It

They had just arrived back at Richie's house, and Bill was walking Silver. He had ridden Richie double most of the way home, an exhilarating speed-trip across Derry, but he had been careful to let Richie dismount a block away from his house. If Richie's mother saw Bill riding Richie double she'd have a bird.

Silver's wire basket was full of play six-shooters, two of them Bill's, three of them Richie's. They had been down in the Barrens for most of the afternoon, playing guns. Beverly Marsh had shown up around three o'clock, wearing faded jeans and toting a very old Daisy air rifle that had lost most of its pop — when you pulled its tape-wrapped trigger, it uttered a wheeze that sounded to Richie more like someone sitting on a very old Whoopee Cushion than a rifleshot. Her specialty was Japanese-sniper. She was very good at climbing trees and shooting the unwary as they passed below. The bruise on her cheekbone had faded to a faint yellow.

'What did you say?' Richie asked. He was shocked . . . but also a little intrigued.

'I w-w-want to take a l-lo ok under that puh-puh-porch,' Bill said. His voice was stubborn but he wouldn't look at Richie. There was a hard spot of flush high on each of his cheekbones. They had arrived in front of Richie's house. Maggie Tozier was on the porch, reading a book. She waved to them and called, 'Hi, boys! Want some iced tea?'

'We'll be right there, Mom,' Richie said, and then to Bilclass="underline" 'There isn't going to be anything there. He probably just saw a hobo and got all bent out of shape, for God's sake. You know Eddie.'

'Y-Yeah, I nun-know E-E-Eddie. B-But ruh-remem-member the pi-pi-picture in the a-album?'

Richie shifted his feet, uncomfortable. Bill raised his right hand. The Band-Aids were gone now, but Richie could see circlets of healing scab on Bill's first three fingers.

'Yeah, but — '

'Luh-luh-histen to me –me,' Bill said. He began to speak very slowly, holding Richie's eyes with his own. Once more he related the similarities between Ben's story and Eddie's . . . and tied those to what they had seen in the picture that moved. He suggested again that the clown had murdered the boys and girls who had been found dead in Berry since the previous December. 'A-And muh-muh-haybe not just t-thein,' Bill finished. 'W-What about a-a-all the o-ones who d-disappeared? W-What about E-E-Eddie Cuh-Cuh-Corcoran?'

'Shit, his stepfather scared him off,' Richie said. 'Don't you read the papers?'

'W-well, m-maybe he d-d-did, and m-maybe he d-d-didn't,' Bill said. 'I knew him a –l lih-little bit, t-too, and I nuh-nuh –know his d-dad b-b-beat him. And I a-also k-know he u-u-used to stay out n-nuh-hights s-sometimes to g-get aw-way from h-h-him.'

'So maybe the clown got him while he was staying away,' Richie said thoughtfully. 'Is that it?'

Bill nodded.

'What do you want, then? Its autograph?'

'If the cluh-cluh-cluh-hown killed the o-o-others, then h-he k-k-killed Juh-Georgie,' Bill said. His eyes caught Richie's. They were like slate — hard, uncompromising, unforgiving. 'I w-want to k-k-kill it.'

'Jesus Christ,' Richie said, frightened. 'How are you going to do that?'

'Muh-my d-dad's got a pih-pih –pistol,' Bill said. A little spittle flew from his lips but Richie barely noticed. 'H-He doesn't nuh-know I know, but I d-d-do. It's on the top sh-shelf in his cluh-cluh-hoset.'

That's great if it's a man,' Richie said, 'and if we can find him sitting on a pile of kids' bones — '

'I poured the tea, boys!' Richie's mom called cheerily. 'Better come and get it!'

'Right there, Mom!' Richie called again, offering a big, false smile. It disappeared immediately as he turned back to Bill. 'Because I wouldn't shoot a guy just because he was wearing a clown suit, Billy. You're my best friend, but I wouldn't do it and I wouldn't let you do it if I could stop you.'

