Stephen King’s Short Stories
One of the many lessons I have learnt from writers like Stephen King is to keep the paragraphs short, and preferrable with conversations within speech marks.
I have just finished reading Stephen King’s ‘The Bazaar of Bad Dreams’ which is a collection of short stories and the following is a brief review of this superbly written, hard-to-put-down, book.
Story # 1: Mile 81
My recommendation is for you to skip this story, at least until last. Why? You may well ask. Firstly, the story is just too far-fetched. Secondly, the language can be coarse, bordering on the vulgar and thus, if you are but a teenager, skip this. But I know, the more I emphasize this, the more you want to read it. So, I better say no more.
Story # 2: Premium Harmony
“Milk always takes the flavour of what it sits next to it in the icebox.” Is this true? This husband-and-wife tale is not as exciting as the other short stories that follow. Therefore, my recommendation is again to stay off this story for a little while. Promise?
Story # 3: Batman and Robin - Have an Altercation
| synonyms: | argument, quarrel, squabble, fight, shouting match, contretemps, disagreement, difference of opinion, dissension, falling-out, dispute, disputation, contention, clash, acrimonious exchange, war of words, wrangle; |
Yes, this story is to be read first. Yes, that is my recommendation. The story reflects the usual sign of old age - that of Alzheimer’s. Let me quote just one part of the prelude to this story and you can decide if you wish to read this story of give this story another skip.
“Sometimes a story arrives complete - a done thing. Usually, though, they come to me in two parts: first the cup, then the handle. Because the handle may not show up for weeks, months or even years, I have a little box in the back of my mind of unfinished cups, each protected in that unique mental packing we call memory. You can’t be looking for a handle, no matter how beautiful the cup may be; (and you have to wait for it to appear. I realize that metaphor sort of sucks, but when you’re talking about the process we call creative writing, most of them do.”
Story # 4: The Dune
The prelude to this story reads as follows:
“As I said in the note to “Batman and Robin” sometimes - once in a great while - you get the cup with the handle already attached. God, how I love that! You’re just going about your business, thinking of nothing in particular, and then, ka-boom, a story arrives by special delivery, perfect and complete. The only thing you have to do is transcribe it.
“I was in Florida, walking our dog on the beach. Because it was January, and cold, I was the only one out there. Up ahead I saw what looked like writing in the sand. When I got closer, I saw it was just a trick of sunlight and shadow, but writers’ minds are junk heaps of odd information, and it made me think of an old quote somewhere (it turned out to be Omar Khayyam): ‘The moving finger, and having writ, moves on.’ That in turn made me think of some magical place where an invisible Moving Finger would write terrible things in the sand, and I had this story.”
Enjoy the final twist to this story of the Magic Moving Finger in the sand.
Story # 5: Bad Little Kid
“Life is full of Big Questions, isn’t it? Fate or destiny? Heaven or hell? Love or attraction? Reason or impulse?
“Beatles or Stones?”
George Hallas was sentenced to death for the murder of a young boy, in prison. He was executed next morning, despite his lawyer’s attempts to prevent it. Why?
“Hallas’ first encounter with the Bad Little Kid was in 1977, when Hallas was good friends with a slightly older and mentally challenged girl named Marlee. One day, the Kid showed up out of nowhere and caused Marlee to get hit by a car by first insulting her and then throwing her lunchbox into the street.
“Years later, when Hallas was studying theater arts and had a relationship with another woman named Vicky, the kid appeared again, still the same age as he was back in 1977. This time, he drove Vicky to commit suicide.
“Then, three years after Hallas married his now ex-wife Carla Winston, the kid caused a gas explosion in a mine that killed Hallas’s father, and then started harassing Hallas’ mother with threatening phone calls, to the point that she decided to get rid of her phone and thus could not call an ambulance when she suffered a heart attack.
“Finally, when after many attempts Carla and Hallas were expecting their first child, the Bad Little Kid caused an accident that resulted in a miscarriage for Carla.
