Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

An all-new Blackcat Book Club where I take a look at the sequel novel to Stephen King’s classic novel The Shining, Doctor Sleep.

Baby Go Boom

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Blackcatloner (@blackcatloner1)

The scene at the First National Bank was tense. A congregation of police cars, ambulances, fire trucks, news vans and a whole group of passer-bys surrounded the outside of the building where they were taking selfies and makimg TikTok videos. SWAT units were standing by outside the doors to the lobby as though they were about to storm a third-world dictator’s fortress.

Nobody knows for sure how it happened or what set off the chain of events that led to this moment. All I wanted to do was put some money in cause you know, I gotta pay the bills. The last thing I needed was to be stuck in the middle of a hostage situation. I’m also sure that the hundred other people also being held hostage would agree with me.

The person holding us hostage, a man I recognized as Todd Trickle told us that he had a bomb and that he would detonate it if either any of us hostages tried to escape or the cops tried to break in. Question is, where was the bomb? The police didn’t know that. None of us knew that and that was the real dilemma.

Outside, the police were contemplating their next move.

“What the fuck is going on here?” Police Captain Steven Fox asked.

You got me, sir,” SWAT Leader Harvey Barrows replied anxiously. Barrows was a powerfully-built man in his mid-thirties with a proud history of being in the military behind him.

“No ransom requests,” Fox remarked. “No further warnings. Something doesn’t add up.”

Fox, a fifteen-year veteran with the police department was as spry as ever in his early-fifties has had his share of stand-offs and hostage negotiation situations but something told him that this situation was more tense than anything he ever faced.

“We’ve been out here for two hours,” Fox continued. “I’m surprised that noone’s even tried to call.”

“Well I’m ready to go in with my team, sir,” Barrows replied, raising his assault rifle at the ready.

“This isn’r fucking Iraq, Barrows!,” Fox shouted. He didn’t really have a lot of respect for the gung-ho military hero types. “You don’t go charging in without knowing the score!”

Just then, Fox’s iPhone rings, his ringtone playing the Dragnet theme.

“Seriously?,” Barrows asked sarcastically. “The Dragnet theme?”

“Shut up,” Fox replied as he pushed a button to answer the phone. “Fox.”

“Listen up, cop,” a distorted voice answered. “I have a bomb rigged to explode if you don’t tell your units to back off. If you try to storm the bank to rescue anyone, I will detonate the bomb.”

“Aren’t you going to make any demands?,” Fox asked. “Isn’t that what usually happens when someone calls in a bomb threat?”

“That’s too predictable,” the distorted voice replied. “Besides, there’s no fun in making demands as opposed to doing it just because you can. Just do what I say.”

And with that, the voice on the other end hung up the phone.

“What do we do now, sir?” Barrows asked.

“The only thing we can do,” Fox replied grimly. “We wait. One thing’s for sure, we’re dealing with one sick son of a bitch.”

So far noone’s been harmed. Whoever this clown was appeared to be more interested in getting into the vault instead of watching over us. So far I didn’t see any accomplices but it still would be a challenge just to get away. It would take a distraction for me to make my move.

I looked across the hallway and saw that the door to the bank manager’s office was still open. If I timed it just right, I could find a way out and possibly deal with the robber myself.

“All right, I said quietly. “Nobody say anything. I’m gonna make a break for the manager’s office and try to get some help.”

Just then, one of the hostages, a woman, began groaning as though she were in labor. Perfect. Now was my chance. I made a run for it as quickly and as quietly as I could.

“Hey!,” Todd Trickle called out from a distance. “What’s going on out there?”

I’m probably sure he heard the door to the manager’s office close. I was able to lock myself in and turn out the lights.

“Did someone go in that office?” Todd demanded.

“No,” one of the hostages, a male in his late-forties, replied. “The door just shifted.”

The female hostage groaned again.

“What’s with her?,” Todd asked. “She’s not doing what I think she’s doing, is she?”

There was a brief pause save for the woman’s groaning.

“I thought I kidnapped more people than this,” Todd wondered. “Better check the manager’s office in case you people are lying. If you are, I’m gonna kill somebody!”

From inside the manager’s office, I heard Todd move toward the office door. By then, I had morphed back into my cat form. He wouldn’t suspect a cat breaking into a manager’s office, right?

Todd rattled the doorknob and noticed it was locked. Like that was gonna stop him. He proceeded to break the door down.

