Pet Sematary

Irwin blames Louis for Rachel’s grief and loss, and Louis demands to know what Irwin said to Rachel, realizing Irwin is drunk, too. Irwin says, “‘I told her this is what it gets you, marrying against your parents’ wishes’” (231). They shout at each other, and Irwin calls Louis a child-murderer. Louis punches him in the face, knocking Irwin into Gage’s coffin. Rachel screams, and Irwin taunts him before hitting Louis in the throat, bringing him to his knees, after which Irwin kicks him in the kidneys. Louis catches another of Irwin’s kicks and shoves him backward into Gage’s coffin, which falls on the floor, though Gage’s body remains inside it. Louis cries and pictures Gage at Disney World. Louis can’t deal with Rachel, who continues to scream. Dory leads her out of the room. Later, Louis gives her a sedative.

At home, Louis gives Rachel another sedative and apologizes. He asks her how bad she is, and she admits that she’s in a pretty bad way, which Louis feels resentful of. Louis checks on Ellie, briefly thinking she is Gage because she is sitting in his chair, which she is much too big for. Ellie still has Gage’s picture clutched tightly in her fist. As Ellie gets ready for bed, she prays that God will give Gage back, but Louis, seeing Church, says that God doesn’t do that. Ellie talks about Lazarus. Ellie maintains that she will do everything she can to bring Gage back, and Louis believes that one day, Ellie will forget him. Louis goes downstairs and gets drunk, then harasses Church for being a murderer. He toasts Gage and then wonders why he doesn’t bury Gage in the MicMac ground. Louis remembers the premonition he had on Ellie’s first day of school that Gage would die. He tries to rationalize the thought of burying Gage in the MicMac ground, but knows Church is no longer the same cat, and that Gage would not be the same, either. Even strangers who didn’t know Church before could sense there was something off about the cat and avoided him. Louis still feels drawn to the idea, although he knows it’s wrong. Louis thinks about all the stories Jud has told him about the MicMac burial ground, repeating the words over and over in his mind. Louis thinks about how the burial ground is his now. Jud knocks on the door and Louis answers it after a while. Jud asks to come in, and Louis says he’s been drinking, which Jud can smell. Louis lets him inside anyway.

Louis and Jud drink in Louis’s kitchen. Louis questions why Jud is over, and Jud says Louis already knows, warning him not to bury Gage in the MicMac ground. Louis protests, denying he thought about it. Jud talks about how no one is sure who owns the land because the claims are so tangled. Jud tells Louis the story of Timmy Bateman, who died overseas in WWII. His father was torn up about Timmy dying and buried him in the MicMac ground. Louis questions why Jud didn’t tell him this previously; Jud says the information was on a need-to-know basis. Jud suggests that it has been tried before Timmy as well. Jud knows that Louis has ordered a grave liner instead of a sealing vault, which will allow for him to easily dig up and reinter Gage. Louis finally admits to thinking about it, remembering a story his undertaker uncle told him about trying to exhume a body in a sealed vault, which is nearly impossible. A grave liner is a much simpler matter: “easy enough for a man to disinter the body of his son and bury it someplace else” (248). Louis protests that it’s late; Jud continues his story.

Jud tells the story of how Timmy’s father buried Timmy’s body, and less than a week later the mailwoman saw Timmy walking down the road, which terrified her because everyone knew Timmy was dead. Word got around, and other people saw Timmy as well, claiming that his eyes were entirely dead and he grinned creepily. Jud explains that “there was something goin on behind his eyes, and sometimes you could see it and sometimes you couldn’t see it” (252). Jud talks about the force being sinister and not like Timmy at all, who just walked up and down the road all day for several days. Jud and a group of his friends decided to put a stop to Timmy because people had been writing letters to the government and it was starting to attract attention. Jud remembers Norma calling Timmy an abomination and demanding Jud take care of it. Jud recalls how he and his friends went over to the Baterman place to find Timmy and his father, Bill. They tried to get Bill to confess what he did, but Bill told them to leave. They realized Bill had gone crazy. Timmy came over to the group as they were about to leave, and Jud recalls how he stank of the grave. Louis asks him to stop, but Jud says Louis must hear this.

