This Reminds Me

The door slowly creaks open….

A beam of light slices into the room….

A pounding heart….a flash of blood…a scream of terror….

A problem?

Naw.

Just Lois showing us her literary class project.

Her “Carrie” diorama is a guaranteed head-turner, from the upright, blood-stained Carrie (a.k.a., brunette Barbie) to the prostrate prom-goer (a.k.a., blonde Barbie knock-off).  The hand-painted starry black gym-cum-dance background presents a stark contrast for the “Ewen (High School) Porm” banner and 3D relief Eiffel Tower highlighting the “Night in Paris” theme with flames licking behind it.

Don’t look for Mattel to hire her to do packaging….

Classmates chose other books, like “Huckleberry Finn” and “A Series of Unfortunate Events” (yawnnnnn), but Lois picked a horror classic.

“Carrie” was Stephen King’s first published novel.  My Mom and I both read “Carrie,” and its gripping story and graphic imagery hooked us on future offerings of “The King.”  I’d read the latest Stephen King book first.  My mom would mutter “how weird” it was, how she “couldn’t understand” why I was so anxious to read it, how she “might read it” if she had time, etc….and then she’d have the novel read before she went to bed the night after I finished it.

In fact, Mom guessed Richard Bachmann was really Stephen King months before that was announced.  She handed me “Running Man” – which I hadn’t read first – and said, “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear this was Stephen King.”

David and I were huge Stephen King fans.  We stood in line at the Brazos Book Store to get his autograph in 1988.  We were requested to hand him what we wanted him to inscribe in his friend’s book (his appearance was pumping sales.)  Because it was near my birthday – and because the hero of “The Stand” (my fave) had a lunar fixation – I wrote, “For Bec – M-O-O-N, that spells Happy Birthday.”  He looked at it, then at me and responded, “Hey, that’s pretty good.”  He was signing autographs on the second story landing of the bookstore, which was inaccessible to David in his wheelchair.  No elevator.  When he saw us deliberating a course of action (Leave?  David drag himself up the stairs?), he bounded down to us to chat a few minutes.  He maintained “The Stand” would have to be a screen movie and not a mini-series because, “It just doesn’t look right to have the end of the world brought to you by Jiffy Toilet Tissue.”

Now that’s a birthday wish!

On my list of “Things To Do Before I Die” – Take the creative writing class he teaches at the University of Maine.

I hope Lois gets an “A” on her kewlio diorama.  I like it!  Now, if she wants to shear some topiary animals in our yard, or bring home a drooly St. Bernard, or scrawl REDRUM on her bedroom door….well, then we’ll talk

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