Salem's Lot Read-A-Long ~ Susan

Welcome to DAY 5 of the Salem's Lot read-a-long! 

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Chapter TWO

BEWARE! IT MAY SPOIL THE BOOK FOR YOU IF YOU READ THIS! GO NOW and "read the damn book!"

Like all his romantic relationships, I didn't like Susan. Let's be honest. Stephen king is a master of horror not of romance. Susan reminded me too much of Sadie Dunhill from 11/22/63. blech!  Ben, with a girl like Susan not yet a woman, was basically robbing the cradle and that's not creepy. I'm sure Ben Mears wasn't looking to impress Susan, but he needed no introduction because she already knew him from the book she was reading. It was his second novel, Air Dance and she thought he was a ghost. Lovely. He might've thought it was inconsequential meeting her there, but being recognized because of his book he'd hoped to be a successful writer someday -- just like Stephen King probably!  "Of such inconsequential beginnings dynasties are begun" he says. It was "like prophecy spoken in jest".

Soon after they meet in the park , two cops notice the couple in Spencer's having ice cream like two lovebirds. In any small town there is bound to be gossip and the youngest cop points out that Susan was already dating Floyd Tibbits and wouldn't Floyd like to know she was with someone else. Ann Norton doesn't approve of her daughter dating Ben Mears a ghost either :P because she likes Floyd . Susan, however disagrees with her mom badly.

Background info: Hubert Marsten killed his wife Birdie inside his home and then hung himself in 1939. Ben Mears' recurring nightmare stems from when he was a boy. He'd gone into the Marsten's House on a dare. A group of kids playing Pirates told him if he wanted to be one of them that he had to get something from inside the old empty house. Of course that is when he saw the ghost of Hubie Marsten hanging from the ceiling. It opened its eyes and Ben ran out screaming.