Jud then recounts how Timmy proceeded to tell them all the terrible dirty secrets in their life, using the voices of the people they love: that one person’s younger second wife was having an affair and that another’s grandchildren just want his inheritance but they don’t know he’s poor. Jud remembers Bill screaming at Timmy to stop, but Timmy just keeps yelling their secrets as the men leave. Louis asks if what Timmy said was true, and Jud confirms that he used to go see prostitutes, just like Timmy said. Jud says that Timmy only saw the bad in those men, not the good, and that their lives were changed—usually for the worse—by the words he said to them. Jud adds that this new Timmy was a monster, something touched by the Wendigo. Jud remembers how a few days later, Bill killed Timmy, lit his house on fire, then shot himself. Jud admits that he is responsible in part for Gage’s death, which he believes is tied to reburying Church in the MicMac ground: “‘You saved Norma’s life, and I wanted to do something for you, and that place turned my good wish into its own evil purpose’” (261). Jud blames the MicMac ground for Gage’s death and makes Louis promise he won’t resurrect Gage. Louis promises, but knows he is lying.

Louis dreams that none of these things happened and that Louis is able to successfully grab Gage’s jacket and yank him back to safety. He dreams that he enjoys going away to camp, where he discovers his passion for swimming. When he’s in high school, Gage gets a Catholic girlfriend and converts to Catholicism; Rachel worries that this girl will ruin Gage’s future by popping out a bunch of kids. Gage goes to college and eventually wins a gold medal at the Olympics in swimming. Louis wakes up in a cold sweat, hungover, and remembers that Gage’s hat is full of blood up. He throws up and realizes that it was all a dream, that his son is dead. Louis thinks about how he would do anything to have a second chance with his son.

Gage is buried in the afternoon, after the rain stops. Irwin has none of the hatred left in his eyes, but Louis is still mad. He thinks about Gage’s potential resurrection, battling within himself. Rachel begs Louis to let them stay a few more minutes, but Louis guides her away. Jud asks both Rachel and Ellie how they are, and Ellie, crying, shows Jud the picture she’s been carrying of her and Gage. Ellie recalls pulling Gage on a sled in the snow, and Jud asserts she should hold close those memories. Jud looks to Louis as if to ask what he is doing to care for his daughter, but Louis’s “thoughts were too full of his son” (268).

After giving Rachel a Valium for her nerves, Louis lies and says he’s going out for pizza. Louis remembers the funeral party earlier, during which everyone brought food and Louis shared anecdotes about various cultures’ burial customs. Rachel had turned to her mother for comfort that Louis could not give. Louis thinks about resurrecting Gage, believing he still does not intend to do it. He calls for pizza at a place in another town, near the cemetery where Gage is buried. He drives to the cemetery and finds, to his surprise, that the gates aren’t locked. His inner voice asks, terrified, what he’s doing, but he ignores it. He realizes that this cemetery is nothing like the pet cemetery, which holds the ancient and powerful symbol of the spiral in its gravestone arrangements.

Louis comes upon Gage’s grave and thinks about how dangerous it is to assume that the cemetery is unguarded. He thinks about what would happen if he got caught digging up Gage’s grave, and what he would lose—his job, Rachel—and realizes that he really believes he can bring Gage back to life. Louis realizes he also believes Jud’s story of Timmy Baterman, but questions whether he came back as a demon. He wonders about the bull that came back mean as well, but believes these are the exceptions, not the rule. His inner voice protests that he is rationalizing. Louis decides that while Gage might come back diminished, that would not diminish Louis’s love for him. Unknowingly, Louis draws a spiral in the dirt and then brushes it away, leaving quickly. Louis gets the pizza, eats one slice, and throws the rest away. He starts thinking about how long it took to reinter Baterman and realizes that in order to resurrect Gage in a timely fashion, he has to get his family out of town.

Rachel is incredulous when Louis tells her to take Ellie back to Chicago with Irwin and Dory:“He had never been a particularly good liar, and he had not planned this encounter in any detail at all, but now a string of plausible lies, half-truths, and inspired justification poured out of him” (277). Louis argues that they must mend the relationship with Rachel’s parents and that none of them should stay in Ludlow, especially not Ellie, which touches a nerve in Rachel, even though he knows the best way to deal with grief is to deal with the tragedy where it happened. Rachel acknowledges the logic of his argument, saying that everything reminds her of Gage. Louis comforts her but feels like a fraud. Rachel promises if Gage came back, she’d watch him better. She says that the driver of the truck tried to kill himself, and Louis replies that it would be better if the driver were dead. Rachel talks about how the driver was sober and once he hit Ludlow, just felt like going fast. Louis pushes away thoughts of how powerful the MicMac ground is. Louis says to make arrangements for them to leave immediately, and he’ll follow them in three or four days. Louis starts rationalizing how everything will be fine and Rachel asks him what he’s hiding. Louis denies hiding anything. Rachel calls her parents to make the arrangements. Everything falls together, and Louis ignores Jud’s voice in his head. Louis tells Rachel to pack lightly, thinking she’ll be back soon and arguing she can buy whatever else she needs. Rachel talks about how they can dissolve Gage’s college fund and then starts crying again.

