Under the Dome

Sweetbriar was closed until 5 PM, at which time Rose planned to offer a light supper, mostly leftovers. She was making potato salad and keeping an eye on the TV over the counter when the knocking on the door started. It was Jackie Wettington, Ernie Calvert, and Julia Shumway. Rose crossed the empty restaurant, wiping her hands on her apron, and unlocked the door. Horace the Corgi trotted at Julia’s heel, ears up, grinning companionably. Rose made sure the CLOSED sign was still in place, then relocked the door behind them.

“Thanks,” Jackie said.

“Not at all,” Rose replied. “I wanted to see you anyway.”

“We came for that,” Jackie said, and pointed to the TV. “I was at Ernie’s, and we met Julia on our way here. She was sitting across the street from her place, mooning at the wreckage.”

“I was not mooning,” Julia said. “Horace and I were trying to figure how we’re going to get a paper out after the town meeting. It’ll have to be small—probably just two pages—but there will be a paper. My heart is set on it.”

Rose glanced back at the TV. On it, a pretty young woman was doing a stand-up. Beneath her was a banner reading EARLIER TODAY COURTESY ABC. All at once there was a bang and a fire-ball bloomed in the sky. The reporter flinched, cried out, wheeled around. By that point her cameraman was already zooming her out of the picture, homing in on the earthbound fragments of the Air Ireland jet.

“There’s nothing but reruns of the plane-crash footage,” Rose said. “If you haven’t seen it before, be my guest. Jackie, I saw Barbie late this morning—I took him some sandwiches and they let me go downstairs to where the cells are. I had Melvin Searles as my chaperone.”

“Lucky you,” Jackie said.

“How is he?” Julia asked. “Is he okay?”

“He looks like the wrath of God, but I think so, yes. He said… maybe I should tell you privately, Jackie.”

“Whatever it is, I think you can say it in front of Ernie and Julia.” Rose considered this, but only for a moment. If Ernie Calvert and Julia Shumway weren’t all right, nobody was. “He said I was supposed to talk to you. Make up with you, as if we’d had a fight. He said to tell you that I’m all right.”

Jackie turned to Ernie and Julia. It seemed to Rose that a question was asked and answered. “If Barbie says you are, then you are,” Jackie said, and Ernie nodded emphatically. “Hon, we’re putting together a little meeting tonight. At the Congo parsonage. It’s kind of a secret—”

“Not kind of, it is, ” Julia said. “And given the way things are in town right now, the secret better not get out.”

“If it’s about what I think it’s about, I’m in.” Then Rose lowered her voice. “But not Anson. He’s wearing one of those goddam arm-bands.”

Just then the CNN BREAKING NEWS logo came on the TV screen, accompanied by the annoying minor-key disaster music the network was now playing with each new Dome story. Rose expected either Anderson Cooper or her beloved Wolfie—both were now based in Castle Rock—but it was Barbara Starr, the network’s Pentagon correspondent. She was standing outside the tent-and-trailer village serving as the Army’s forward base in Harlow.

“Don, Kyra—Colonel James O. Cox, the Pentagon’s point man since the mammoth mystery known as the Dome came into being last Saturday, is about to speak to the press for only the second time since this crisis began. The subject was announced to reporters just moments ago, and it’s sure to galvanize the tens of thousands of Americans with loved ones in the beleaguered town of Chester’s Mill. We were told—” She listened to something in her earpiece. “Here’s Colonel Cox.”

The four in the restaurant sat on stools at the counter, watching as the picture switched to the inside of a large tent. There were perhaps forty reporters seated in folding chairs, and more standing in the back. They were murmuring among themselves. A makeshift stage had been set up at one end of the tent. On it was a podium festooned with microphones and flanked by American flags. There was a white screen behind it.

“Pretty professional, for an on-the-fly operation,” Ernie said.

“Oh, I think this has been in the works,” Jackie said. She was recalling her conversation with Cox. We’re going to do our level best to make Rennie’s life uncomfortable, he’d said.

A flap opened to the left side of the tent, and a short, fit-looking man with graying hair strode briskly to the makeshift stage. No one had thought to put down a couple of stairs or even a box to stand on, but this presented no problem to the featured speaker; he hopped up easily, not even breaking stride. He was dressed in plain khaki BDUs. If he had medals, they weren’t in evidence. There was nothing on his shirt but a strip reading COL. J. COX. He held no notes. The reporters quieted immediately, and Cox gave them a little smile.

“This guy should have been holding press conferences all along,” Julia said. “He looks good. ”

“Hush, Julia,” Rose said.