The sound was not repeated and he went on his way.
PART II: ARNIE - TEENAGE LOVE-SONGS Chapter 37 DARNELL COGITATES
Baby, lemme ride in your automobile,
Hey, babe, lemme ride in your automobile!
Tell me, sweet baby,
Tell me: Just how do you feel?
- Chester Burnett
Will Darnell was at the garage until after midnight on the night Buddy Repperton and his friends met Christine in Squantic Hills. His emphysema had been particularly bad that day. When it got bad, he was afraid to lie down, although he was ordinarily a perfect bear for sleep.
The doctor told him it was not at all likely he would choke to death in his sleep, but as he got older and the emphysema slowly tightened its grip on his lungs, he feared it more and more. The fact that his fear was irrational didn't change it in the least. Although he hadn't been inside a church of any faith since he had been twelve years old - forty-nine years ago now! - he had been morbidly interested in the circumstances surrounding the death of Pope John Paul I ten weeks before. John Paul had died in bed and had been found there in the morning. Already stiffening probably. That was the part that haunted Will: Already stiffening, probably.
He pulled into the garage at half-past nine, driving his 1966 Chrysler Imperial - the last car he intended ever to own. At about the same time Buddy Repperton was noticing the twin sparks of distant headlights in his rearview mirror.
Will was worth better than two million dollars, but money didn't give him much pleasure anymore, if indeed it ever had. The money didn't even seem completely real anymore. Nothing did, except the emphysema. That was hideously real, and Will welcomed anything that took his mind off it.
The problem of Arnie Cunningham, now - that had taken his mind off his emphysema. He supposed that was why he had let Cunningham hang around the place when all of his strongest- instincts told him to get the kid out of the garage, he was in some way dangerous. Something was going on with Cunningham and his rebuilt '58. Something very peculiar.
The kid wasn't in tonight; he and the entire LHS chess club were in Philadelphia for three days at the Northern States Fall Tourney. Cunningham had laughed about that; he was much changed from the pimply, big-eyed kid that Buddy Repperton had jumped on, the kid Will had immediately (and erroneously) dismissed as a crybaby jellyfish and maybe a goddam queer in the bargain.
For one thing, he had grown cynical.
He had told Will in the office yesterday afternoon over cigars (the boy had developed a taste for those as well; Will doubted if his parents knew) that he had missed so many chess club meetings that according to the by-laws, he was no longer a member. Slawson, the faculty advisor, knew it but was conveniently overlooking it until after the Northern States Tourney.
'I've missed more meetings than anyone, but I also happen to play better than anyone else, and the shitter knows - ' Arnie winced and shoved both hands into the small of his back for a moment.
'You ought to get a doctor to look at that,' Will remarked.
Arnie winked, suddenly looking much older than nearly eighteen. 'I don't need anything but a good Christian fuck to stretch the vertebrae.'
'So you're going to Philly?' Will had been disappointed, even though Cunningham had the off-time coming; it meant he would have to put Jimmy Sykes in charge for the next couple of nights, and Jimmy didn't know his ass from ice cream.
'Sure. I'm not about to turn down three days of bright lights,' Arnie said. He saw Will's sour face and had grinned. 'Don't worry, man. This close to Christmas, all your regulars are buying toys for the kiddies instead of spark plugs and carburettor kits. This place will be dead until next year, and you know it.'
That was certainly true enough, but he hadn't needed a snotnose kid to point it out for him.
'You want to go to Albany for me after you get back?' Will had asked.
Arnie looked at him carefully. 'When?'
'This weekend.'
'Saturday?'
'Yes.'
'What's the deal?'
'You take my Chrysler to Albany that's the fucking deal. Henry Buck was fourteen clean used cars he wants to get rid of. He says they're clean. You go look at them. I'll give you a blank cheque. If they look good, you make the deal. If they look hot, tell