Sleeping Beauties

by Stephen King

She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted. —Sen. Addison “Mitch” McConnell, speaking of Sen. Elizabeth Warren

Another part of getting older: you forgot what you wanted to remember, and remembered what you wanted to forget. He could be the old wag that said that. He should get a pillow stitched with it.

Tru was an asshole standard. Tiffany would ask herself, “Is so-and-so a bigger asshole than Truman?” Few could compare—in fact, so far, officially, there was only Donald Trump and cannibals.

On the bottom of the screen, BREAKING NEWS was flashing on and off in red, but that meant nothing; they called it breaking news if Kim Kardashian farted.

Frank had followed the story of the Bright Ones as it developed over the spring, and come to the conclusion that beneath the pseudo-religious, quasi-political trappings, they were just another bunch of trumped-up tax dodgers, emphasis on the Trump.

Blanche wondered if there were contests for drinking wine and taking drugs and then walking around without tripping over the chairs or running into the walls. Gail might have missed her calling!

I got a rhyme for you, Angel, Jeanette thought. Men play, women pay.

The devil was unpredictable. He had been an angel once.

Maura had been in prison for decades. She had done a lot of reading, and even made her way through the Bible. It had seemed like a fairly worthless stack of paper at the time, men creating laws and women begetting beget-me-nots, but she remembered a compelling line: Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

“I figure horror stories are what will keep the ladies awake tonight, if anything will. Besides, ain’t none of this stuff real; all vampires and werewolves and such. They’re like fairy tales.”

Dead men don’t accept apologies. Not once in the history of the world.”

This was how people in power thought of human life, wasn’t it? In terms of sum benefits and ratios and manageability.

“It’s complicated,” Lila replied, and as she led Linny back to the steps, it occurred to her that this was a thing women said often, men almost never.

sometimes you get what you want, but mostly you get what you get.

“She’s expecting bloodshed, she’s made that much clear. Because she believes that’s the only way men know how to solve their problems. Let’s not give her what she expects.

“I feel like a pussy.” Michaela hated that word. Even as she heard more shots ring out, it touched a nerve. A pussy was supposed to be soft, and although Michaela possessed one, there was nothing particularly soft about the rest of her. Janice Coates had not raised her to be a softie. She flipped up the sheet and gave Jared a hard—but not too hard—slap across the cheek. “Hey!” He put a hand to his face. “Don’t say that.” “Say what?” “Don’t say pussy when it means weak. If your mother didn’t teach you better than that, she should have.”

she had done a story about how people with large collections of books had lower heating bills than non-readers, because books made good insulation. With this in mind, she repaired to the prison library once the shooting started,

Although love is a dangerous word when it comes from men. Quite often they don’t mean the same thing as women do when they say it. Sometimes they mean they’ll kill for it. Sometimes when they say it they don’t mean much of anything. Which, of course, most women come to know. Some with resignation, many with sorrow.” “When a man says he loves you, that means he wants to get his pecker up inside your pants,” Angel put in helpfully.

Sons killed sons. Sons killed daughters. Sons left guns out where other sons could find them and accidentally shoot themselves or their sisters. Sons burned forests and sons dumped chemicals into the earth as soon as the EPA inspectors left. Sons didn’t call on birthdays. Sons didn’t like to share. Sons hit children, choked girlfriends. Sons figured out they were bigger and never forgot it. Sons didn’t care about the world they left for their sons or for their daughters, although they said they did when the time came to run for office.

Snakes do not need to justify their behavior.