Doctor Sleep

Doctor Sleep

Adult mystery
"'Dick, what the hell am I supposed to do?'
'Get the girl what she asked for.'
'Where are these, these empty devils?'
'In your childhood, where every devil comes from. I'm not
allowed to say more.'
'How do I stop them?'
'The only way to stop them is kill them. Make them eat their
own poison. Do that and they disappear.'"
For two decades now my daughter, Amber, and I have been fans of
Stephen King's The Shining. We were really excited when we learned
that he was working on a sequel. When it came out at $30.00 it was
not in our budgets. Luckily, helping at the recent friends of the
Orono Public Library book sale, I got a hard cover copy for about a
dime. Doctor Sleep, in my opinion, is a very worthy sequel.
Do you remember Danny, the poster child for Children's
Protective Services, who lived at a demonically possessed hotel, the
Overlook, with his parents and a number of malevolent spectral
entities? How his dad lapsed into insanity fueled by these beings who
wanted Danny for his shining, his package of sixth sense abilities?
How Danny and his mother barely escaped with their lives when the
Overlook exploded?
Well Danny's back folks--back and grown up. Like his father,
whom he'd sworn not to emulate in this fashion, he's succombed to
alcoholism. He has achieve sobriety, thanks to AA. He has a life he
feels comfortable in. He works in a hospice. And he still has the
shining...
...which is a very good thing...
...because a little girl, Abra, who shines very strongly is in
terrible peril from monsters even more evil than the Overlook daemons
of Danny's Youth. Members of the True Knot look like a group of older
mobile home and RV nomads. Nothing more sinister on their minds than
getting their full AARP discounts. Don't believe that for a moment.
They were alive when the United States became a nation. Their
unnaturally long lifespans demand regular infusions of steam, the life
force of dying children with the shining.
Rose, leader of the True Knot is determined to kill Abra not
only because she believes her steam will be of prime quality, but
because Abra knows too much and has personally challenged her. In
other words it's personal. Abra has Danny on her side. But can two
humans hold against such a strong force of pure malevolence? Read the
book and see.
On a personal note, I greatly enjoyed my three Thanksgiving dinners on
three consecutive Thursdays. The first was Gay Thanksgiving. The
second was multicultural Thanksgiving. The third was the one you
probably celebrated. It was such a rare treat to have my three kids
together! I live for times like that.
And no, I did not get up insanely early and battle the Black Friday
crowds to buy, buy, buy. Joey cat and I stayed in our attitude of
gratitude mode. The only years I ever did Black Friday were when the
kids wanted to. One very thoughtful thing Amber did was saving up and
buying Katie and Adam as many gifts as she could afford.
A great big shout out goes out to all with whom I celebrated.
jules hathaway



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