Madi > Recent Status Updates

“The Convention Hall faced the Holiday Inn across the snowy street. Stu handed Tom a box of popcorn at the doorway.
“What’s this for?” Tom asked.
“Can’t watch a movie without popcorn, you big dummy,” Stu grinned.
“MOVIE?”
“Sure.”


[1/2]

“Yes he was, M-O-O-N, that spells my main man. I miss him awful. But I’m going to see him in heaven. Tom Cullen will see him there. And he’ll be able to talk and I’ll be able to think. Isn’t that right?”
Stu: “It wouldn’t surprise me at all, Tom.”

Tom shouted with pleasure. Kojak barked and wagged his tail. In his previous life, the life before Captain Trips when he had been Big Steve, he had ridden often in his master’s car. It was nice to be riding again, with his new masters.

“Tom’s okay. O-and-K, that spells okay, laws, yes, everybody knows that.”

Silent white light filled the world.
And the righteous and unrighteous alike were consumed in that holy fire.

Larry went up the bank quickly and joined the other two. They stood and waved down. Stu raised his hand in return. They left. And they never saw Stu Redman again.

“Okay, you got the pills.” Glen swiped his arm across his eyes. “Goodbye, East Texas. It’s been pretty goddam good to know you.”

Poor Stu :(

The bricks of language. A stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Words. Worlds. Magic. Life and immortality. Power.

And he was never referred to as Flagg in these nightly discussions; it was as if they believed that to call him by name was to summon him like a djinn from a bottle. They called him the dark man. The Walkin Dude. The tall man. And Ratty Erwins called him Old Creeping Judas.

“M-O-O-N, that spells Stew, Tom Cullen knows that, everybody knows that!”

A boy does not need a father unless he is a good father, but a good father is indispensable.

A boy does not need a father unless he is a good father, but a good father is indispensable.

“Stuart, who are you talking about?”

“You remember a rock and roll group called The Doors? The man that stopped that night for gas in Arnette was Jim Morrison. I’m sure of it.”

Her mouth dropped open. “But he died! He died in France! He—” And then she stopped. Because there had been something funny about Morrison’s death, hadn’t there? Something secret.”

America was gone. Even if they could defeat Randall Flagg, whatever they might make would never be the same as that world of dark streets and bright dreams.

Harold:
“He went into the bathroom, set his Coleman lamp on the sink so that it illuminated the mirror, and for the next fifteen minutes he practiced smiling. He was getting very good at it.”

...goosebumps!

Mother Abigail meeting Nadine Cross:

“The woman with the dark eyes and the boy came next. The woman looked at her gravely and unflinchingly; the boy’s face showed frank wonder. The boy was all right. But something about the woman made her feel grave-cold. He’s here, she thought. He’s come in the shape of this woman… for behold he comes in more forms than his own… the wolf … the crow… the snake."

“And nineteen out by the gate, probably getting heatstroke while you and me chin. You go bring them in.”

My note:
Ralph never told Ma Abigail how many there were - but she knew somehow.

But when the very fabric of the world began to tear open, it was the Ralph Brentners who were not afraid to say, “Let’s slap a little epoxy in there and see if that’ll hold her.” And more often than not, it did.

“Christ, Glen, we’re all Americans—”
“No, that’s where you’re wrong,” Glen said, opening his eyes. They looked socketed and bloodshot. “We’re a bunch of survivors with no government at all. We’re a hodgepodge collection from every age group, religious group, class group, and racial group. Government is an idea, Stu. That’s really all it is, once you strip away the bureaucracy and the bullshit.”

“Hard for me to believe,” Stu said. “We came [...] across the country and didn’t see a hundred people [...].”
“Yes, but they’re coming in, aren’t they?”
“Yes… in dribs and drabs.”
“In what and whats?” Glen asked, grinning.
“Dribs and drabs. My mother used to say that. You shitting on my mom’s way of talking?”
“The day will never come in when I lose enough respect for my own hide to shit on a Texan’s mother, Stuart.”

“Boy, you sound as crazy as a rat in a shithouse. That’s okay. I like crazy people. I’m crazy myself. Tripped right outta my fuckin gourd. Trashcan Man, huh? I like that. We make a pair. The fucking Kid and the fucking Trashcan Man. Shake, Trash.”
The Kid offered his hand and Trash shook it as quick as he could so that The Kid could put both hands back on the wheel.

The Trashcan Man:
He was not then as insane as he was to become, but he was advancing.

He was good to her, Peri had told Fran in the soft and slightly amazed way of all plain women who have discovered a nice man in a hard world. She began to love him, a little more each day she had begun to love him.

From Frannie's journal:
Things to Remember: [...] To “boogie down” was to have a good time, and lots of people wore T-shirts which said SHIT HAPPENS, which it certainly did…and still does. [...] “Digs,” an old British expression, was just replacing “pad” or “crashpad” as an expression for the place you were living in before the superflu hit. It was very cool to say “I dig your digs.” Stupid, huh? But that was life.”

“Someone was in there,” Tom said abruptly.
Nick smiled, but the smile felt cold on his lips. He had no idea how good the imitation looked, but it felt crappy. He pointed to Tom, to himself, and then made a sharp cutting gesture through the air with the side of his hand.
“No,” Tom said. “Not just us. Someone else. Someone who came out of the twister.”
Nick shrugged.
“Can we go now? Please?”
Nick nodded.

How do you breathe? How do you dream? No one knows. But you come see me. Anytime. Mother Abagail is what they call me. I’m the oldest woman in these parts, I guess, and I still make m’own biscuit. You come see me anytime, boy, and bring your friends.

“So we sat up there and spooned,” she said sleepily, “like a couple of high school kids in a balcony. [...] He was … we were … in love … very much in love … love is what moves the world, I’ve always thought … it is the only thing which allows men and women to stand in a world where gravity always seems to want to pull them down … bring them low … and make them crawl … we were … so much in love …”

I love that I chose to read this book at the perfect time. The dates in the book keep aligning with the current date, and makes it that much more dramatic while reading.

During their wait in Sweeney’s office they communicated the sickness which would soon be known across the disintegrating country as Captain Trips to more than twenty-five people, including a matronly woman who just came in to pay her bill before going on to pass the disease to her entire bridge club.

He considered tucking his shirt into his pants, decided the President probably wouldn’t be stopping by that day, and shuffled out into the kitchen in his sock feet.