jud crandall. i live just across the road.
no harm, no foul. but you want to watch out for that road. those damn trucks go back and forth all day and most of the night.
who might you be, little miss?
and now you live on route 9 in ludlow, and your dad's gonna be the new doctor up to the college, i hear, and i think you're going to be just as happy as a clam here, ellen creed.
same here. come over and visit when you get the chance.
house has stood empty for too long. it's damn good to see people in it again.
movin' in's mighty thirsty work. i usually sit out on my porch of an evening and pour a couple of beers over m'dinner. come on over and join me, if you want.
oh, ayuh! i know. it's a good story, and a good walk, too. i'll take you up there sometime, and tell you the story, too-- after you get settled in.
well, come on up and have a beer.
you need a glass?
good for you.
ain't it just? the man who invented beer, louis, that man was having a prime day for himself.
allman brothers.
the eat a peach album. god, they were good before drugs and bad luck caught up with them. listen to this, louis.
i'm sorry. wait.
try that.
i like rock and roll. no. i guess that's too mild. i love it. since my ears started to die out on me, it's the only music i can really hear. and since my wife died. i dunno, some- times a little rock and roll fills up night. not always, but sometimes. one more time--welcome to ludlow. hope your time here will be a happy one.
that road--and those orinco trucks-- are the two main reasons it's there.
take a look behind you.
you folks ready to go on?
you'll see soon enough, hon.
nope. the micmac indians. what's up ahead is all that's left of their tribal lands.
aw, you'll be okay. less than a mile.
i told you it was a bad road, louis--it's killed a lot of pets and made a lot of kids unhappy. but at least something good come of it. this place.
well, but missus creed! it ain't quite that way, deah!
well. they have to learn about death somehow, now don't they, missus creed? the little ones?
well. well, because--
best never to go climbing on old blowdowns like this, ellie--sometimes they bite.
ayuh.
ayuh--they get older as you go toward the middle. pete lavasseur's dog is buried there.  the stoppard boys' racing pigeon that missus cowley's cat got. and i think that's the cat himself right there, although it's been so many years i can't tell for sure. missy ellen! come over here just a minute!
i see you're quite a reader for such a little girl. can you read that?
last name's crandall, little missy.
that's where i buried my dog spot when he died of old age in 19 and 14. dug it good and deep. by the time i finished, i had blisters all over my hands and a hell of a crick in my back. soil's stony up here.
do you know what this place is, ellie? oh, i know you know it's a boneyard, but a bone ain't nothing and even a whole pile of 'em don't amount to much. do you know what a graveyard really is?
it's a place where the dead speak, missy.
no--not right out loud. their stones speak. or their markers. even if the marker ain't nothing but a tin can someone wrote on with a magic marker, it speaks. ain't that so, louis?
well, it still says some animal got laid down here after, don't it?
me neither. but i believe in knowing your enemy.
did you tell me rachel took the kids back to chicago for a few days?
well, there's a dead cat over here on the edge of my lawn, louis. i think it might be your daughter's.
i'm sorry. at least it don't look like he suffered.
loved that cat pretty well, didn't she?
you going to bury him in the pet sematary?
going to tell ellie?
seems like you told me about a promise you made--
cat's just as dead, louis.
no need to apologize.
it's going to be dark before we even get where we're going, louis. but we can do it. and we're going to.
does she love the cat?
then come on.
what say, louis?
we're still not where we're going.
the place we're going is on the other side of that.
no. we won't. i have climbed it a time or two before, and i know all the places to step. just follow me. move easy. don't look down. and don't stop. if you stop, you'll crash through for sure.
give me the cat. i'll take care of it myself.
just don't stop and--
louis! you all right?
no, you shouldn't have stopped. but you got away with it. important thing is are you sure you're all right?
you'll see before long. let's go.
this next bit's like the deadfall, louis-- you got to walk steady and easy. just follow me and don't look down.
micmacs used to call it little god swamp.
ayuh.
ayuh.
there's a lot of funny things down this way, louis.
just don't stop, louis. you don't ever want to stop down here in little god. and you don't ever want to look behind you, whatever you hear.