“By now, Hallas realized the kid was after him and decided to set a trap. He became an active volunteer for the local church, helping troubled boys through the Conquest program. The kid showed up again after Hallas successfully helped a boy named Ronnie Gibson get an eye surgery he desperately needed. This time, Hallas was prepared and killed the kid in front of dozens of witnesses, hence why he is in prison now.”
Now the question remains - why was Hallas given the death sentence when he had actually aided society to get rid of the Bad Little Kid?
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There are still the following short stories in the book - fifteen of them:
“A Death”; “The Bone Church”; “Morality”; “Afterlife”; “Ur”; “Herman Wouk Is Still Alive”; “Under the Weather”; “Blockade Billy”; “Mister Yummy; “Tommy”; “The Little Green God of Agony”; “That Bus Is Another World”; “Obits”; “Drunken Fireworks” and “Summer Thunder”
Read them all and then tell us which of the short stories you like best.
Story # 6: A Death
Prelude:
“In the Hair of Harold Roux, probably the best writing ever published, Thomas Williams offers a striking metaphor, maybe even a parable, for how a story is born. He envisions a dark plain with a small fire burning on it. One by one, people come out of the dark to warm themselves. Each one brings a little fuel, and eventually the small fire becomes a blaze with the characters standing around it, their faces brightly lit and each beautiful in its own way.
“One night as I lay drifting towards sleep, I saw a very small fire - a kerosene lantern, in fact - with a man trying to read a newspaper by its light. Other men came with their own lanterns, casting more light on a dreary landscape that turned out to be the Dakota Territory.
“I have visions like this frequently, although it makes me uneasy to admit it. I don’t always tell the stories that go with them; sometimes the fire goes out. This one had to be told, because I knew exactly what kind of language I wanted to use: dry and laconic, not like my usual style at all. I had no idea where the story was going, but I felt perfectly confident that the language would take me there. And it did.”
The story:
“Sheriff Barclay and his deputies arrive at the ranch currently inhabited by Jim Trusdale, whose father, the owner, is now being cared for elsewhere in his old age. They arrest Trusdale, who’s reading Black Hills Pioneer by lantern-light. Confused and protesting, but calm, he’s led away from the ranch in a funeral hack to the local jail, a path which leads him through a crowd of townsfolk who jeer at and threaten him.
“He’s informed that the crime he’s been accused of is the murder, robbery, and implied molestation of a ten-year-old girl, who was on her way to a sweet shop with a silver dollar given to her by her mother. Trusdale is accused because his hat was found inside her dress, a hat he treasured and always wore, but wasn’t wearing and couldn’t account for when he was arrested. The missing silver dollar is presumed to be either in his possession or discarded, since there’s no record of him spending it, but no evidence is gained from a full-body strip search by Barclay.
“As an economic measure the trial judge, Roger Mizell, also serves as the prosecuting attorney, a quirk of procedure described by a juror as: “Like a banker taking out a loan from himself and then paying himself interest”, though no-one seems to disapprove of this. The childlike Trusdale’s simple-minded honesty, coupled with the shambolic nature of the judicial process, the absence of the silver dollar, and the townfolks’ unruly determination to see Trusdale hanged, gradually convinces Barclay that he is innocent. Nonetheless, he is convicted, while all through the trial the sounds of a gallows being erected can be heard.
On the night before his execution Trusdale asks for steak and eggs with fries soaked in gravy and beer as his last meal, which Barclay pays for out of his own pocket. Trusdale then grows distressed, as he realises that the food will never get a chance to pass naturally through his body before he dies. Firmly convinced of Trusdale’s innocence and wanting one last chance to help him, Barclay tries to make him remember whether someone stole Trusdale’s hat on the day of the murder. (No-one at the trial could be sure whether he was wearing his hat when he left a local bar, and was last seen before the arrest.) Trusdale tries but comes up with nothing.
“The next day Barclay helps lead Trusdale up the steps towards the rope, which will hang him on the gallows before the assembled townsfolk. Trusdale panics and starts thrashing, almost knocking his guardians off of the steps, to the sadistic amusement of the crowd, which jeers at Trusdale. In the end he begs to be allowed to see the mountains before he dies, but the hood is pulled over his eyes and the trapdoor sprung while the priest reads Psalm 51, no-one acknowledging his last request.
