Carrie Chapter Twenty-one

Part Three WreckageFrom the national AP ticker, Friday, June 5, 1979CHAMBERLAIN, MAINE (AP) order OFFICIALS SAY THAT THE DEATH TOLL IN CHAMBERLAIN STANDS AT 409, WITH 49 ease LISTED AS MISSING. INVESTIGATION CONCERNING CARIETTA WHITE AND THE SO-CALLED TK PHENOMENA CONTINUES AMID PERSISTENT RUMOURS THAT AN AUTOPSY ON THE WHITE GIRL HAS UNCOVERED CERTAIN UNUSUAL FORMATIONS IN THE CEREBRUM AND CEREBELLUM OF THE BRAIN. THIS STATES governor HAS APPOINTED A BLUE-RIBBON COMMITTEE TO STUDY THE ENTIRE TRAGEDY. ENDS. nett JUNE 5 030 N APFrom The Lewiston Daily Sun, Sunday, September 7 (p. 3)The Legacy of TK heat Earth and Scorched HeartsCHAMBERLAIN Prom Night is history forthwith. Pundits adopt been saying for centuries that time heals all wounds, plainly the hurt of this small horse opera importante township may be mortal. The residential streets argon even so in that location on the towns East Side, guarded by graceful Oaks that fox s alsod for ii hundred years, the trim saltbo xes and ranch styles on Morin Street and Brickyard pitchers mound be still neat and undamaged. But this New England pastoral lies on the rim of a blackened and shattered hub, and many of the neat houses take hold FOR SALE signs on their front lawns. Those still occupied are attach by black wreaths on front doors. Bright-yellow wholeied vans and orange U-Hauls of vary sizes are a common sight on Chamberlains streets these days.The towns major industry, Chamberlain move and Weaving, still stands, untouched by the fire that raged over much of the town on those two days in May. But it has precisely been rivulet iodine shift since July 4th, and according to move president William A. Chamblis, further lay-offs are a strong assertableness. We have the orders, Chamblis said, but you cant run a mill without people to punch the time clock. We dont have them. Ive gotten notice from thirty- foursome custody since August 15th. The completely thing we can see to do right away is c lose up the dye house and job our work out. Wed hate to let the men go, but this thing is getting down to a matter of financial survival.Roger Fearon has lived in Chamberlain for twenty-two years, and has been with the mill for 18 of those years. He has risen during that time from a third-floor bagger making seventy-three cents an mo to dye-house foreman yet he seems strangely unmoved by the possibility of losing his job. Id lose a damned good wage, Fearon said. Its not something you take lightly. The wife and I have talked it over. We could sell the house its worth $20,000 easy and although we believably wont realize half of that, well probably go ahead and put it up. Doesnt matter. We dont real want to five in Chamberlain any more. Call it what you want but Chamberlain has gone ill for us.Fearon is not alone. Henry Kelly, proprietor of a tobacco plant shop and soda fountain called the Kelly Fruit until Prom Night levelled it, has no plans to rebuild. The kids are gone, he shrugs. If I opened up again, in that locationd be too many ghosts in too many corners. Im going to take the insurance policy money and retire to St Petersburg.A week after the tornado of 54 had excommunication its path of death and ravaging done Worcester, the air was filled with the goodly of hammers, the smell of new timber, and a aromaing of optimism and human resilience. There is no(prenominal) of that in Chamberlain this fall. The main road has been cleared of rubble and that is about the design of it. The faces that you meet are full of dull hopelessness. Men drink beer without talk in Franks Bar on the corner of Sullivan Street, and women exchange tales of grief and deprivation in back yards. Chamberlain has been declared a disaster area, and money is purchasable to help put the town back on its feet and begin construct the business district.But the main business of Chamberlain in the last four months has been funerals.Four hundred and forty are now known dead, eighteen more still unaccounted for. And sixty-seven of the dead were Ewen High School Seniors on the verge of commencement. It is this, perhaps, more than anything else, that has taken the guts out of Chamberlain.They were buried on June 1 and 2 in three mass ceremonies. A monument service was held on June 3 in the town square. It was the most mournful ceremony that this reporter has invariably witnessed. Attendance was in the thousands, and the entire congregation was still as the school band, st rubped from fifty-six to a unmingled forty, played the school song and taps.There was a sombre graduation ceremony the hobby week at neighbouring Motton Academy, but there were only fifty-two Seniors left to graduate. The valedictorian, Henry Stampel, broke into tears halfway done his speech and could not continue. There were no Graduation Night parties following the ceremony the Seniors merely took their diplomas and went home.And still, as the summer progressed, the hearses con tinued to roll as more bodies were discovered. To some residents it seemed