Read The Stand (Original Edition) for Free Online

didn’t much care for it.”
    A heavy silence fell. Joe Bob went to the drink machine and got a bottle of Fresca. The faint hissing sound of carbonation was audible as he popped the cap. As Joe Bob sat down again, Hap took a Kleenex from the box next to the cash register, wiped his runny nose, and folded it into the pocket of his greasy coverall.
    “What have you found out about Campion?” Vic asked. “Anything?”
    “We’re still checking,” Joe Bob said with a trace of importance. “His ID says he was from San Diego, but a lot of the stuff in his wallet was two and three years out of date. His driver’s license was expired. He had a BankAmericard that was issued in 1976 and that was expired, too. He had an army card so we’re checking with them. The captain has a hunch that Campion hadn’t lived in San Diego for maybe four years.”
    “AWOL?” Vic asked. He produced a big red bandanna, hawked, and spat into it.
    “Dunno yet,” Joe Bob said. “But his army card said he was in until 1982, and he was in civvies, and he was with his fambly, and he was a fuck of a long way from California, and listen to my mouth run.”
    “Well, I’ll get in touch with the others and tell em what you said, anyway,” Hap said. “Much obliged.”
    Joe Bob stood up. “Sure. Just keep my name out of it. I sure wouldn’t want to lose my job. Your buddies don’t need to know who tipped you, do they?”
    “No,” Hap said, and Vic echoed it.
    As Joe Bob went to the door, Hap said a little apologetically: “That’s five even for gas, Joe Bob. I hate to charge you, but with things the way they are—”
    “That’s okay.” Joe Bob handed him a credit card. “State’s payin. And I got my credit slip to show why I was here.”
    While Hap was filling out the slip he sneezed twice.
    “You want to watch that,” Joe Bob said. “Nothin any worse than a summer cold.”
    “Don’t I know it,” Hap said.
    Suddenly, from behind them, Vic said: “Maybe it ain’t a cold.” They turned to him. Vic looked frightened.
    “I woke up this morning sneezing and hacking away like sixty,” Vic said. “Had a mean headache, too. It’s gone back some, but I’m still full of snot. Maybe we’re coming down with it. What that Campion had. What he died of.”
    Hap looked at him for a long time, and as he was about to put forward all his reasons why it couldn’t be, he sneezed again.
    Joe Bob looked at them both gravely for a moment and then said, “You know, it might not be such a bad idea to close the station, Hap. Just for today.”
    Hap looked at him, scared, and tried to remember what all his reasons had been. He couldn’t think of a one. All he could remember was that he had also awakened with a headache and a runny nose. Well, everyone caught a cold once in a while. But before that guy Campion had shown up, he had been fine. Just fine.
    The three Hodges kids were six, four, and eighteen months. The two youngest were taking naps, and the oldest was out back digging a hole. Lila Bruett was in the living room, watching “The Doctors.” She hoped Sally wouldn’t return until it was over. Ralph had bought a big color TV when times had been better in Arnette, and Lila loved to watch the afternoon stories in color. Everything was so much prettier.
    She drew on her cigarette and then let the smoke out in spasms as a racking cough seized her. She went into the kitchen and spat the mouthful of crap she had brought up down the drain. She had gotten up with the cough, and all day it had felt like someone was tickling the back of her throat with a feather.
    She went back to the living room after taking a peek out the pantry window to make sure Bert Hodges was okay. A commercial was on now, two dancing bottles of toilet bowl cleaner. Lila let her eyes drift around the room and wished her own house looked this nice. Sally’s hobby was doing paint-by-the-numbers pictures of Christ, and they were all over the living room in nice frames. She