Misery

Paul remembers the sounds he first heard "in the haze" after his accident: Annie Wilkes saying, "number one fan" (343).

Paul remembers Annie saying, "Now I must rinse" (343).

Nine months after Wicks and McKnight rescue Paul from Annie's, Paul is back in New York. Doctors have re-broken his legs, set the left in a cast, and given him walking sticks. Paul drinks too much and can't write.

One day in May, Paul is returning from lunch with his editor, Charlie Merrill. Charlie has given Paul "two bound galleys of Misery's Return" of which the publisher has ordered "an unprecedented first printing of a million copies." Charlie encourages Paul to write "the story behind the book," which is slightly better than "the story in the book," but Paul doesn't think he can. Charlie tells Paul that he thinks it would "outsell even Misery's Return" (344).

On his way to his apartment, Paul thinks that he could write the story of his time with Annie, but he would "tart it up" (344). As he reaches his apartment on the ninth floor, Paul drops both the galleys and his walking sticks as he fumbles for his keys. He's stopped using "the dope" and looks forward to having a "double bourbon" when he gets inside (345).

Once inside, Paul smells "a deadly mixture of dirt and face-powder." He sees Annie rise up from behind the couch "like a white ghost" in her white nurse's uniform. "Time to rinse, Paul!" Annie says and lunges at him with an axe. Annie nearly cuts Paul's body in half, then, as he's dragging himself toward the door, severs both his hands. Paul tries to scream to Annie she can read Misery's Return now, but Annie cuts off Paul's head before he can. "Goddess," Paul thinks before he dies (346).

A Webster's dictionary entry for the word "scenario" reads: "An outline or synopsis. A plot outline" (347).

Another dictionary entry for the word "writer" reads: "One who writes, esp. as an occupation" (347).

A final dictionary entry for the word "make-believe" reads: "Pretense or pretend' (347).

A single line: "Paulie, Can You?" (347).

Paul answers the question with "of course" he can; the "writer's scenario" that Annie was alive and in his house was only "make-believe" (347).

Paul had gone to lunch with Charlie Merrill but hadn't seen Annie Wilkes. It was a combination of his cleaning woman and Dumpster, "a cross-eyed Siamese" cat Paul had adopted that triggered his delusion (347). Paul recalls that when Wicks and McKnight found Annie, she was in the barn, having crawled through the bedroom window while Paul slept. The troopers found her, dead of a fractured skull, by Misery's pig stall, holding "the handle of her chainsaw." Annie Wilkes now lay in a grave, though Paul feels that, like Misery Chastain, Annie rests "there uneasily" (348). He goes to the bar in his house for the bourbon then decides against drinking it.

A single word: "Rinse" (348).

Paul takes an aspirin instead of drinking and sits at his word processor. He thinks he won't be able to write anything and considers having a drink. Instead, Paul remembers something he saw on his walk home from lunch: a young boy pushing a "large furry animal" in a shopping cart. Paul asked the boy if the animal was a skunk and the boy said that it was then continued walking. At his desk, Paul hears noise behind him and turns to see Annie coming at him with "the chainsaw in her hands" (349). He blinks, and she's gone. Angry, Paul begins to write: A boy hears a sound in the back of the building and thinks it might be rats. He follows it anyway and sees not a rat but "a great big black cat with the bushiest tail he had ever seen" (350).

Paul stops writing and his heart pounds. In his mind, the question, "Paulie, Can You?" forms. He doesn't dare answer, instead "gently" continuing to type (350).

Back in Paul's story, the boy, Eddie Desmond, who's lived in New York City his entire life, recognizes the animal as a skunk. He starts walking towards it.

Paul answers his self-posed question: "He could" (350). Paul continues typing, unaware of the pain in his legs and his tears as he writes.