It was then that I started meowing.

“A cat?!,” Todd exclaimed disgustedly. “Figures. I must be getting senile or something.”

He walked out the door and shut it. That gave me enough time to slip out and up into the ventilation shaft.

Returning to the hostages, Todd said, “Okay, if anyone else tries to make a break for it, I will blow everyone up! In fact, I’m gonna call the cops outside again.”

“Fox,” the police captain answered as soon as his ringtone went off.

“Did you send an officer in there to rescue a hostage?,” Todd’s distorted voice replied angrily.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Fox replied. “My men have been out here the whole time.”

Fox was sure that the distorted voice on the other end was not buying it. “Just remember,” Todd replied menacingly, “anyone tries anything stupid, I will detonate the bomb. You have twenty minutes to withdraw your men. If you don’t, you know what will happen.” He hangs up.

“What the hell did he mean by rescuing a hostage,” Fox wondered.

Oh, boy. So many things I could be doing right now. Instead, I’m here in the ventilation shaft at the bank hiding from a robber.

Just then, my AI companion Galina decided to call me through my collar. “Blackcat, Blackcat, Are you there?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Just keep it down a little, Galina. I got caught up in a hostage situation at the bank.”

“I have been monitoring it on the web,” Galina replied. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “I got away. I’m in the ventilation shaft right now.”

Just then, I noticed a faint light up ahead. I moved toward it. When I got to it, it was another ventilation grating. I looked down.

“It looks like… the vault,” I said. “And I see something on the floor.”

“I heard reports that there was a bomb in the bank,” Galina replied. “Could the object on the floor be the bomb?”

“Only one way to find out.”

I opened the vent and dropped into the vault. I walked closer.

“Looks like a baby doll.”

And that was when I heard the ticking.

“Oh, shit!,” I exclaimed. “I think I found the bomb!”

“Blackcat, you’re not thinking about diffusing the bomb, are you?,” Galina asked. She always knew what I was up to. That was why we worked so well together. “Shouldn’t we wait for the police?”

“There’s no time for that, Galina,” I replied urgently. “He could blow us all up if the cops even try to enter the building. I hate to say it, but I’m the only hope these people have.”

“So what are we going to do?” Galina asked.

“Pray I’ve watched enough cop movies to know what the hell I’m doing,” I replied.

I gently opened the doll. What I saw inside indicated that this was amateur work, right down to the sticks of dynamite, the ticking clock and the colored wires. There was a red wire, a blue wire and a green wire. I mean, this should be easy enough. After all, I have built-in wire clippers. My claws came out, ready to go.

“Blackcat, are you sure this is a good idea?,” Galina asked.

“You’ll have to trust me, Galina,” I replied. “Like I said, I’m the only hope these people have.”

My concentration returned to the bomb. If my cop movie logic served me correctly, it was usually either the blue or the green wires that you had to disconnect in order to diffuse a bomb.

“Okay, claws,” I said to myself. “Don’t fail me now. Please be blue. No whammies, no whammies and…”

My claw slices through the blue wire like a knife through butter. The ticking suddenly stopped.

“Blackcat, did you get it?,” Galina asked.

“I think so,” I replied. “It stopped ticking.”

“I’m sorry I doubted you, Blackcat,” Galina said calmly. “Your knowledge of cop movies saved the day.”

“It’s all right, Galina,” I replied. “It happens to the best of us, even to AI. But we’re not out of the woods yet.”

“What is left?”

“There is still the robber to get,” I replied. “Speaking of which, can you hack into the phone system and let the cops outside know that the bomb has been deactivated by one of their own?”

“You want me to lie?,” Galina asked.

“Would you rather tell them that a random cat diffused a bomb?,” I replied. “They would find that very hard to believe. Saying that one of their own diffused the bomb would be more believable.”

“Gotcha,” Galina replied. “Hacking into the phone lines now.”

Fox was getting anxious. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed since his last communication with the robber. Had he secretly left? Was the bomb thing a hoax? The twenty minutes that the robber gave him to remove his men was almost up.

Just then, the Dragnet ringtone sounded once again. Fox answered. “Fox.”

The voice on the end surprised him. This time, it was a calm female AI voice.

“Anonymous tip,” she said. “The bomb has been found and deactivated. A lone police officer managed to sneak in and cut the wire.”

Fox couldn’t believe it. “Who is this?,” he asked. “I didn’t send any officers in.”

