A Bedroom in the Wee Hours of t by Stephen King Read Free Book Online

A BEDROOM IN THE WEE HOURS OF THE MORNING
    Stephen King
     
    (from Scene 2 in Before the Play)
     
    Coming here had been a mistake, and Lottie Kilgallon didn’t like to admit her mistakes.
    And I won’t admit this one, she thought with determination as she stared up at the ceiling that glimmered overhead.
    Her husband of ten days slumbered beside her. Sleeping the sleep of the wise was what some might have called it. Others, more honest, might have called it the sleep of the monumentally’ stupid.
    He was William Pillsbury of the Westchester Pillsbury’s only son and heir of Harold M. Pillsbury, old and comfortable money. Publishing was what they liked to talk about, because publishing was a gentleman’s profession, but there was also a chain of New England textile a foundry in Ohio, and extensive agricultural holdings in the south — cotton and citrus and fruit. Old money was always better than noveau riche, but either way they had money falling out of their assholes. If she ever said that aloud to Bill, he would undoubtedly go pale and might even faint dead away. No fear, Bill.
    Profanation of the Pillsbury family shall never cross my lips.
    It had been her idea to honeymoon at the Overlook in Colorado, and there had been two reasons for this. First, although it was tremendously expensive (as the best resorts were), it was not a “hep” place to go, and Lottie did not like to go to the hep places.
    Where did you go on your honeymoon, Lottie? Oh, this perfectly wonderful resort hotel in Colorado — the Overlook. Lovely place.
    Quite out of the way but so romantic. And her friends — whose stupidity was exceeded in most cases only by that of William Pillsbury himself — would look at her in dumb — literally! — wonder.
    Lottie had done it again.
    Her second reason had been of more personal importance. She had wanted to honeymoon at the Overlook because Bill wanted to go to Rome. It was imperative to find out certain things as soon as possible. Would she be able to have her own way immediately? And if not, how long would it take to grind him down? He was stupid, and he had followed her around like a dog with its tongue hanging out since her debutante ball, but would he be as malleable after the ring was slipped on as he had been before?
    Lottie smiled a little in the dark in spite of her lack of sleep and the bad dreams she had had since they arrived here. Arrived here, that was the key phrase. “Here” was not the American Hotel in Rome but the Overlook in Colorado. She was going to be able to manage him just fine, and that was the important thing. She would only make him stay another four days (she had originally planned on three weeks, but the bad dreams had changed that), and then could go back to New York. After all, that was where the action was in this August of 1929. The stock market was going crazy, the sky was the limit, and Lottie expected to be an heiress to multi—millions instead of just one or two millions by this time next year. Of course there were some weak sisters who claimed the market was riding for a fall, but no one had ever called Lottie Kilgallon a weak sister.
    Lottie Kilgallon Pillsbury now, at least that’s the way I’ll have to sign my letters
    and my checks, of course. But inside I’ll always be Lottie Kilgallon. Because he’s never going to touch me. Not inside where it counts.
    The most tiresome thing about this first contest of her marriage was that Bill actually liked the Overlook. He was up every day at two minutes past the crack of dawn, disturbing what ragged bits of sleep she had managed after the restless nights, staring eagerly out at the sunrise like some sort of disgusting Greek nature boy. He had been hiking two or three times, he had gone on several nature rides with other guests, and bored her almost to the point of screaming with stories about the horse he rode on these jaunts, a bay mare named Tessie. He had tried to get her to go on these outings with him, but