Irwin calls to apologize, and Louis realizes how similar he is to Rachel, because he apologizes after getting his way. Louis accepts the apology cynically at first, and then realizes how sorry Irwin actually is. Irwin talks about Zelda and starts crying, but Louis holds onto his hate. Louis briefly thinks about doing what he claims to be doing and letting Gage stay buried, but then argues that that would be like murdering Gage a second time. Louis hangs up on Irwin. He helps Rachel pack, and Rachel asks again if he isn’t hiding something and he lies and says no. Rachel calls him a terrible liar, explaining that Ellie had a nightmare about Louis being dead. Rachel acknowledges she’s been having dreams of Zelda and asks Louis to come to bed with her. Afterwards, Louis asks Rachel if she remembers when Gage was nine months old and they worried he might be hydrocephalic. They took him to get tested, waiting all night, terrified, but the tests came back negative. Louis asks Rachel if she would have loved Gage even if he had a mental disability, and Rachel says she would. She falls asleep easily, but Louis stays awake for a while.

As Louis readies Rachel and Ellie to go to Chicago, grateful to be kept busy, Ellie is quiet and distant, as though she knows something is wrong. When Louis meets Irwin, he realizes how drunk Irwin was when he called last night. While they wait, Louis takes Ellie to the bookstore, and she asks him whether the truant officer will get her and whether Louis is pissed at Irwin. Louis assures her that he and her grandfather are fine. Ellie admits to being scared because she had a dream about Gage’s empty coffin, then pleads with Louis to either come with them or allow them to stay here. Louis says he’ll follow in a few days; Ellie becomes weirdly silent. When they all board the plane, Ellie repeats that she doesn’t want to go, and Louis reassures her that she’ll be fine. Ellie admits she is worrying about Louis, not herself. Ellie holds up the line until Rachel prompts her forward. Louis waves, but Ellie does not wave back.

Realizing he means to go through with Gage’s resurrection, Louis’s mind goes cold as he gets all the supplies he needs from a store. The clerk tries to make a joke, but Louis shoots him down, saying he has to dig up his septic tank. Louis decides to take the family sedan, even though it’s smaller, because the station wagon might break down. He checks into a motel, but finds he can’t sleep: “That feeling of coldness still held; he felt totally unplugged from his people, the places that had become so familiar to him, even his work” (295). He feels he is being hunted by madness and tries to look at his plan logically. Louis realizes that if Gage returns, he will either return as normal, if slightly diminished, or as a monster. If this occurs, Louis will kill Gage, probably using morphine in his doctor’s bag. If this is the case, he will reinter Gage in the cemetery and then join his family in Chicago. However, if Gage comes back fine, Louis will take him to Florida and get Rachel to join him immediately, and they would get new lives, possibly with him working as a doctor at Disney World. Louis sleeps. Meanwhile, on the plane, Ellie wakes up from a nightmare where Gage is alive and is trying to kill her and Louis with a scalpel.

By the time the plane lands, Ellie is hysterical and Rachel is worried. They meet up with her parents and Rachel confesses her anxiety. Ellie tries to throw up in the bathroom but only dry heaves, admitting that something is wrong with Louis. Rachel realizes that she has felt tense all day. Ellie talks about her dream of Pascow taking her to the pet cemetery and warning her about Louis. Rachel tries to comfort her. She is disquieted by the name Pascow though she can’t place it. Rachel regroups with her parents but then suddenly realizes who Pascow is. She asks Ellie if his first name was Victor, clamping down on Ellie’s arm so hard it hurts the girl. Her parents ask her what’s wrong, and she says there’s something wrong with Louis but she doesn’t know what. Rachel calls Louis, but he doesn’t pick up. She reflects on how she kept any knowledge of Pascow’s death from Ellie, rationalizing that she might have picked up the name elsewhere. Rachel calls Louis’s work and learns he’s not come in. She reflects on how powerful memory is and knows something is wrong, worrying that Louis is contemplating suicide. She calls Jud and explains how she and Ellie are in Chicago at Louis’s behest. Jud asks about Ellie’s dream.

When Jud goes to check on Louis’s house, he feels the pet cemetery telling him to stay out of it. He looks in the house for signs of what Louis is planning on doing, but finds nothing. He thinks about going to the cemetery where Gage is buried, but knows that danger is there, so he gets out some beer and waits on his porch. Louis thinks about the bull that turned mean, and again feels the power telling him to stay out of the cemetery or he’ll be sorry: “Ignoring it as best he could, Jud sat and smoked and drank beer. And waited” (306).