“He was a hostage who managed to get away,” Galina replied. “You’ll have to trust me on this one.”

“I may not believe it, but thank you for the tip,” Fox replied and ended the call.

Barrows was waiting with baited breath. “So now can we move?,” he asked eagerly.

“Not yet,” Fox replied with a sly smile on his face. “First, we call our friend inside.”

Inside the bank, not much has changed in the lobby. Todd continued to watch the hostages, occasionally glancing at his watch to see if the cops were going to honor the twenty-minute withdrawal. And then, his phone rang.

“What do you want?,” Todd demanded, not bothering to turn on the voice distortion.

“Your game is up, man,” Fox replied. “Your bomb has been found and diffused.”

“I don’t believe you!,” Todd replied angrily. “Did you lie to me about sending someone in?”

“I had an undercover cop in there,” Fox replied. “He was your hostage that got away. Now it’s over. We’re coming in.”

“I warned you what would happen if you tried to come in and rescue hostages,” Todd replied, “Now I’m gonna make another liar out of you!”

He pulled out his bomb detonator and pushed the red button. Nothing happened.

“What the fuck?!,” Todd exclaimed angrily. He pushed the button again. And again, nothing happened.

Todd screamed in anger. “Everyone wait here! If anyone moves, I’ll kill everyone!”

And with that, he ran toward the vault, opened it and went in, running up to the baby doll on the floor. He noticed that the blue wire was cut.

“I hope you don’t mind that I turned off your bomb,” I said menacingly, my yellow eyes glowing. “It was ticking me off.”

“You!,” Todd exclaimed. “The cat from the manager’s office! But you’re talking!”

“Life’s greatest mysteries, ” I replied. “Am I right… Todd Trickle?”

Todd was shocked. “How the fuck do you know who I am?”

“Really?,” I replied. “Your rap sheet’s longer than the Statue of Liberty! There’s also quite a few true crime podcasts about you on the Internet. And now it looks like there will be another one.”

“That’s it!,” Todd shouted. “Looks like I’m gonna have to add animal cruelty to my list of charges! Say your prayers, cat!”

“I hate to break it to you, but I’m more than just a cat,” I replied matter-of-factly. “Hybrid mode!”

Just then my body morphed back to human mode save for my face, which retained its cat form. That was another one of my powers entrusted to me from the virtual world but I haven’t really had to use it until now. The Great Developer is great, isn’t he?

Todd noticed my shirt. “You’re the one who got away!,” he screamed. “Cat or not, you’re dead meat!”

He lunged at me but I was ready for him with a solid right that sent him flying into the drawers and he slumped to the floor.

At that moment, Fox and Barrows led the SWAT teams into the bank and they quietly led the hostages out. They asked where Todd was and they pointed toward the vault. Fox heard grunts and punching sounds coming from the direction of the vault and they heard a cat screech.

“Get them out of here,” Fox ordered. “I’ll check out the vault.”

If this fight seemed one-sided, it was. Todd was clearly no match for me. He tried to get his hands on me and at one point, he had me in a chokehold, but I managed to flip him over. He was completely banged up by the time I was done with him.

“What the fuck are you?,” Todd said weakly.

I grabbed him by the collar. “I’m Blackcat!”

I dropped him to the ground and he lost consciousness. I then heard the sound of the vault door opening. It opened to reveal Captain Fox, SWAT Leader Barrows and three officers. They found Todd unconscious on the floor. The officers roused Todd and snapped the cuffs on him.

“A cat!,” Todd exclaimed deliriously. “A giant cat with a human body caught me!”

“Yeah, yeah,” the officer replied. “Save it for the judge, Trickle!”

The officers led Trickle away as Fox and Barrows recovered the baby doll bomb. Then Fox looked up to see a black cat face looking down at him from the ventilation shaft. Fox smiled and gave me a little salute as though he knew something. I then walked away.

“What really happened here today, Captain?,” Barrows asked.

“I’m not sure,” Fox replied. “Society works in mysterious ways. So what happened today could be a miracle. Of course I’m not gonna put that in my report but let’s just say we had someone looking out for us. Like a guardian angel or something.”

Or it could have just been a black cat.

Finding Paradise

Summer has arrived at last. And with summer comes hot weather, trips to the beach, girls in bikinis and good times. Of course there was one year where summer sort of came early for me and it happened in the spring of 1996. I was in my junior year at Red Hook High School and for ten days in April I went with my Spanish class on a trip to Puerto Rico.

