Carrie Chapter Thirteen

She had d matchless it that was enough she was satisfied.(maybe hell f each in love with her)She musical noteed up as if someone had spoken from the hallway, a startled smile curving her lips. That would be a fairy-tale ending, all properly. The Prince bends over the Sleeping Beauty, touches his lips to hers.Sue, I dont know how to secern you this plainlyThe smile faded.Her period was late. Almost a week late. And she had always been as regular as an almanac.The record changer clicked a nonher record dropped down. In the sudden, brief silence, she heard something within her turn over. Perhaps only her soul.It was nine-fifteen.Billy drove to the far end of the parking lot and pulled into a stall that confront the asphalt ramp leading to the highway. Chris started to get go forth and he jerked her back. His eyes glowed ferally in the dark.What? she said with angry nervousness.They use a P.A. system to announce the office and queen regnant, he said. Then one of the bands will pla y the school song. That means theyre tantaliseting in that respect in those thrones, on target.I know all that. permit go of me. Youre hurting.He squeezed her wrist tighter still and felt atomic bones grind. It gave him a grim pleasure. Still, she didnt cry out She was pretty good.You listen to me. I emergency you to know what youre getting into. Pull the rope when the song is acting. Pull it hard. There will be a little slack between the pulleys, but not much. When you pull it and feel those buckets go, run. You dont stick around to hear the screams or anything else. This is out of the cute-little-joke league. This is criminal assault, you know? They dont fine you. They put you in jail and throw the tell over their shoulder.It was an enormous speech for him.Her eyes only glared at him, full of defiant anger.Dig it?Yes.All right. When the-buckets go, Im going to run. When I get to the car, Im going to repel away. If youre there, you can come. If youre not, Ill leave you. If I leave you and you spill your guts, Ill kill you. Do you believe meYes. Take your fucking hand off me.He did. An unwilling shadow-grin affected his face. May. Its going to be good.They got out of the car.It was almost nine-thirty.Vic Mooney, President of the Senior Class, was calling jovially into the mike.. All right, ladies and gennelmen. Take your seats, please. Ifs time for the voting. Were going to vote for the King and Queen.This contend insults women Myra Crewes called with uneasy good nature.It insults men, alike George Dawson called back, and there was general joke. Myra was silent. She had make her token protest.take your seats, please Vic was smiling into the mike, and blushing furiously, fingering a pimple on his chin. The huge Venetian boatman behind him looked dreamily over Vics shoulder. Time to vote.Carrie and Tommy sat down. Tina Blake and Norma Watson were circulating mimeographed ballots, and when Norma dropped one at their table and breathed Good part Carrie picked up the ballot and studied it. Her mouth popped open.Tommy, were on hereYeah, I saw that, he said. The school votes for single candidates and their dates get sort of shanghaied into it. Welcome aboard. Shall we drop?She bit her lip and looked at him. Do you want to decline?Hell, no, he said cheerfully. If you win, an you do is sit up there for the school song and one dance and wave a sceptre and look like a goddam idiot. They take your envision for the yearbook so everyone can see you look like a goddam idiot.Who do we vote for? She looked doubtfully from the ballot to the tiny pencil by her boatful of nuts. Theyre more your crowd than mine. A chuckle break loose her. In fact, I dont rattling pass a crowd.He shrugged. Lets vote for ourselves. To the devil with false modesty.She laughed out loud, past clapped a hand over her mouth. The fail was almost entirely foreign to her. Before she could think, she circled their names, third from the top. The tiny pencil broke in h er hand, and she gasped. A splinter had scratched the pad of one finger, and a small bead of blood welled.You hurt yourself?No. She smiled, but suddenly it was difficult to smile. The sight of the blood was distasteful to her. She blotted it away with her napkin. But I broke the pencil and it was a souvenir. Stupid me.Theres your boat, he said, and pushed it toward her. Toot, toot. Her throat closed, and she felt sure she would weep and then be ashamed. She did not, but her eyes glimmered like prisms and she lowered her head so he