Y’s Reviews > Carrie > Status Update

“Oh, she was so pretty. You'd never know from those pictures.

“‘No, I won't,’ she said. ‘Momma says good girls don't.’ She looked
strange for a little girl, half sad and half self-righteous.
..........
“She lowered her head and said something so softly I couldn't hear it.
When I asked her to repeat it, she looked at me defiantly and said that her
momma had been bad when she made her and that was why she had them.

“She was such a pretty girl,” I've seen some high school pictures of her, and that horriblefuzzy black-and-white photo on the cover of Newsweek. I look at them... She was so pretty, with pink cheeks and
bright brown eyes, and her hair the shade of blonde you know will darken
and get mousy. Sweet is the only word that fits. Sweet and bright and
innocent. Her mother's sickness hadn't touched her very deeply, not then.

father spooky

the ivy was
picturesque, she knew it was, but sometimes she hated it. Sometimes, like
now, the ivy looked like a grotesque giant hand ridged with great veins
which had sprung up out of the ground to grip the building. She approached
it with dragging feet.
Of course, there had been the stones.

carrie remembers the stones still

. An elbow with no strength. A weak
baby muscle.
Flex.
She suddenly stared fiercely at Mrs. Yorraty's big picture window. She
thought:
(stupid frumpy old bitch break that window)
Nothing. Mrs. Yorraty's picture window glittered serenely in the fresh
nine o'clock glow of morning. A

She had been thinking:
(fall off that bike kid push you off that bike and split your rotten head)
and something had happened.
Her mind had . . . had . . . she groped for a word. Had flexed. That was
not just right, but it was very close. There had been a curious mental
bending, almost like an elbow curling a dumbbell. That wasn't exactly right
either, but it was all she could think of

Carrie glared at him with sudden smoking rage. The bike wobbled on its
training wheels and suddenly fell over. Tommy screamed. The bike was on
top of him. Carrie smiled and walked on. The sound of Tommy's wails was
sweet, jangling music in her ears.
If only she could make something like that happen whenever she liked.
(just did)

Carrie glared at him with sudden smoking rage. The bike wobbled on its
training wheels and suddenly fell over. Tommy screamed. The bike was on
top of him. Carrie smiled and walked on. The sound of Tommy's wails was
sweet, jangling music in her ears.
If only she could make something like that happen whenever she liked.
(just did)

“For strait is the
gate,” Momma said grimly in the taxi, and at home she had sent Carrie to
the closet for six hours.
Momma had, of course, forbade her to shower with the other girls; Carrie
had hidden her shower things in her school locker and had showered
anyway, taking part in a naked ritual that was shameful and embarrassing to
her in hopes that the circle around her might fade a little, just a little