on account of a gal.” Then he just nod, still smyling. Not once did he ask why I done had one a the Hutchins dogs over my shoulder, neither, and there aint no way he didnt notice. So I bid him a good day but befor I can walk off, he say, “And it mite pleese thee much to know that what it is ye most strive for, ye shall achieve by way of them ancient books ye keep.” I stop right then and their and turn bak, knowin full well that what I strive fore most, even more than Sary, is to open the Gate. Wanted tew ask him why he think that but no words cud make their way passed my lips.
Then he say in the end, “Nay, though ye’ll not achieve it by the manner in which ye hope most.”
And then he nodded with that smile and that was all.
Got me thinkin as I walk back. Like maybe he be a reel soothsayer and not just pretend. And if this be, I don’t keer if I kant open the Gate the way I hope long as I open it one way or anothur. But acourse he is likely not a reel fortune sayer.
Walk back double fast to be agin with Sary, even thogh I figure she be sleepin. First, though, I had to feed that One inside so I throw the ded Hutchins dog in the house. Could sense in my brain how close it is all getting and how smart it become. But my biggist worry still be its size, which is why I ben feedin it smaller food. I did the Voorish Sign so to look at it and it seem to have grown mutch since last time. Grandsire were right but the proper time still be far off. Mite have to start feedin it hardly nothing cos I cant ferget my grandsire’s dyin’ words about how it can’t be let to bust quarters afore the night.
Then I fetch what were in the traps and see Sary already out awaitin for me. Made me feel good.
Inside, we talked mutch, and I seed she took a gander at the Dee but I know she wudn’t ever be able to understand. If she got religion atall, it be the Christian one. Grandfather always say I should mind my tongue about the Old Ones, so I did. I reckon she had even less lerning than me so how can I spect her to calclate things like what my grandsire call the “Holy Adjudicata and Protocall” bein tampered with purposeful by folks in the past who translayted from other langwiges? When I tell her about how I have to go back to Miskatonic, she say a right smart thing, that sinct Armitage throwed me out that first time, he’d likely do the same a secund, and I got the impression that a stick in the dirt like him wouldnt give me what I want even for alla Grandsire’s gold. But I be glad Sary say such, cos it got me thinking bout a better way, and I’m surpized I didn’t think on it afore this. But in the name of Him Who Is Not To Be Named, I just HAVE ta git the proper translation of page 751. Ef I don’t, like my grandfather warn, it all be no use.
Dang! Whats wrong with me? I ben thinkin so hard about the flaws in that blasted Dee copy, I must uv lost all my sense! Shouldnt never have sent Sary to Obsorns by herself, not aftur she say how they razz her that last time n try to fuck her. I best go there myself right now—
Seven
In a manner close to childlike, Sary fairly skipped her way towards Osborn’s General Store, which—even when not considering the ignoble character of most of its patrons—was a mercantile establishment she’d never cared for. No negativity, however, wielded the power to vandalize her current disposition, (one which could only be construed as one of unbridled gaiety). Not even the present surroundings could inhibit her; generally, when she traversed the more remote areas (especially those in proximity to Sentinel Hill) she always had her cause for trepidation. The aforesaid hill, for that matter, rose westerly of the path she now scurried along at this precise moment: it and the straggly, rock-strewn meadows fringed by the distant line of unnaturally contorted trees had frequently imparted to her a kind of skulking dread, as though such inanimate things were valuating her with sentient
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