would not see.The band was playing catchy fill-in music while the Honour Society ushers collected the folded-over ballots. They were taken to the chaperones table by the door, where Vic and Mr Stephens and the Lublins counted them. Miss Geer surveyed it all with grim gimlet eyes.Carrie felt an unwilling tension worm into her, tightening muscles in her stomach and back. She held Tommys hand tightly. It was absurd, of course. No one was going to vote for the m. The stallion, perhaps, but not when harnessed in tandem with a she-ox. It would be Frank and Jessica or maybe Don Farnham and Helen Shyres. Or hellTwo piles were increment larger than the others. Mr Stephens finished dividing the slips and all four of them took turns at counting the large piles, which looked about the same. They put their heads together, conferred, and counted once more. Mr Stephens, nodded, thumbed the ballots once more like a man about to deal a hand of poker, and gave them back to Vic. He climbed back on stage and approached the mike. The Billy Bosman Band played a flourish. Vic smiled nervously, harrumphed into the mike, and blinked at the sudden feedback whine. He nearly dropped the ballots to the floor, which was covered with heavy electrical cables, and somebody snickered.Weve sort of hit a snag, Vic said artlessly. Mr Lublin says this is the first time in the memoir of the Spring Ball- How far does he go back? someone behind Tommy mumbled. Eighteen hun dred?Weve got a tie.This got a murmer from the crowd. Polka dots or striped? George Dawson called, and there was some laughter. Vic gave a twitchy smile and almost dropped the ballots again.Sixty-three votes for Frank Grier and Jessica MacLean, and sixty-three votes for Thomas Ross and Carrie White.This was followed by a moment of silence, and then sudden, swelling applause. Tommy looked across at his date. Her head was lowered, as if in shame, but he had a sudden feeling.(carrie carrie carrie)not unlike the one he had had when he asked her to the prom. His mind felt as if something alien was moving in there, calling Carries name over and over again. As ifAttention Vic was calling. If I could have your attention, please. The applause quieted. Were going to have a run-off ballot. When the people passing out the slips of paper get to you, please write the couple you favour on it.He left the mike, looking relieved.The ballots were circulated they had been hastily part from leftover pr om programmes. The band played unnoticed and people talked excitedly. They werent applauding for us, Carrie said, looking up The thing he had felt (or thought he had felt) was gone It couldnt have been for us.Maybe it was for you.She looked at him, mute.Whats taking it so long? she hissed at him. I beard them clap. Maybe that was it. If you fucked up- The length of jute cord hung between them limply, un stirred since Billy had poked a screwdriver through the vent and lifted it out.Dont worry, he said calmly. Theyll play the school song. They always do.But-Shut up. You talk too fucking much. The tip of his cigarette winked peacefully in the dark.She shut. But(oh when this is over youre going to get it buddy maybe youll go to bed with lovers nuts tonight)her mind ran furiously over his words, storing them. People did not speak to her in such a manner. Her father was a lawyer.It was seven minutes to ten.He was holding the broken pencil in his hand, ready to write, when she touched his wrist lightly, tentatively.Dont . .What?Dont vote for us, she said finally.He raised his eyebrows quizzically. Why not? In for a penny, in for a pound. Thats what my mother always says.(mother)A picture rose in her mind instantly, her mother droning endless prayers to a towering, faceless, columnar God who prowled roadhouse parking lots with a sword of fire in one hand. Terror rose in her blackly, and she had to fight with all her spirit to hold it back. She could not explain her dread, her sense of premonition. She could only smile helplessly and absorb Dont. Please.The Honour Society ushers were coming back, collecting folded slips. He hesitated a moment longer, then suddenly scrawled Tommy and Carrie on the ragged slip of paper. For you, he said. Tonight you go first-class.She could not reply, for the premonition was on her. her mothers face.The knife slipped from the whetstone, and in an instant it had sliced the cup of her palm below the thumb.She looked at the cut. It bled sl owly, thickly, from the open lips of the wound running out of her hand and spotting