Greg Stillson as president of the United States. How far in the future I can’t say, except that he had lost most of his hair. I would say fourteen years, or perhaps eighteen at the most. Now, my ability is to see and not to interpret, and in this case my ability to see was impeded by that funny blue filter, but I saw enough. If Stillson becomes president, he’s going to worsen an international situation that is going to be pretty awful to begin with. If Stillson becomes president, he is going to end up precipitating a full-scale nuclear war. I believe that the initial flashpoint for this war is going to be in South Africa. And I also believe that in the short, bloody course of this war, it’s not going to be just two or three nations throwing warheads, but maybe as many as twenty—plus terrorist groups.
Daddy, I know how crazy this must look. It looks crazy to me. But I have no doubts, no urge to look back over my shoulder and try to second-guess this thing into something less real and urgent than it is. You never knew—no one did—but I didn’t run away from the Chatsworths because of that restaurant fire. I guess I was running away from Greg Stillson and the thing I am supposed to do. Like Elijah hiding in his cave or Jonah, who ended up in the fish’s belly. I thought I would just wait and see, you know. Wait and see if the preconditions for such a horrible future began to come into place. I would probably be waiting still, but in the fall of last year the headaches began to get worse, and there was an incident on the road-crew I was working with. I guess Keith Strang, the foreman, would remember that ...
2
Excerpt from testimony given before the so-called “Stillson Committee,” chaired by Senator William Cohen of Maine. The questioner is Mr. Norman D. Verizer, the Committee’s Chief Counsel. The witness is Mr. Keith Strang, of 1421 Desert Boulevard, Phoenix, Arizona.
Date of testimony: August 17, 1979.
Verizer: And at this time, John Smith was in the employ of the Phoenix Public Works Department, was he not?
Strang: Yes, Sir, he was.
V.: This was early December of 1978.
S.: Yes, Sir.
V.: And did something happen on December 7 that you particularly remember? Something concerning John Smith?
S.: Yes, Sir. It sure did.
V.: Tell the Committee about that, if you would.
S.: Well, I had to go back to the central motor pool to get two forty-gallon drums of orange paint. We were lining roads, you understand. Johnny—that’s Johnny Smith—was out on Rosemont Avenue on the day you’re talking about, putting down new lane markings. Well, I got back out there at approximately four-fifteen-about forty-five minutes before knocking-off time—and this fellow Herman Joellyn that you’ve already talked to, he comes up to me and says, “You better check on Johnny, Keith. Something’s wrong with Johnny. I tried to talk to him and he acted like he didn’t hear. He almost run me down. You better get him straight.” That’s what he said. So I said, “What’s wrong with him, Hermie?” And Hermie says, “Check it out for yourself, there’s something offwhack with that dude.” So I drove on up the road, and at first everything was all right, and then—wow!
V.: What did you see?
S.: Before I saw Johnny, you mean.
V.: Yes, that’s right.
S.: The line he was putting down started to go haywire. Just a little bit at first—a jig here and there, a little bubble—it wasn’t perfectly straight, you know. And Johnny had always been the best liner on the whole crew. Then it started to get really bad. It started to go all over the road in these big loops and swirls. Some places it was like he’d gone right around in circles a few times. For about a hundred yards he’d put the stripe right along the dirt shoulder.
V.: What did you do?
S.: I stopped him. That is, eventually I stopped him. I pulled up right beside the lining machine and started yelling at him. Must have yelled half a dozen times. It was like he didn’t hear. Then he swooped that thing toward me and put a helluva ding in the side of the car I was driving. Highway Department property, too. So I laid on the horn and yelled at him again, and that seemed to get through to him. He threw it in neutral and looked over at