Gordie: Do you think I'm weird? Chris: Definitely. Gordie: No man, seriously. Am I weird? Chris: Yeah, but so what? Everybody's weird

And in real life endings aren't always neat, whether they're happy endings, or whether they're sad endings.

In the years since, I've discovered there's a lot to be said for boredom.

Did-a-chick? Dum-a-chum? Dad-a-cham? Ded-a-chek?

Everything that goes around comes around, they say, and although I've never been able to figure out who the mysteriously wise sages known as "they" might be, they're certainly right when it comes to time-travel.

Outside, a gusty October breeze was combing leaves from the trees and sending them across her backyard in colorful skitters.

On that gray street, with the smell of industrial smokes in the air and the afternoon bleeding away to evening, downtown Derry looked only marginally more charming than a dead hooker in a church pew.