the dim linoleum of the kitchen floor. Good, then. It was good. The blade had tasted flesh and let blood. She did not bandage it but tipped the flow over the cutting edge, let the blood dull the blades edge, then she began to sharpen again, heedless of the droplets which splattered her dress.If thine right eye wear out thee, pluck it outIf it was a hard scripture, it was also afters and good. A fitting scripture for those who lurked in the doorway shadows of one-night hotels and in the weeds behind bowling alleys.Pluck it out(oh and the nasty music they play)Pluck it(the girls limn their underwear how it sweats how it sweats blood)outThe Black Forest cuckoo began to strike ten and(cut her guts out on the floor)if thine right eye offend thee, pluck it outThe dress was done and she could not watch the television or take out her books or call Nancy on the phone. There was secret code to do but sit on the sofa facing the blackness of the kitchen window and feel some nameless sort of fear growing in her like an infant coming to dreadful term.With a sigh she began to massage her arms absently. They were cold and prickly. It was twelve after ten and there was no reason, really no reason, to feel that the world was coming to an end.The stacks were higher this time, but they still looked exactly the same. Again, three counts were taken to make sure. Then Vic Mooney went to the mike again. He paused a moment, relishing the blue feel of tension in the air, and then announced simplyTommy and Carrie win. By one vote.Dead silence for a moment, then applause filled the hall again, some of it not without satiric overtones. Carrie drew in a startled, smothered gasp, and Tommy again felt (but for only a second) that eldritch vertigo in his mind(carrie carrie carrie carrie)that seemed to blank out all thought but the name and image of this strange girl he was with. For a fleet second he wa s literally scared shitless.Something fell on the floor with a clink, and at the same instant the candle between them whiffed out.Then Josie and the Moonglows were playing a totter version of Pomp and Circumstance, the ushers appeared at their table (almost magically all this had been rehearsed meticulously by Miss Geer who, according to rumour, ate slow and fumbling ushers for lunch), a sceptre wrapped in aluminium foil was thrust into Tommys hand, a robe with a lush dog-fur collar was thrown over Carries shoulders, and they were beingness led down the centre aisle by a boy and a girl in white blazers. The band blared. The audience applauded. Miss Geer looked vindicated. Tommy Ross was grin bemusedly.They were ushered up the steps to the apron, led across to the thrones, and seated. Still the applause swelled. The sarcasm in it was lost now it was honest and deep, a little frightening. Carrie was glad to sit down. It was all happening too fast. Her legs were trembling under her and suddenly, even with the comparatively high neck of her gown, her breasts(dirtypillows)felt dreadfully exposed. The sound of the applause in her ears made her feel woozy, almost punch-drunk. Part of her was actually convinced that all this was a dream from which she would wake with mixed feeling of loss and relief.Vic boomed into the mike The King and Queen of the 1979 Spring Ball Tommy ROSS and Carrie WHITEStill applause, swelling and booming and crackling. Tommy Ross in the fading moments of his life now, took Carries hand and grinned at her, thinking that Suzies intuition had been very right. Somehow she grinned back. TOMMY(she was right and i love her well i love this one too this carrie she is beautiful and its right and i love all of them the light the light in her eyes)and Carrie(cant see them the lights are too bright i can hear them but cant see them the shower remember the shower o momma its too high i think i want to get down o are they laughing and ready to throw th ings to point and scream with laughter i cant see them i cant see them its all too bright)and the beam above them.Both bands, in a sudden and serendipitous coalition of rock and brass, swung into the school song. The audience rose to its feet and began to sing, still applauding.It was ten-o-seven.Billy had just flexed his knees to make the Joints pop. Chris Hargensen stood next to him with increasing aura of nervousness. Her hands played aimlessly along the seams of the jeans she had worn and she was biting the softness of her lower lip, chewing at it, making it a little ragged.You think theyll vote for them?, Billy said softly.