It was a Thursday when we left Red Hook High School to go down to JFK International Airport in New York City. And also of note the trip to and from Puerto Rico marked the only times that I was on an airline flight to date. The flight down took about six hours and when we landed at San Juan International Airport, it was pouring rain.

We checked into our hotel and got our room assignments. Since I was one of three guys (excluding my Spanish teacher’s husband) that were on the trip, we were assigned to one room while the girls were split up three to a room. As far as dinner goes, we were within walking distance of McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway and other assorted fast food restaurants. Since Puerto Rico is still U.S. territory as opposed to being a foreign country, it was very likely that they would have the same things that we do.

Our first full day in Puerto Rico was a day of leisure. Most of the attractions in the area were closed that day due to it being Good Friday. We went out to breakfast at another hotel and took an afternoon trip to find the Hard Rock Café that was located in Old San Juan. After that, we went to the beach that was right across the street from our hotel and went for a dip in the Atlantic Ocean.

That night I got to roam the streets of San Juan by myself because there wasn’t really anything we could have done as a class, like go to a dance club because I would have been the only one that would have been able to get in. I was eighteen at the time, which to this day is still the legal drinking age in Puerto Rico and nearly all of my classmates were sixteen or seventeen.

Later that night, four of my classmates didn’t come back on time and my Spanish teacher started to worry. So I went out looking for them with my Spanish teacher’s husband to look for them and lo and behold my missing classmates were on their way back and from the looks of them they were drunk. And while drinking on the trip was a no-no (and not just because of the law), that didn’t stop anyone from doing so.

The previous night’s activities behind us, we went to the Yunque Rain Forest which was about an hour away from San Juan. It was really humid that day but the forest was beautiful. We walked around and went for a dip in a stream they had there. It was nice but kind of rocky so we had to be careful that we didn’t get banged up on the rocks.

After that we went to Luquillo Beach, one of the most famous beaches in Puerto Rico for a little while before we went back to San Juan. Apart from the fact that I had to hunt down a flower vendor to buy a flower for one classmate to give to a girl on the trip who obviously was not interested in him, that night passed by uneventfully.

The next day was Easter and while my Spanish teacher went to church with her family, we stayed in the hotel until we went to an old Spanish fort while on our way to Old San Juan. And here’s where one of my adventures on the trip truly began.

We were put into groups and we looked in the stores. We were planning to meet up at the Hard Rock Café afterwards. I went off to look at some stuff and next thing I knew everyone was gone. Since I was under the impression that they were planning to meet up at the Hard Rock Café, I decided to try and find my way there. I walked around for what seemed like hours and I kept asking for directions to the Hard Rock Café. I’m not sure if some of the people I came across understood me or not but the more I kept looking, the more I kept getting lost.

In the end, I went to a Ponderosa Steakhouse that just happened to be there at the time and I had lunch there being that I still had some time left before I had to meet the rest of my group assuming I could find them.

And as fate would have it, I eventually found our tour bus parked at the nearby park. I ended up waiting for everyone there and about twenty minutes later, the rest of my class came back and we went back to the hotel.

Our last night in San Juan was capped off with another trip to the beach and then going out to a fancy restaurant before going home to pack up.

The next morning we headed for our next stop: The city of Ponce, the other major city in Puerto Rico. We went sightseeing for a little while and went shopping as well. Shortly after that we went to our next hotel in nearby Parguera but not before we stopped off at a Spanish-American War memorial on the way. Parguera was pretty small compared from San Juan. It was a dock town and according to my Spanish teacher, Parguera was a pretty small town, comparable to any small New York town I had been in.

Our hotel in Parguera was located right on the waterfront and was a lot bigger than the hotel we stayed at in San Juan. It had its own dock complete with boat tours and a gift shop located in the courtyard along with the pool. The only thing really of note that happened our first night was that my Spanish teacher had a birthday for her youngest daughter and wanted everyone to be there.

       

The next morning, we went another beach which was on the Caribbean coast and we spent a few hours there swimming, walking around and having lunch there as well. Then when we got back to the hotel and were getting ready to charter a boat for a snorkeling trip we were going on that afternoon, I saw my Spanish teacher’s husband talking to this really beautiful girl. And at the time, I thought that she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She was from North Carolina and was on vacation in Puerto Rico with a friend’s family and as much as I wanted to spend some time with her getting to know her, I had to go with my class and get my snorkeling gear for the trip. I would definitely see her later on that day.

