I brush through my tangled hair the next morning. My brows furrow as I get stuck in a particularly stubborn spot.
I think of the events of the day ahead. Hopefully nothing out of the ordinary happens. I'd hate to have to explain to Beverly that I'm going crazy. Then she really wouldn't want to see me again.
When I get to Center Street, I find Bev and the boys in an alleyway.
"Hey guys," I say as I walk up to them. Beverly shoots me a small smile as Bill and his friends turn to me. I notice a boy I'd never seen before and...
"New kid?" I'm caught off guard that Ben Hanscom is seemingly doing fine after his run in with Henry the other day. Belch made it seem like they really did a number on him. "You're alive!" I smile. Beverly laughs quietly as Richie quips, "Barely."
I turn to the other boy standing with them. "And I don't think I know you," I stick my hand out. "I'm Lorraine."
"Mike." Richie nudges the boy. "Don't hold her hand too long, Bowers' spidey senses'll go off." I roll my eyes, but Mike pulls his hand away quickly.
"Whatever torment Henry put you through, I can assure you I had nothing to do with it," I say to him softly. But I knew how Henry was. I knew exactly what he had done to this boy and I knew it wasn't an "ignore it and it'll go away" sort of thing. So the best I can do is offer Mike a friendly smile and pray Henry never got ahold of him again.
Richie turns to the passing parade and gets distracted trying to take a boy's instrument from him.
I catch a glimpse of a missing poster.
"Ed Corcoran?" I remember hearing the name once mentioned among Henry and the guys. "He's missing?"
Stanley nods, looking rattled. "They say they found part of his hand all chewed up near the Standpipe." Beverly gives me a woeful glance. "He asked to borrow a pencil once." Ben says.
Bill walks up to Ed's poster and lifts it, revealing Betty Ripsom's. I remember the first time I saw a poster covering Charlie's. It was Lisa Dabney. I felt sorry for the girl's family but I couldn't help but sense that was the end of the search for my sister.
"It's like she's been forgotten because Corcoran's missing."
"Is it ever gonna end?" Stanley asks to no one in particular. That's when Eddie walks up with two ice cream cones, one for him and Richie. "What are you guys talking about?" He hands his friend the ice cream. "What they always talk about."
"I actually think it will end," Ben chimes in. "For a little while at least."
"What do you mean?" I ask him. I didn't know what the unspoken it was but the boy must've had some answers.
"So I was going over all my Derry research and I charted out all the big events. The Ironworks explosion in 1908, the Bradley gang in '35, the Black Spot in '62, and now kids being..." He trails off and a tension fills the air. "I realized this stuff seems to happen every-"
"Twenty-seven years." Bill finishes. I give Beverly a confused glance.
-
"Ok, so lemme get this straight," Eddie says. "It comes out from wherever to eat kids for like a year? And then what? It just goes into hibernation?" I sit next to Beverly on a bench in the park as the group discusses a matter with knowledge I was severely lacking. But I didn't ask, I would look stupid. It wasn't my business anyway.
"Maybe it's like," Stan racks his brain. "Cicadas. Y'know the bugs that come out once every seventeen years?"
"My grandfather thinks this town is cursed," Mike looks at all of us. "He says that all the bad things that happen in this town are because of one thing. An evil thing that feeds off the people of Derry."