'Wh-what i-if there r-really w-was a p-pile of buh-buh-bones?'

Richie licked his lips and said nothing for a moment. Then he asked Bill, 'What are you going to do if it's not a man, Billy? What if it really is some kind of monster? What fi there really are such things? Ben Hanscom said it was the mummy and the balloons were floating against the wind and it didn't cast a shadow. The picture in Georgie's album . . . either we imagined that or it was magic, and I gotta tell you, man, I don't think we just imagined it. Your fingers sure didn't imagine it, did they?'

Bill shook his head.

'So what are we going to do if it's not a man, Billy?'

'Th-then wuh –wuh-we'll have to f-figure suh-homething e-else out.'

'Oh yeah,' Richie said. 'I can see it. After you shoot it four or five times and it keeps comin at us like the Teenage Werewolf in that movie me and Ben and Bev saw, you can try your Bullseye on it. And if the Bullseye doesn't work, I'll throw some of my sneezing powder at it. And if it keeps on coming after that we'll just call time and say, "Hey now, hold on. This ain't getting it, Mr Monster. Look, I got to read up on it at the library. I'll be back. Pawdon me." Is that what you're going to say, Big Bill?'

He looked at h is friend, his head thudding rapidly. Part of him wanted Bill to press on with his idea to check under the porch of that old house, but another part wanted — desperately wanted — Bill to give the idea up. In some ways all of this was like having stepped into one of those Saturday-afternoon horror movies at the Aladdin, but in another way — a crucial way — it wasn't like that at all. Because this wasn't safe like a movie, where you knew everything would turn out all right and even if it didn't it was no skin off your ass. The picture in Georgie's room hadn't been like a movie. He had thought he was forgetting that, but apparently he had been fooling himself because now he could see those cuts whirling up Billy's fingers. If he hadn't pulled Bill back —

Incredibly, Bill was grinning. Actually grinning. 'Y-Y-You wuh-wanted m-me to take y-you to luh-luh –look at a p-picture,' he said. 'N-Now I w-want to t-take you to l-look at a h-house. Tit for t-tat.'

'You got no tits,' Richie said, and they both burst ou t laughing.

'T-Tomorrow muh-muh-morning,' Bill said, as if it had been resolved.

'And if it's a monster?' Richie asked, holding Bill's eyes. 'If your dad's gun doesn't stop it, Big Bill? If it just keeps coming?'

'Wuh –wuh-we'll thuh-thuh-think of suh –homething else,' Bill said again. 'We'll h-h-have to.' He threw back his head and laughed like a loon. After a moment Richie joined him. It was impossible not to.

They walked up the crazy-paving to Richie's porch together. Maggie had set out huge glasses of iced tea with mint-sprigs in them and a plate of vanilla wafers.

'Yuh-you w-w-want t-t-to?'

'Well, no,' Richie said. 'But I will.'

Bill clapped him on the back, hard, and that seemed to make the fear bearable — although Richie was suddenly sure (and he was not wrong) that sleep would be long coming that night.

'You boys looked like you were having a serious discussion out there,' Mrs Tozier said, sitting down with her book in one hand and a glass of iced tea in the other. She ol oked at the boys expectantly.

'Aw, Denbrough's got this crazy idea the Red Sox are going to finish in the first division,' Richie said.

'M-Me and my d-d-d-d-dad th-think t-they got a sh-shot at t-third,' Bill said, and slipped his iced tea. T-This is veh-veh-very go-good, Muh-Mrs Tozier.'

Thank you, Bill.'

'The year the Sox finish in the first division will be the year you stop stuttering, mush mouth,' Richie said.

'Richie!' Mrs Tozier screamed, shocked. She nearly dropped her glass of iced tea. But both Richie and Bill Denbrough were laughing hysterically, totally cracked up. She looked from her son to Bill and back to her son again, touched by wonder that was mostly simple perplexity but partly a fear so thin and sharp that it found it s way deep into her inner heart and vibrated there like a tuning-fork made of clear ice.