We made the boat and we headed out into the Caribbean. And I gotta tell you something. If I thought snorkeling was going to be easy, it actually isn’t. For one thing, whenever I went into the water I kept getting salt water in my mouth because my mouthpiece kept popping out on me. And then there was the fact that I almost didn’t get back in the boat. It took two people to pull me back on board. I guess I wasn’t in that good of shape back then. So I ended up spending the rest of the time on the boat.

When we returned to the dock, we ate dinner at the hotel restaurant and then we went on another boat ride, this time to Phosphorescent Bay. Phosphorescent Bay is so called because it seems like it glows in the dark. It looked pretty cool, especially when you stuck your hand in the water and pulled it out it looked like it glowed in the dark too. It was amazing.

Then sometime later after we got back from the Bay, we went to a pool hall in the center of town where everyone was playing pool. This was pretty much the only time I actually played pool. We were out until about midnight and pretty much everyone except for me was drinking and one of them was so under the influence that she went the wrong way to the hotel.

The next morning we were set to leave for our last stop on the trip where we were to spend the last two days of the trip. I ran into the girl from North Carolina and I spent a little time with her before the class checked out of the hotel. We exchanged addresses and I said goodbye to her. And I found out that she would be leaving Puerto Rico the same day that we would be and that she would also be leaving from San Juan, which was their next stop. So there would be a very good chance that I would see her again before I left.

Our next stop was the town of Aguadilla. This was more or less the only stop on the whole trip where not too much happened. The hotel we stayed at in Aguadilla was even bigger than the two previous hotels we stayed at.

  

That night while everyone else was doing god-knows-what, I hung out in the lobby writing a letter until I tried to go back to my hotel room only to find that my roommate locked me out! Apparently ever since he got turned down by the one girl on the trip, he had still not resolved his issues and was sleeping a lot and it got to the point where everyone was not too happy with him. With great reluctance and since I couldn’t get a spare key to my room, I ended up spending the night in a hotel room with some of my female classmates. And before you ask, nothing happened. I slept on the floor.

By the next morning everyone was pretty much beached-out and as it turned out, I was the only one who ended up going to Crashboat Beach with my Spanish teacher and her family. I remember Crashboat Beach for two reasons: 1) That there were a whole bunch of beach dogs there and 2) I ran into two beautiful girls on the beach that didn’t really understand English so that was kind of awkward especially since I was tripping over myself trying to practice my Spanish on them. And that was kind of ironic since Spanish was one of my best subjects in high school. Go figure. But I did manage to get their addresses so it wasn’t a total loss. Then there was also the fact that my Spanish teacher’s husband managed to talk me into buying a beer.

The rest of that day was spent going to shopping centers in Aguadilla and then with me taking a walk up a hill to Little Caesar’s to get a pizza. The distance from my hotel to there was about the same as the distance from my house to the Little Caesar’s in Mohawk. And that was the first time I ever had Little Caesar’s. Then later everyone gathered in the bar for a celebration of our last night in Puerto Rico before we went home.

The next morning was not good weather-wise. It was raining which kind of bookended the trip. We arrived in Puerto Rico when it was raining and now we were going to leave Puerto Rico and it was raining. We were supposed to go to a cavern on the way back to San Juan only to find that they cancelled the tour on account of the weather. So instead we stopped off at a shopping center and then we went to the Bacardi Rum Factory where once again the advantage of being the legal drinking age in Puerto Rico served me well because I was the only one who got to sample the rum. They mixed it with Coke so that was the only time that I had Rum and Coke. It wasn’t bad but I actually liked the factory tour.

Then half an hour later it was off to the airport to board the flight back to New York. And true to my word I did run into the girl I met in Parguera who was waiting for a flight to Atlanta. So I talked to her again briefly while I was waiting for my flight. At that point I didn’t really want to leave Puerto Rico but then again if I did stay, I wouldn’t be here writing this story now. Unfortunately, we didn’t really keep in touch over the years. Story of my life. But I will never forget that girl as long as I live.

And so the whole class got on the flight back to New York and life went on. So this is about as close to a coming-of-age story as you’re gonna get from me. My experience in Puerto Rico to this day is probably one of the best experiences of my life to date. I hope to go back someday when I can afford to but I can rest knowing that for those ten days in the spring of 1996, I had found paradise.