made mistakes? Sure. But most will turn out to be mine, either because I misunderstood or misinterpreted some of his answers.

  My first two readers were my wife, Tabitha, and Leanora Legrand, my daughter-in-law. Both were tough, humane, and helpful.

  Nan Graham edited the book down from the original dinosaur to a beast of slightly more manageable size; every page of the manuscript was marked with her changes. I owe her a great debt of thanks for all the mornings when she got up at six AM and took her pencil in her hand. I tried to write a book that would keep the pedal consistently to the metal. Nan understood that, and whenever I weakened, she jammed her foot down on top of mine and yelled (in the margins, as editors are wont to do), "Faster, Steve! Faster!"

  Surendra Patel, to whom the book is dedicated, was a friend and an unfailing source of comfort for thirty years. In June of 2008, I got the news that he had died of a heart attack. I sat on the steps of my office and cried. When that part was over, I went back to work. It was what he would have expected.

  And you, Constant Reader. Thanks for reading this story. If you had as much fun as I did, we're both well off.

  S. K.

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