almost there, louis.
this time i mean it.
this was their burying ground, louis.
the micmac indians. i brought you here to bury ellen's cat.
i had my reasons, louis. we'll talk later. all right?
you want to rest a bit before you start?
soil's thin, all right. but you'll manage.
i'm going to sit over yonder and have a smoke. i'd help you, but you've got to do it yourself. each buries his own. that's how it was done then.
your cairn.
don't worry about that.
because it's right.
that's fine. you did real good.
when you talk to 'em, not one word about what we done tonight. 's'far's you know, the cat's still fine.
you'll understand. in the meantime, keep your peace. what we did, louis, was a secret thing. women are supposed to be the ones who are good at keeping secrets, but any woman who knows anything at all would tell you she's never seen into a man's heart. the soil of a man's heart is stonier, louis--like the soil up there in the old micmac burying ground. a man grows what he can. and tends it.
no buts! accept what's done, louis. what we done was right. another time it might not be, but tonight it was.  at least i hope to christ it was. now you make your call. but not a word about tonight.
i most generally don't start before noon, but this looks like an exception.
why, saved a little girl from being unhappy. that's all. drink up, louis!
wouldn't wash?
ayuh. it was the rag-man told me about the place--stanley bouchard. us kids just called him stanny b. he was half micmac himself.
i guess it wouldn't hurt.
the micmacs used to bury their dead up there long before the whites came.
they buried their dead and for a long time their dead stayed buried. then something happened. half the tribe died in a season. the rest moved on. they said a wendigo had soured the ground.
spirit of the north country. not a good spirit. wendigos are great liars and tricksters, according to the stories. and if one touches you.
maybe it really was a wendigo-- i ain't the one to say it wasn't-- or maybe it was just some disease. whatever the reason, those that were left moved on. but they left that place. the way it is now.
stanny b. did for me what i did for you last night, louis. only i wasn't alone when spot came back.
well, she was a little upset at first, and that's why i thought you ought to hold your peace when you talked to your people last night. you did, didn't you, louis?
why, then, things should be fine.
she got used to the idea. spot lived another four years. he died peacefully in the night that second time, and i buried him in the pet sematary. where his bones still lie.
a man doesn't always know why he does things, louis. i think i did it because your daughter ain't ready for her favorite pet to die.
ellie's a little scared of death. and the main reason ellie's that way is because your wife is a lot scared of death. now you just go ahead and tell me i'm wrong.
they do it to honor the dead, ellen.
rachel not feeling well?
out of the mouths of babes, louis.
poor missy. god, i was sorry to hear. i remember when she was no older'n ellen there, walking down to the store with her raggedy anne doll draggin' behind her in the dust. i don't know why god takes someone like her, who should have a bunch of years still in front of them, and lets an old shit like me just go on and on.
ayuh. how is your cat, louis?
nope. he's your cat now.
don't let him go in the road, louis!
your father-in-law packs a wallop, for an old guy. he and his wife gone back to chicago?
louis--
what you got there, ellie?
ellie. god doesn't do things like that. i know you loved y'brother, but--
louis, take care of your little girl. she needs you.
i got you a fresh beer out of the fridge, louis.
you're thinking of things best not thought of, louis.
you never asked me if anyone had buried a person up there in the micmac burying ground--
--but i think the thought has crossed your mind.
ayuh--it's a mess, all right.
i know the micmacs thought it was a holy place. and then they thought it was a cursed place. that's why they moved on.
and because the dead walked.
oh, ayuh. it's been done. what you've been thinking of has been done.
why. that sometimes dead is better. that's all. sometimes dead is better.
it ain't your wife and little girl that's got me worried, louis.
come on.
i heard your boy was killed down georgia.
bill, this ain't right--you can see that yourself--
god help you, bill.
get out, billy--the place is going up.
no--but if he drops by, i'll tell him to call you.
ayuh, i think 'twas. if i see louis come home before i go to bed, i'll tell him to--
no! rachel! don't do that! rachel--!
you done it, you stupid old man.  now you got to undo it.
come on, stop playing games!
gage? are you the one playing games?
gage? come on out.
i want to show you something.