The plant - By Stephen King Page 0,35

your imaginations run away with you."

Roger nodded as if he had expected no less. He turned to Herb. "What do you think?" he asked him.

Herb stood up and hitched his belt in that take-charge way of his. "I think we ought to go take a look at the famous ivy plant."

"Me too," Sandra said.

"You guys don't actually believe this, do you?" Bill Gelb asked. He sounded both amused and alarmed. "I mean, let's not dial 1-800-MASSHYSTERIA just yet, okay?"

"I don't believe or disbelieve anything," Sandra said. "Not for sure. All I know for sure is that I got my idea about the joke-book after I was down there. After I smelled baking cookies. And why would the janitor's room smell like my grandma's kitchen, anyway?"

"Maybe for the same reason the reception area smells like garlic," Bill said. "Because these guys have been playing jokes." I opened my mouth to say that Sandra had smelled cookies and Herb toast and jam in Riddley's cubicle the day before Roger and I made our trip to Central Falls, but before I could, Bill said: "What about the plant, Sandy? Did you see an ivy growing all over the place in there?"

"No, but I didn't turn on the light," she said. "I just peeped my head in, and then... I don't know... I got a little scared. Like it was spooky, or something."

"It was spooky in spite of the smell of gramma's baking cookies, or because of it?" Bill asked. Like a TV-show prosecutor hammering some hapless defense witness.

Sandra looked at him defiantly and said nothing. Herb tried to take her hand, but she shook it off.

I stood up. "Enough talk. Why describe a guest when you can see that guest?"

Bill looked at me as if I'd flipped my lid. "Say what?"

"I believe that in his own inimitable way, John is trying to express the idea that seeing is believing," Roger said. "Let's go have a look. And may I suggest you all keep your hands to yourselves? I don't think it bites - not us, anyway - but I do think we'd be wise to be careful."

It sounded like damned good advice to me. As Roger lead us down the hall past our offices in a little troop, I found myself remembering the last words of the rabbit general in Richard Adams's Watership Down: "Come back, you fools! Come back! Dogs aren't dangerous!"

When we got to the place where the hall jogs to the left, Bill said: "Hey, hold it, just a goddam minute." Sounding extremely suspicious. And a little bit spooked, maybe, as well.

"What is it, William?" Herb asked, all innocence. "Smelling something nice?"

"Popcorn," he said. His hands were clenched.

"Good smell, is it?" Roger asked gently.

Bill sighed. His hands opened... and all at once his eyes filled with tears. "It smells like The Nordica," he said. "The Nordica Theater, in Freeport, Maine. It's where we used to go to the show when I was a kid growing up in Gates Falls. It was only open on weekends, and it was always a double feature. There were great big wooden fans in the ceiling and they'd go around during the show... whoosh, whoosh, whoosh... and the popcorn was always fresh. Fresh popcorn with real butter on it in a plain brown bag. To me that's always been the smell of dreams. I just... Is this a joke? Because if it is, tell me right now."

"No joke," I said. "I smell coffee. Five O'Clock brand, and stronger than ever. Sandra, do you still smell cookies?"

She looked at me with dreamy eyes, and right then I sort of understood why Herb is so totally gone on her (yes, we all know it; I think even Riddley and LaShonda know it; the only one who doesn't know it is Sandra herself). Because she was beautiful.

"No," she said, "I smell Shalimar. That was the first perfume I ever had. My Aunt Coretta gave it to me for my birthday, when I was twelve." Then she looked at Bill, and smiled warmly. "That was what dreams smelled like to me. Shalimar perfume."

"Herb?" I asked.

For a minute I didn't think he was going to say anything; he was cheesed at the way she was looking at Bill. But then he must have decided this was a little bit bigger than his crush on Sandra.

"Not toast and jam today," he said. "New car today. To me that's the best smell on earth. It was when I was seventeen and couldn't