Louis eats a big, bland diner dinner, half-hoping that he will see someone he knows and they will ask questions that put his mission in jeopardy. He does see someone he knows but that person doesn’t recognize him. In Chicago, Rachel wants to go back to Ludlow at the protests of her parents; meanwhile, in Ludlow, Jud sits, waiting for Louis to return. At 11pm, Louis eagerly readies himself, thinking about how he couldn’t stop himself from digging up Gage even if he wanted to.

Rachel’s parents argue with her about going back to Ludlow, but Rachel knows she has to leave even if she can’t make them understand. Rachel recalls how Ellie seemed relieved when she told them. Rachel calls to make flight arrangements while her parents look at her weirdly. Ellie tells Rachel not to let anything stop her. Rachel asks Ellie if she remembers any more of the dream, but Ellie can’t. The travel agent tells Rachel she can get Ellie to Bangor but not until late. Rachel asks Irwin to drive her to the airport and he resists, causing Ellie to scream at him. Dory tells Irwin just to drive her because Dory has gotten the creeps as well. Ellie tells Rachel to be careful.

Louis parks in the dark on the cemetery street, not wanting to be seen by anyone. He thinks about breaking Gage out as he throws his tools over the fence. Whenever car lights approach, Louis steps behind a tree. He is surprised to find the gate locked and realizes he has to climb over the fence, thinking of a bunch of graveyard puns. He realizes that the top of the fence, which is much taller than he is, has pointed tips that could skewer him if he slipped. He thinks about coming back tomorrow during the day and hiding in the cemetery until night but worries about his equipment, although he doesn’t think anyone will find it. Louis worries that if he doesn’t do this tonight, he’ll never do it.

A police car passes and Louis again hides behind a tree. After seeing that one of its branches overhangs the fence, Louis climbs the tree, then dangles himself over the spikes. A car comes, but luckily it’s not the police. Louis slips several times, realizing how close to death he is. He stands on the spiked fence posts as they dig into his feet, then uses the branch to swing himself down, hitting his knee on a gravestone. He keeps to the shadows and has almost reached his bag when he has to hide behind a gravestone as a couple walks past on the street. Louis thinks about how easily he has transitioned from doctor to grave robber and the disconnect he feels from other people. After the couple is gone, Louis impatiently retrieves his equipment bundle. Approaching Gage’s grave, Louis is horrified that he can’t remember what Gage looked like, although he remembers perfectly his death. Louis wonders why he is doing this and feels he’s the victim of powers beyond his control: “Louis glanced into his heart one final time and saw that yes, he did intend to go ahead with this” (320). Louis digs out Gage’s grave until he hits the grave liner. Once Louis sees Gage’s coffin, he becomes furious, striking repeatedly at the latch to break it. He pauses for a moment before opening Gage’s coffin.

Rachel misses one of her flights because the shuttle bus never comes and ends up taking off her heels and running through the airport. She flies through security only to have the plane depart as she gets to the gate. When she questions the attendant, he says that he got the call to hold the plane too late. The security guard suggests she rent a car because she looks like she really needs to get to where she’s going as soon as possible. She decides to drive all the way back to Ludlow, figuring she’ll get there before dawn. The security guard wishes her good luck.

Louis gags at the smell of the grave and for a moment is horrified that Gage’s head is gone before realizing it’s only covered in moss. Gage looks like a grotesque doll, but Louis knows the mortician did the best he could. He is afraid that Gage’s body will break apart when Louis lifts him but does it anyway, trying not to recoil at the smell and feel of him. Louis rocks Gage, assuring the corpse that it will be over soon. Louis wraps his son’s body in the tarpaulin and closes the grave back up, although there does not seem to be enough dirt to fill the hole. He stops to contemplate the rotting flowers in the drainage ditch before going to the crypt, where coffins were sometimes kept if the ground was too frozen or if there was a peak in business. Louis remembers his uncle talking about February being a busy month and August usually being slow. Louis tosses the tarp with his son onto the top of the crypt’s hill and then throws his tools over the fence. He straps his tarped son to his back before jumping over the fence, then searches for his tools. He leaves Gages body in the shadows and takes his tools to his car. Louis hurries to his car but can’t find his keys, searching for them until he realizes they’re still in the ignition. He goes back to retrieve Gage, realizing that he has left the keys in the hatchback this time and cursing himself for his stupidity. On his way back to the car with Gage, a dog starts barking, which gets all the neighbors yelling. Eventually, the dog’s owner beats it until it’s quiet. Louis hurries to his car, but Gage’s body won’t fit in the trunk, so he puts it up in the passenger’s seat, feeling for Gage’s face to make sure the dead boy is facing the proper direction.

