by Rocky Wood
The two sections of Skybar King contributed a total of 579 words. The opening section begins with, “There were twelve of us when we went in that night, but only two of us came out – my friend Kirby and me. And Kirby was insane.” The closing paragraph of the story ends with:
I see these things in my dreams, yes, but when I visit Kirby in that place where he still lives, that place where all the windows are crosshatched with heavy mesh, I see them in his eyes. I take his hand and his hand is cold, but I sit with him and sometimes think: These things happened to me when I was young.
As it is unclear where the Skybar Amusement Park is (other than close to the coast) this is an America Under Siege story. In it the narrator recalls how he and eleven other people went to the Skybar Amusement Park when they were young. Ten of them did not come out alive and of the two survivors, only the narrator was sane. We never discover the narrator’s name but he was eleven and in sixth grade when he and his friends went to the exciting local amusement park, which contained such great attractions as Pop Dupree’s Dead-Eye Shooting Gallery, the Whip, a Mirror Labyrinth and an Adults Only freak tent. The youngsters had to wonder what was in there, “… you especially wondered when the people came out, white-faced, some of the women crying or hysterical. Brant Callahan said it was all just fake, whatever it was, but sometimes I saw the doubt even in Brant’s tough gray eyes.”
King abruptly changes gears in the last paragraph before the fill-in writers were due to begin, “Then, of course, the murders started, and eventually Skybar was shut down.” Of course, we do not know exactly what happened but King quickly creates a foreboding atmosphere, “…the only sound the mechanical clown’s mouth produced was lunatic hooting of the sea breeze.” We find that the “murders started” when Randy Stayner, a seventh-grader, “was thrown from the highest point of the SkyCoaster.” By writing “thrown” King leaves us in doubt as to whether Randy was thrown by a person, or a mechanical fault caused by sabotage. The narrator and Kirby “...both heard his scream as he came down.”
The closing paragraph King provides begins with, “…I feel Kirby taking my hand and telling me it was okay; we were safe, we were home free.” But the horrors have not ended and an animated corpse begins to chase the boys and Kirby loses his mind, beginning to scream. “Behind me I can see Randy’s corpse pushing the safety bar back and he begins to stumble toward me, his dead, shredded fingers hooked into seeking claws.” The narrator awakes from his dream, in his wife’s arms (he is now 12 years older).
The main characters appear to be the narrator and Kirby, with Randy Stayner a definite victim of the “murders” and Brant Callahan likely to have been another. The storyline takes place in the Skybar Amusement Park, five miles toward the coast from the narrator’s childhood home. Although we do not know the timeline of the story we do know that hi-test fuel sold at Dewey’s Sunoco for 31.9 cents per gallon in those days. Twelve years later it sold for $1.40 per gallon, so perhaps it is safe to assume it occurred before the Oil Crisis of the early 1970s.
There are no links from the story to other King works. However, the story does contain King’s trademark style, quickly establishing the atmosphere and reminding the reader of the carnival segment of The Dead Zone, portions of It (this scary clown is mechanical) and even of The Body.
Who knows what tremendous story King may have chosen to write between these enticing paragraphs? As it seems very unlikely he will do so perhaps the reader should fill in the blanks to his or her satisfaction.
Table of Contents
Title_Page
Copyright_Page
Tabel_Of_Contents
Introduction
Linking_Stephen_Kings_Realities
The_Lost_and_Hidden_Works
Variations_and_Versions_in_Kings_Fiction
01_The_Aftermath
02_American_Vampire
03_An_Evening_at_Gods
04_Before_the_Play
05_The_Blue_Air_Compressor
06_But_Only_Darkness_Loves_Me
07_The_Cannibals
08_Cats_Eye_and_General
09_Charlie
10_Children_of_the_Corn
11_Chinga_and_Molly
12_Comb_Dump
13_The_Crate
14_Creepshow
15_Cujo
16_Daves_Rag
17_The_Dead_Zone
18_Desperation
19_Dolans_Cadilac
20_The_Drum_Stories
21_For_the_Birds
22_The_Furnace
23_George_DX_McArdle
24_The_Glass_Floor
25_Golden_Years
26_Heros_for_Hope
27_Teenage_Grave_Robber
28_Jhonathan_and_the_Witchs
29_Keyholes
30_The_Killer
31_The_King_Family
32_The_Leprechaun
33_Man_with_a_Belly
34_Maximum_Overdrive
35_Mobius
36_Morality
37_The_New_Lieutenants_Rap
38_The_Night_of_the_Tiger
39_Night_Shift
40_The_Old_Dudes_Ticker
41_People_Places_and_Things
42_Pet_Semeteary
43_The_Plant
44_The_Poems
45_Premium_Harmony
46_The_Reploids
47_Rose_Red
48_The_Shinning
49_The_Shotgunners
50_Skybar
51_Slade
52_Sleepwalkers
53_Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes
54_Sorry_Right_Number
55_Squad_D
56_The_Stand
57_The_Star_Invaders
58_Stories_from_Journals
59_Stories_Swallowed_by_Monsters
60_Sword_in_the_Darkness
61_They_Bite
62_Throttle
63_Untitled
64_Untitled_Screenplay
Appendix
Acknowledgements
About_The_Author
Cemetery_Dance_Publications
Table of Contents
Title_Page
Copyright_Page
Tabel_Of_Contents
Introduction
Linking_Stephen_Kings_Realities
The_Lost_and_Hidden_Works
Variations_and_Versions_in_Kings_Fiction
01_The_Aftermath
02_American_Vampire
03_An_Evening_at_Gods
04_Before_the_Play
05_The_Blue_Air_Compressor
06_But_Only_Darkness_Loves_Me
07_The_Cannibals
08_Cats_Eye_and_General
09_Charlie
10_Children_of_the_Corn
11_Chinga_and_Molly
12_Comb_Dump
13_The_Crate
14_Creepshow
15_Cujo
16_Daves_Rag
17_The_Dead_Zone
18_Desperation
19_Dolans_Cadilac
20_The_Drum_Stories
21_For_the_Birds
22_The_Furnace
23_George_DX_McArdle
24_The_Glass_Floor
25_Golden_Years
26_Heros_for_Hope
27_Teenage_Grave_Robber
28_Jhonathan_and_the_Witchs
29_Keyholes
30_The_Killer
31_The_King_Family
32_The_Leprechaun
33_Man_with_a_Belly
34_Maximum_Overdrive
35_Mobius
36_Morality
37_The_New_Lieutenants_Rap
38_The_Night_of_the_Tiger
39_Night_Shift
40_The_Old_Dudes_Ticker
41_People_Places_and_Things
42_Pet_Semeteary
43_The_Plant
44_The_Poems
45_Premium_Harmony
46_The_Reploids
47_Rose_Red
48_The_Shinning
49_The_Shotgunners
50_Skybar
51_
Slade
52_Sleepwalkers
53_Something_Wicked_This_Way_Comes
54_Sorry_Right_Number
55_Squad_D
56_The_Stand
57_The_Star_Invaders
58_Stories_from_Journals
59_Stories_Swallowed_by_Monsters
60_Sword_in_the_Darkness
61_They_Bite
62_Throttle
63_Untitled
64_Untitled_Screenplay
65_UR
66_Weeds
67_Wimsey
Appendix
Acknowledgements
About_The_Author
Cemetery_Dance_Publications
