Soon afterwards, the roof of Wilfred's farmhouse caves in during a storm. Arlette gives him a detailed premonition of the demise of both Henry and the pregnant Shannon in Nevada. Soon after, Wilfred claims that Arlette's living corpse, which is accompanied by a large group of rats, leaves the confines of the well and enters the farmhouse, confronting him. He again encounters the rat from the barn, which bites his hand and causes it to become severely infected, necessitating its amputation. Wilfred is emotionally destitute in Henry's absence. They begin a highly publicized career as a pair of Bonnie and Clyde-style bank robbers, becoming wanted in several states. Shannon is sent to a Catholic school for pregnant girls in Omaha, but Henry helps her escape. The pregnancy sours the friendship between Wilfred and Shannon's father, Harlan, a neighboring farmer. Wilfred later encounters a rat when it attacks one of his other milk cows, severing one of her teats.Ī few months later, Henry, who has become emotionally troubled since the murder, impregnates Shannon. Henry kills it, believing that Arlette is now haunting them. Wilfred and Henry fill the well, but a rat crawls out of the soil. Right afterwards, the local sheriff, acting on behalf of the livestock company, searches the farmhouse to look for Arlette, but finds nothing.

He purposefully has one of his aged cows fall into the well to provide a cover story for filling it in.

Wilfred decides to fill in the well to hide the body, but knows that doing so will arouse suspicion. Later, as Wilfred dumps her suitcase into the well with Arlette, he notices that her body has become infested with rats. Wilfred and Henry then dump the body in a dry well behind the barn. After taking Arlette to bed, Wilfred brutally slashes her throat with a butcher knife. Arlette proceeds to make crude remarks about Henry's girlfriend, Shannon Cotterie, which angers the boy enough to commit to Wilfred's plot. Wilfred resorts to manipulating his teenage son, Henry, into helping him murder Arlette.Īs part of their plot, Wilfred and a reluctant Henry get Arlette drunk. If she does so, Wilfred's property will no longer be farmable and he'll be forced to sell as well.

She seeks to sell her land to a livestock company for use as a pig farm and slaughterhouse. Wilfred scorns the thought of living in a city, but Arlette is discontented with farm life and wants to move to Omaha. His wife, Arlette, owns an adjoining 100 acres willed to her by her father. In 1922, Wilfred James, a farmer in Hemingford Home, Nebraska, owns 80 acres of farmland that have been in his family for generations. 1922 is a novella by American writer Stephen King, published in his collection Full Dark, No Stars (2010).

2009 novel by stephen king