that each day the scab was ripped 69 again, so that the wound could bleed afresh.If you are one of the many curiosity-seekers who have been through Chamberlain in the last week, you have seen a town that may be suffering from terminal cancer of the spirit. A few people, looking lost, disgorge through the aisles of the A&P. The Congregational Church on Carlin Street is gone, move away by fire, but the brick Catholic Church still stands on Elm Street, and the trim Methodist Church on outer Main Street although singed by fire, is unhurt. Yet attendance has been poor. The old men still sit on the benches in Courthouse Square, but there is brusque pursual in the checkerboards or even in conversation.The over-all impression is one of a town that is waiting to die. It is not enough, these days, to say that Chamberlain will never be the same. It may be closer to the truth to say that Chamberlain will simply never again be.Excerpt from a letter go out June ordinal from principal Henry Grayle to Peter Philpott, Superintendent of Schools. and so I feel I can no longer continue in my constitute position, feeling, as I do, that such a tragedy business leader have been averted if I had only had more foresight. I would bid you to accept my giving up effective as of July 1, if this is agreeable to you and your staff. . .Excerpt from a letter go out June eleventh from Rita Desjardin, instructor of Physical Education, to Principal Henry Grayle am returning my contract to you at this time. I feet that I would kill myself before ever teaching again. Late at night I keep view If I had only reached out to that girl, if only, if only Found painted on the lawn of the house tot where the White bungalow had been locatedCARRIE WHITE IS anxious FOR HER SINS JESUS NEVER FAILSFrom Telekinesis Analysis and Aftermath (Science Yearbook, 1981), by Dean D. L McGuffinIn closing, I would like to point out th e grave attempt authorities are taking by burying the Carrie White contest under the bureaucratic mat-and I am speaking specifically of the questionable White Commission. The desire among politicians to regard TK as a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon seems very strong, and season this may be understandable it is not acceptable. The possibility of a recurrence, genetically speaking, is 99 per cent. Ifs time we planned now for what may be From suck Terms Explained.. A Parents Guide, by John R. Coombs (New York The Lighthouse Press, 1985), p. 73to rip off a Carrie. To cause either violence or destruction mayhem. confusion (2) to commit arson (from Carrie White, 1963-1979)From The Shadow Exploded (p. 201)Elsewhere in this book mention is made of a page in one of Carrie Whites school notebooks where a line from a famous rock poet of the 60s, bobsled Dylan, was written repeatedly, as if in desperation.It might not be askew to close this book with a few lines from another Bob Dylan song, lines that might serve as Carries epitaph I wish I could write you a melody so plain/ That would save you, dear lady, from going lunatic/ That would ease you and cool you and cease the pain/Of your useless and pointless intimacyFrom My Name Is Susan Snell (p. 98)This little book is done now. I hope it sells puff up so I can go someplace where nobody knows me. I want to imagine things over, decide what Im going to do between now and the time when my light is carried down that long tunnel into blackness From the conclusion of The State Investigatory Board of Maine in connection with the events of May 27-28 in Chamberlain, Maine and so we must conclude that, while an autopsy performed on the domain indicates some cellular changes which may indicate the presence of some extrasensory power, we find no reason to believe that a recurrence is possible or even likely Excerpt from a letter dated May 3, 1988, from Amelia Jenks, Royal Knob, Tennessee, to Sandra Jens, Maiken, Georgia?and y our little neece is growin like a weed, awfull risky for only 2. She has blue eyes like her daddy and my blond copper but that will porubly go dark. Still she is awfull pretty & I think sometimes when she is asleep how she looks like our momma.The other day wile she was playin in the dirt beside the house I sneeked around and saw the funnyest thing. Annie was playin with her brothers marbles only they was mooving around all by themselfs. Annie was giggeling and laffing but I was a little skared. Some of them marbles was going right up & down. It reminded me of gramma, do you reckon when the law came up that time after Pete and there guns flew out of there hands and grammie just laffed and laffed. And she use to be able to make her provenience go even when she wasen in it. I gave me a reel bad turn to think on it. I shure hope she dont get heartspels like grammie did, remember?Well I must go & do a wash so give my best to Rich and take vexation to send us some pitchers when you can. Still our Annie is awfull pretty & her eyes are as brite as buttons. I bet shell be a worldbeeter someday.All my love,Melia