The Dead Zone

by Stephen King

Did you see the future? Is that what second sight is? I don’t know. You put a picture of my mother between your hands and were able to tell me where she lives today. Do you know where lost things and lost people may be found? Is that what second sight is? I don’t know. Can you read thoughts? Influence objects of the physical world? Heal by the laying on of hands? These are all things that some call ‘psychic.’ They are all related to the idea of ‘second sight.’ They are things that Dr. Brown laughs at. Laughs? No. He doesn’t laugh. He scoffs.”

The dream seemed to slide off him in fragments, still littering the floor of his mind like something broken and not yet swept up.

“You know when old age has started lookin over your shoulder, John,” he had said with a smile. “It’s when you start lookin for inside work as soon as fall rolls around.”

Johnny smiled. “Well,” he said, “I just shook your hand and I know you’ve got an Irish setter named Rusty. And I know he’s old and going blind and you think it’s time he was put to sleep, but you don’t know how you’d explain it to your girl.” Bannerman dropped his spoon back into his chili—plop.

And one day this tiger was found in a pit that had been baited with the body of a dead woman. It is a terrible thing to bait a trap with a human being made in the image of God, I will say in my composition, but it is more terrible to do nothing while a bad tiger carries away small children.

Ngo, who would shortly be an American citizen, was still watching the great American quadrennial ritual: Old Bums Exit There, New Bums Enter Here.