Jud dreams that he is young and drinking with his friends again. He wakes up when the phone rings. Rachel asks Jud if Louis is home yet; Jud asks where Rachel is, as she sounds closer to Ludlow. Jud feels terror, but doesn’t want to explain things to her over the phone. Rachel explains how she missed her flight and is now driving. Jud suggests she get some sleep and that if anything happens, he’ll take care of it; he does not want her falling asleep at the wheel and getting into a fatal accident. Rachel protests, demanding to know what’s going on, but Jud is firm that he has to tell her in person. Rachel assents, and Jud hangs up. Jud starts drinking coffee and smoking but eventually begins to doze again, and he realizes that the burial ground is trying to put him to sleep. His mind goes back to his dream-events, and Jud thinks about how “of so many, he was the only one left, and [that] the old get stupid” (339). Jud falls asleep and does not see Louis’s car pull into the garage.

Louis straps all the tools into a sling he puts on his back and carries Gage in his arms. Even though Gage is heavier than Church, Louis believes he’ll manage the weight. Louis is afraid but ignores his fear, focusing on his task. He stops at the pet cemetery to rest, but once he gets to the deadfall, his weariness becomes unimportant and he relives climbing it in his mind. He easily goes up and over the deadfall to the other side, his fear vanishing.

Rachel heads toward a Holiday Inn, thinking about Ellie’s dream and Jud’s refusal to talk about Louis’s lies. She realizes that Louis is never scared and she abruptly decides to continue onto Ludlow. Rachel believes that Jud is too old to deal with this alone and wants to save Louis. She sings to keep herself awake, blasting music and wondering if the night will ever end.

Louis feels like he is in a dreamlike state, conflating carrying Gage and carrying Church previously. He follows the path, his memories and senses vivid. He wonders about the strange plants that don’t seem to belong in Maine and thinks about faith. What he believes is a bat dive-bombs him, but Louis continues on. He feels his own mortality against the strength of the swamp and hears something like a laugh turned sob. He freezes but decides the sound is just loons. The voice seems to be moving around him, but Louis keeps his eyes ahead and continues. Louis sees a demon head laughing but keeps going, realizing that it was not St. Elmo’s fire, as Jud previously asserted. He freezes again, hearing something huge that shakes the ground and seeing sparks that he takes for eyes, but the beast moves on. Louis continues, realizing that he just saw a Wendigo, although he argues with himself over the improbability of that until he sees a tree broken by a massive footprint. He climbs the stairs cut into the ground: “He cocked his head back once and saw the mad sprawl of the stars. There were no constellations he recognized, and he looked away again, disturbed” (349). Louis is in great pain and notices that the night is brighter here and now sees the burst-open cairns in a spiral pattern, just like the pet cemetery, except these markers have been broken out of. Louis doubts what he is doing but feels it’s too late to turn back. He rationalizes that if anything happens, he’ll kill Gage. Louis digs, saving some of the rocks for the cairn.

Rachel keeps falling asleep while she’s driving, scraping the guardrail several times. She feels like something is trying to keep her away from Louis. She pulls over and cries, then regains her composure and continues on. She stops for gas and lots of coffee, but when she goes back out to the car, it won’t start, despite being brand new. She listens to the trucks and is sure the one that killed Gage is close by.

Louis falls on his trek back and finds it difficult to get up; he can’t remember how he got to where he is. The fear of the Wendigo propels Louis to get up. He stumbles several times while managing over the deadfall and then falls off towards the bottom. He hears one of the grave markers making a noise like a heartbeat and then freezes when he hears something moving beyond the deadfall but the sounds die off. He backs out of the pet cemetery and runs to his house. He puts the tools in the garage and goes inside to find Church, who Louis thought he put out. He takes off his clothes to find his ribs bruised and knee swollen and lathers himself with Ben-Gay. He thinks of all the memories in the house and wishes that he and his family had never come to Ludlow. He checks his medical bag to make sure he has the lethal morphine syringes and daydreams about taking Gage to Disney World and making a life there. He thinks about being surrounded by death all the time and pictures death as Oz the Gweat and Tewwible, a name for death that was created by Rachel’s sister, Zelda. Louis sleeps. Gage, smelling of the grave, walks up the stairs at dawn. Gage takes the scalpel from Louis’s medicine bag.