“After the execution Barclay returns to the jail, sits in the cell where Trusdale spent his last days, and vomits into the bucket which had held Trusdale’s last beer. Some hours later the local undertaker arrives and informs him that there’s something he needs to see at the mortuary. When they arrive Barclay sees the missing silver dollar, which the undertaker discovered after Trusdale evacuated his bowels. Trusdale was, in fact, guilty, and had swallowed the dollar on becoming aware of the approaching posse at the start of the story, before swallowing it again every time he defecated in his cell. In wonderment at his former conviction that the man was innocent, Barclay says, “He went on saying he was innocent right to the end. He’ll most likely stand at the throne of God saying the same thing.”
There are still fourteen more short stories in the book - including a poem:
“The Bone Church”; “Morality”; “Afterlife”; “Ur”; “Herman Wouk Is Still Alive”; “Under the Weather”; “Blockade Billy”; “Mister Yummy; “Tommy”; “The Little Green God of Agony”; “That Bus Is Another World”; “Obits”; “Drunken Fireworks” and “Summer Thunder”
Come on, get this book from your local library and read them all.
Then tell us which of the short stories you like best.
Promise?
If borrowing the book from the library is too troublesome, why not google each of the fourteen stories from the internet and read the summaries of the stories?
OK, I have googled them for you now in the following links. Read them by simply clicking the links. Promise?
The Bone Church:
http://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/925629-stephen-kings-the-bone-church-headed-to-television
Morality:
http://brilliantdisguises.blogspot.co.nz/2010/10/morality-by-stephen-king.html
Afterlife:
https://theoctobercountry.wordpress.com/2013/06/10/short-story-review-afterlife-by-stephen-king/
Ur:
Herman Wouk Is Still Alive:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/05/herman-wouk-is-still-alive/308451/
Under the Weather:
Let us do a little game here. Fill in the (-) blanks with just one alphabet that make sense in the reading of the following passages from the introduction to this story.
‘Where do you ge(-) your ideas’ and ‘Where did this idea come fro(-)’ are diff(-)rent questions. The (-)irst is u(-)answerable, so I ma(-)e a (-)oke of it and sa(-) I get them from a little (-)sed Idea Shop in Utica. The seco(-)d is some(-)imes answe(-)able, but in a sur(-)rising number of (-)ases, it’s not, because stories are like (-)reams. Everything is a deliciously clear while the process in ongoing, but all that remains when the (-)tory’s finished are a few fading traces. I sometimes (-)hink a book of short stories is actually a kind of oneiric diary, a way of ca(-)ching subconscious images before they can fade away.
Here is a case in point. I don’t remember how I got the idea for “Under the Weather” or how long it took, or even when I wrote it.
Blockade Billy:
https://nerdist.com/book-review-blockade-billy-by-stephen-king/
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Get the drift? Why not do the googling yourself now for the rest of the stories like “Mister Yummy; “Tommy”; “The Little Green God of Agony”; “That Bus Is Another World”; “Obits”; “Drunken Fireworks” and “Summer Thunder”?
Happy Reading and hopefully, you can start to become a Creative Writing yourself.
All the very best.
Mister Yummy
Mister Yummy details the last days in the life of Ollie Franklin, in particular his relationship with another elderly gentleman at the Lakeview Assisted Living Center named Dave Calhoun. Ollie, who is gay, recalls his experiences growing up as a gay man in America, losing friends to the AIDS epidemic in the 80’s, as well as his one-time encounter at a dance club in New York with a young guy who he and his clique of friends called “Mister Yummy”. Although he never saw him again in person, he has recently been seeing him again as a sort of avatar heralding his impending death, getting closer every time, and reasons that all people see different avatars when getting close to death’s door. Dave at first doesn’t believe him, considering him just senile and losing his hold on reality, until he actually does die, only days after he first described seeing Mister Yummy.
