Doctor Sleep

Eighty-five-year-old Concetta—Chetta—remembers that her granddaughter, Abra, was born with a caul on her face. Abra’s mother, Lucy, thought the baby’s face was missing. Chetta is a published poet who thinks that artistic people have schizophrenic tendencies.

Dan is in his eighth Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting. Kingsley prescribed him 90 meetings in 90 days, in addition to giving Dan a notebook to record his thoughts during the sessions. Dan’s visions have stopped, despite his sobriety. That day, Dan writes "Abra" on the notebook without knowing why. Then he realizes it’s a character’s name from East of Eden.

Chetta asks Lucy if she saved Abra’s caul. She didn’t, and her husband, Dave, scoffs at the idea of second sight, which the caul supposedly represents.

One night, Dave and Lucy have simultaneous dreams. Lucy dreams that she finds Abra crying in a bathroom, with the number 11 written on her chest in red liquid. At the same time, Dave dreams that he is following Abra up an endless escalator in a burning mall. He finds her on the ground as people run around her. She has the number 175 written on her chest, also in red. They wake at the same time to hear Abra crying frantically. At Bridgton Hospital, the doctors can’t find anything wrong. Chetta arrives in the morning, but nothing calms the baby. Dr. John Dalton arrives them that the World Trade Center attacks just happened. Abra stops crying the second the final attack ends. Dave and Lucy discuss their dreams, which included the numbers of the 9/11 flights that were written on Abra’s chest.

The True Knot arrive in Hoboken, New Jersey. Crow Daddy is a Harvard educated lawyer, which makes him useful: The True Knot has over a billion dollars in resources, but they only use cash. Jimmy Numbers is their accountant. They watch the news in a park, where steam is plentiful, in proportion to the crowd’s pain and grief. They think the steam will eventually rejuvenate Grampa Flick. 

In January of 2004, Dan has his driver’s license again, rarely feels the shining, and frequently makes friends at AA meetings. One Thursday night, a sobbing woman shares her involvement involved in a hit and run at age 17. John, the doctor who saw Abra, admits that he’s been lying to his wife about losing a watch that she gave him. Against his better judgment, Dan tells John that one of his patients has Gaucher’s Disease. He also says that John left his watch in the hospital bathroom after meeting with the patient. During the next Thursday meeting, John has the watch. As repayment, Dan asks him not to tell anyone.

Dave and Chetta invite John to Abra’s birthday party. Dave tells him the story about the night of their dreams and the numbers corresponding to the flights, before recounting other peculiar events. One day the piano started playing a Beatles song. They knew Abra was doing it from her crib because she liked the song, even as a baby. Dave slept next to the piano. The music played but the keys didn’t move. Three weeks later they heard the song again, coming from Abra’s room. In 2003, Abra sensed a small amount of money behind a dresser. One July 4th weekend, she knew a neighbor named Wanda had fallen and fractured her skull. Abra saved her life. The breakers trip and cushions and toys move on their own. John agrees to come, thinking of Dan and the watch.

Dan now lives at the Helen Rivington House, in the room in whose window Tony had appeared. A manager, Mrs. Clausen, calls him Doctor Sleep. After cleaning the room, Dan kept a discarded blackboard, using it to write names and numbers of hospice patients. One morning, the names have been replaced with the word “Hello,” written in clumsy letters. Dan asks if it is Abra and hears a thought: “Daddy says we’ll have balloons” (120).

As a magician performs for nine children at Abra’s party, Lucy and Dave hear jangling sounds in the kitchen. The spoons are hanging from the ceiling. Abra says she wanted to be like the magician as the spoons fall. Two months later, John tells them about cases similar to Abra’s. He insists that they should treat her normally.