I was reading Black House in the bus today (on the way home) and there was this short passage that somehow got to me. I don’t know why. But it’s unbelievably sweet.

Scenario: Jack Sawyer (familiar from The Talisman) is meeting the wife of Fred Marshall at a mental hospital. The elderly woman is one of the patients and a nurse had told Jack about her condition before they (Jack and Fred) went in.

   “Especial–” Before he can finish the question, an elderly woman with a lined, sweet face appears beside him and touches his shoulder.
   “Excuse me.” She tucks her chin toward her throat with the shyness of a child. “I want to ask you a question. Are you my father?”
   Jack smiles at her. “Let me ask you a question first. Is your name Estelle Packard?”
   Eyes shining, the old woman nods.
   “Then yes, I am your father.”
   Estelle Packard clasps her hands in front of her mouth, dips her head in a bow, and shuffles backward, glowing with pleasure. When she is nine or ten feet away, she gives Jack a little bye-bye wave of one hand and twirls away.
— Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub

@ 21:31
Joined Greymatter fanlisting