Tommy (King poem)
Andrew Newsome, the sixth richest man in the world, has been confined to his bed since he got into an airplane crash that only he survived, now 2 years ago. According to the many doctors he already visited, he should have recovered enough by now to start walking again, yet he is still in too much agony for that. Katherine Macdonald, a nurse hired by Newsome to be his private caretaker, has so far kept her quiet about his lack of recovery, but deep down she thinks her employer is just too weak willed to handle the pain that comes with making a full recovery, and always tries to look for shortcuts.
When one day Newsome turns to an old reverend named Rideout (who according to Newsome’s researches has healed a great many people) for help in return for enough money to rebuild his burned down church, Katherine finally speaks up. She confronts Newsome with what she believes to be the facts, and calls Rideout a charlatan; the first of many that will come now that regular medicine has failed, at least according to her. Newsome is about to fire her for this outburst, but Rideout insists that Katherine should stay around since she needs to regain her faith and sense of compassion according to him. Rideout continues to explain that Newsome has been invested by a small demon god that feeds on his pain, and he plans to exorcize and capture this creature. He requests Katherine and Newsome’s personal assistant Jensen to help him; Jensen has to spray the creature with pepper spray when it leaves it’s host, while Katherine has to whack it with a broom so Rideout can put it in a lunchbox. Katherine agrees, but only after checking Rideout’s sleeves and the lunchbox to make sure there are no props inside. When they turn out to be empty, she starts to doubt her own skepticism.
The exorcism begins. Rideout successfully forces the demon god, which looks like a slimy, green tennisball, to leave Newseome’s body. However, things go horribly wrong when first the exorcism proves too much for Rideout’s weak heart and he dies of a heart attack, and next Jensen accidently sprays his own eyes with the pepper spray. The creature uses the commotion to jump onto Melissa, the housekeeper, causing her to experience extreme agony until Katherine knocks the green demon god off her and squishes it under her foot. Newsome is feeling better again, but then the light goes out due to the generator failing. In the darkness, Katherine feels the green demon god crawling up her hand…
“That Bus Is Another World” from Wikipedia
The main story follows a man named Wilson from Birmingham, Alabama who recently traveled by plane up to New York for an important business meeting with what is described as one of the top advertising firms of the Internet age, Market Forward. On arrival, he quickly runs into some bad luck when his luggage gets misplaced at the airport terminal, and he’s also anxious about getting to the meeting on time, despite being three hours away. Afterwards he decides to take a taxi, driven by a lethargic looking Sikh man, to the meeting, as it is raining out. As the taxi is caught in traffic, a Peter Pan bus rolls up in the lane next to the taxi and Wilson is transfixed by the sight of a beautiful woman reading a magazine sitting next to an odd looking man dressed in a black raincoat rummaging through a black briefcase. The man takes a black scarf out and sniffs it before proceeding to cut the woman’s throat, placing the scarf around her neck to catch the blood, then sticking his finger in her mouth, while smiling at Wilson through the rainy window, as if knowing they share a terrible secret. Wilson debates about whether or not he should call the police, but eventually reasons that perhaps it was just a gag, like a flash mob, or the other passengers on the bus had already attacked and subdued the man, allowing him the peace of mind to get out of the taxi and walk the rest of the way to his meeting in the rain.
“Obits” from Wikipedia
The story is narrated by Michael Anderson, who, according to himself, is “less-than-fearless”. He briefly describes how he went to the University of Rhode Island, where he got a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, and how Professor Vern Higgins, the head of journalism there, instructed them to write their stories.
Michael says he had a string of odd jobs at first, until he took an impulsive decision and wrote a nasty, unsympathetic joke obituary for Jack Briggs, an actor who had died of a drug overdose, and sent it to Neon Circus (his favourite webzine). The editor of Neon Circus, Jeroma Whitfield, was impressed with his article and offered him a column writing obituaries in Neon Circus. Seeing this as an opportunity to do something he really wanted to do, Michael accepted.
