Under the Dome

The expression on Shumway's face as the Democrats roof let go did Big Jim's heart more good than all the cotton-picking medicines and pacemakers in the world. For years he'd been forced to put up with her weekly tirades, and while he wouldn't admit he had been afraid of her, he surely had been annoyed

But look at her now, he thought. Looks like she came home and found her mother dead on the pot.

'You look better,' Randolph said. 'Your color's coming back.'

'I feel better,' Big Jim said. 'But I'll still go home. Grab some shuteye.'

'That's a good idea,' Randolph said. 'We need you, my friend. Now more than ever. And if this Dome thing doesn't go away...'

He shook his head, his basset-hound eyes never leaving Big Jim's face. 'I don't know how we'd get along without you, put it that way. I love Andy Sanders like a brother but he doesn't have much in the way of brains. And Andrea Grinnell hasn't been worth a tin shit since she fell and hurt her back. You're the glue that holds Chester's Mill together.'

Big Jim was moved by this. He gripped Randolph's arm and squeezed. 'I'd give my life for this town. That's how much I love it.'

'I know. Me too. And no one's going to steal it out from under us.'

'Got that right,' Big Jim said.

He drove away, mounting the sidewalk to get past the roadblock that had been placed at the north end of the business district. His heart was steady in his chest again (well, almost), but he was troubled, nonetheless. He'd have to see Everett. He didn't like the idea; Everett was another noseyparker bent on causing trouble at a time when the town had to pull together. Also, he was no doctor. Big Jim would almost have felt better about trusting a vet with his medical problems, except there was none in town. He'd have to hope that if he needed medicine, something to regularize his heartbeat, Everett would know the right kind.

Well, he thought, whatever he gives me, I can check it out with Andy.

Yes, but that wasn't the biggest thing troubling him. It was something else Pete had said: If this Dome thing doesn't go away...

Big Jim wasn't worried about that. Quite the opposite. If the Dome did go away - too soon, that was - he could be in a fair spot of trouble even if the meth lab wasn't discovered. Certainly there would be cotton-pickers who would second-guess his decisions. One of the rules of political life that he'd grasped early was Tliose who can, do; those who can't, question the decisions of those who can. They might not understand that everything he'd done or ordered done, even the rock-throwing at the market this morning, had been of a caretaking nature. Barbara's friends on the outside would be especially prone to misunderstanding, because they would not want to understand. That Barbara had friends, powerful ones, on the outside was a thing Big Jim hadn't questioned since seeing that letter from the President. But for the time being they could do nothing. Which was the way Big Jim wanted it to stay for at least a couple of weeks. Maybe even a month or two.

The truth was, he liked the Dome.

Not for the long term, of course, but until the propane out there at the radio station was redistributed? Until the lab was dismantled and the supply barn that had housed it had been burned to the ground (another crime to be laid at the door of Dale Barbara's coconspirators)? Until Barbara could be tried and executed by police firing squad? Until any blame for how things were done during the crisis could be spread around to as many people as possible, and the credit accrued to just one, namely himself?

Until then, the Dome was just fine.

Big Jim decided he'd get kneebound and pray on it before turning in.

7

Sammy limped down the hospital corridor, looking at the names on the doors and checking behind those with no names just to be sure. She was starting to worry that the bitch wasn't here when she came to the last one and saw a get-well card thumbtacked there. It showed a cartoon dog saying 'I heard you weren't feeling so well.'

Sammy drew Jack Evans's gun from the waistband of her jeans (that waistband a little looser now, she'd finally managed to lose some weight, better late than never) and used the automatic's muzzle to open the card. On the inside, the cartoon dog was licking his balls and saying, 'Need a hindlick maneuver?' It was signed Mel, Jim Jr., Carter, and Frank, and was exactly the sort of tasteful greeting Sammy would have expected of them.

She pushed the door open with the barrel of the gun. Georgia wasn't alone. This did not disturb the deep calm that Sammy felt, the sense of peace nearly attained. It might have if the man sleeping in the corner had been an innocent - the bitch's father or uncle, say - but it was Frankie the Tit Grabber. The one who'd raped her first, telling her she'd better learn to keep her mouth for when she was on her knees. That he was sleeping didn't change anything. Because guys like him always woke up and recommenced their f**kery.

Georgia wasn't asleep; she was in too much pain, and the longhair who'd come in to check her hadn't offered her any more dope. She saw Sammy, and her eyes widened. 'D'yew,' she said. 'Ged outta here.'

Sammy smiled. 'You sound like Homer Simpson,' she said.

Georgia saw the gun and her eyes widened. She opened her now!mostly toothless mouth and screamed.

Sammy continued to smile. The smile widened, in fact. The scream was music to her ears and balm to her hurts.

'Do that bitch,' she said. 'Right, Georgia? Isn't that what you said, you heartless cunt?'

Frank woke up and stared around in wide-eyed befuddlement. His ass had migrated all the way to the edge of his chair, and when Georgia shrieked again, he jerked and fell onto the floor. He was wearing a sidearm now - they all were - and he grabbed for it, saying 'Put it down, Sammy, just put it down, we're all friends here, let's be friends here.'

Sammy said, 'You ought to keep your mouth closed except for when you're on your knees gobbling your friend Junior's cock.'Then she pulled the Springfield's trigger. The blast from the automatic was deafening in the small room. The first shot went over Frankie's head and jshattered the window. Georgia screamed again. She was trying to get out of bed now, her IV line and monitor wires popping free. Sammy shoved her and she flopped askew on her back,