The Stand - What I'm Reading

So, I’ve been sick with the flu for the last week and a half. I took 3 days off from work last week, was sick all weekend and tried to go to work this week. Monday I made it. Tuesday I was sick again. Wednesday I made it. Thursday I’m home sick again. I think tomorrow will be okay to be at work. If I have a coughing fit (which is what plagues me most these days) I can just go into the conference room and cough my brains out for awhile until it is over. Hopefully, by tomorrow I won’t be having them anymore.

Anyway, I’m on the mend. It’s been a tough flu. My temp got up to 103.8 when I visited the doctor last week. Not swine flu, but enough of a flu to lay me low. My diabetes numbers have all been real high. On a brighter note, I lost 6 pounds which hasn’t come back on yet, so maybe will stay off. Haven’t been this low since I quit smoking more than 8 years ago.

Anyway, early on in the course of this sickness with all the H1N1 news going on in the world I decided it would be appropriate to re-read, “The Stand” by Stephen King. This was the first King book I ever read and the one that got me hooked on him as a writer. I’ve read it at least 3 times. This version is paperback and was updated somewhat. Also, there are parts that were cut, but I’m still enjoying it.

So, I’m about half way through. Frannie has a bunch of excerpts from the diary she is keeping as she, Harold, Stu and Glen Bateman make their way first to Vermont and now on to Nebraska. They’d met up with 2 people, both dead now, so their group swelled briefly is now back to their smaller size of 4. To bring you up to speed, Glen is a sociologist who absolutely cannot help himself but to ponder the existence of mankind after the Superflu (Captain Trips) hit. The Army had developed this horrible flu. There was an accident and it got loose and in the space of a month’s time it killed most everybody in the world.

Harold is younger than Frannie and they knew each other before. Frannie is pregnant, though nobody knows about it and Harold pretends that he is in love with her, that he is the smartest in the group, that he should be leader and he is an absolute butt. Frannie feels obligated to take care of Harold because he is the younger brother of her now deceased best friend. Stu was almost at ground zero when he and his town were exposed to the people who had escaped the accidental release of the flu. The army moved in to quarantine everybody and became extremely interested in Stu Redmond when he did not develop the flu. He escaped their clutches. These are the survivors.

Anyway, I want to wrap this up and get to the point of what I wanted to say. Had to take 20 minutes out for a horrible coughing fit and I don’t think it’s quite done yet.

In Frannie’s diary she’d been recounting a discussion they’d been having about the dreams they all seemed to be sharing, especially of the guy they’d started to refer to as, “The Dark Man”. Purely evil and out to stalk all of them. On the other hand was Mother Abigail who is 108 years old living in Nebraska who represented what was good in the world. Some were being drawn to The Walking Dude and others drawn to Mother Abigail. But, the discussion they were having was how odd it was that they were all having the same sort of dreams. Glen, the sociologist said, “Whenever something overtly paranormal occurs the only explanation that really fits well and holds its interior logic is the theological one. That’s why psychics and religion have always gone hand in hand, right up to your modern-day faith-healers.”

Now, remember, I’m a psychic channel. That’s key to what’s really funny here. Because just as I read that part one of the guides said to me, “Well, who are you going to talk to in the dead of night?” Maybe it’s just me, but I thought it was funny.