Michael then describes Neon Circus, and Katie Curran, his colleague, who he also has a crush on. One day, angry with Jeroma for refusing him a raise, he wrote an obituary for her as a joke to vent out his anger. However, he later got a call from Katie, who informed him that Jeroma actually died. Michael then says he thought it just a coincidence, and that Jeroma couldn’t really have died just because he wrote an obituary for her. However, later on in the story, it becomes clear that he actually has a power of killing living people by writing their obituaries. He describes how his power was like an addiction, and how the urge to use it again and again grew stronger every time he wrote an obituary. He also found out later that his power sort of ‘spread’ further and further every time he used it. This meant that, even if he wrote an obituary for a particular person, other people with similar names also died.
He goes on to say that he left his job at Neon Circus, and now lives in Wyoming, where he works as a house painter and does various other jobs. He stopped using laptops and computers, and only uses an iPad now, on which he checks out Neon Circus from time to time. He ends the story by saying how he has tried to stick to the way Mr. Higgins had told them to follow while writing a story, and how, like Mr. Higgins always said, ‘it’s the end only for now’.
“Drunken Fireworks” from Wikipedia
The story is narrated by Alden McCausland, who is taken into custody by the Castle County police.
Alden lives with his mother. Since his father died and left them an unexpected big life insurance policy, and his mother won a big prize in the Big Maine Millions scratcher, they can afford a rich lifestyle, which consists mostly of spending the entire summer at their cabin at Lake Abenaki, drinking all day long.
The house on the other side of the lake is owned by the Italian-American Massimo family, who officially own their riches to their company, Massimo Construction, but are actually “connected” as Ma McCausland puts it. Alden and his mother don’t think much of their neighbors, and especially hate one particular boy of the Massimo family who likes to play the trumpet.
When one 4th of July Alden tries to impress the Massimo’s with his fireworks, he starts a rivalry with them that soon becomes known in Castle County as the 4th of July Arms Race. In the years that follow the McCauslands and the Massino’s try to outdo each other with bigger and bigger fireworks, with the Massino’s always coming out on top. That is until Alden, through some connections of his own, manages to get his hands on the largest, but very illegal, piece of fireworks in the world: the Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind, a.k.a. the GE4. However, when Alden fires the GE4 (after the Massino’s have just performed a large fireworks show with help of a professional crew), the wind blows it towards the Massino’s house, and since Castle County had a very dry summer the GE4 sets the pine trees around the house ablaze. This in turn causes the house itself to catch fire and burn to the ground. Alden is arrested.
Now that his story is told, Alden is informed by the police that Mr. Massimo won’t press charges against Alden or his mother, since he too was responsible for their fireworks arms race getting so out of hand. Alden is free to go. However, Massimo’s 2 sons did get some revenge by burning the McCausland’s cabin down, though they blame the fire on Alden leaving a box of fireworks too close to a burning stove. The police however urges Alden to go along with this story, let the insurance pay for the damage, and accept Massimo’s offer to forget the whole thing, which Alden eventually does.
“Summer Thunder” from Wikipedia
A nuclear war has devastated the world. A man named Peter Robinson is one of the few people left alive, living on the large food supply he and his wife had stocked. His wife and daughter were in Boston when the war started and got killed. All Robinson has left now is a grey stray dog he adopted and named Gandalf. The only other human around is Timlin, an old man who lives in a house located inside a private enclave called Woodland Acres. Robinson visits him daily. Although their part of the US has been spared the immediate destruction caused by the nukes, Timlin believes it will only be a matter of time before they die from radiation poisoning. Around them the animals are already dying by the handful.
Timlin is proven right when one day Gandalf’s hair starts to fall out and he begins to weaken fast. Timlin himself is also dying. Wanting to spare himself the agony that comes with this kind of death, Timlin commits suicide with a gun. He also urges Robinson to put Gandalf out of his misery, which he does. Robinson himself decides to also end his life, but in a little more spectacular way. He drives to Bennington to pick up a spare battery for his Fat Bob motorcycle, then drives the Fat Bob at full speed towards a hairpin called Dead Man’s Curve, crashing into the warning sign.