The Complete Stephen King Universe

by Stanley Wiater

  “Suffer the Little Children” (from 1993’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes)

  King calls this a “ghastly sick-joke with no redeeming social merit whatever.” He adds, “I like that in a story.” Reminiscent of the early, more sinister work of Ray Bradbury, in the theme of all children being naturalborn monsters or some form of alien, “Suffer the Little Children” is an effective chiller.

  “SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  MISS SIDLEY: Veteran grade school teacher Miss Sidley sees something out of the corner of her eye one morning that shakes her—the face of one of her students seems to change for a moment, altering into something monstrous. That student, Robert, adds to her disquiet, telling her that “there’s quite a few of us.” Miss Sidley becomes more and more paranoid, increasingly sure her class is full of monsters hiding behind human masks. Taking matters into her own hands, Miss Sidley invites Robert to accompany her to the mimeograph room; once there, she kills him. She eliminates eleven more students before she is interrupted. There is no trial. Miss Sidley is committed to the asylum known as Juniper Hill, located in Augusta, Maine, where she eventually kills herself.

  Stephen King—“Teen Anger” SUSANNE MOSS

  “The Night Flier”(from 1993’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes)

  This modern vampire tale originally appeared in the popular 1988 anthology Prime Evil: New Stories by the Masters of Modern Horror, edited by noted King scholar and biographer Douglas E. Winter. Among its other qualities, the story is notable for bringing back to the limelight reporter Richard Dees, who was first seen in The Dead Zone (1979).

  “THE NIGHT FLIER”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  THE NIGHT FLIER: A vampire pilot who travels from airport to airport in his Cessna Skymaster in search of prey. The nameless vampire, who sleeps in the plane’s cargo hold, is more amused than annoyed with his pursuer, Richard Dees; instead of ripping his throat out, he lets him go with a warning to keep his distance. The Night Flier evidences a wry sense of humor, using the name of Dwight Renfield to identify himself to various airport officials. (Horror aficionados know this is a play on the name Dwight Frye; a character actor, Frye appeared in a handful of classic horror movies, among them Tod Browning’s 1931 Dracula, where he played the part of the madman Renfield.)

  RICHARD DEES: A tabloid reporter/photographer who once hounded Johnny Smith for his unusual life story, as detailed in The Dead Zone. Pursuing the facts of the Night Flier killings for his tabloid newspaper, Inside View, Dees picks up on the mysterious Dwight Renfield’s trail, eventually meeting the vampire face to face in an airport men’s room. The completely terrified Dees escapes with his life, but is not allowed to keep the photos he took of the Night Flier in action.

  “Popsy” (from 1993’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes)

  Another contemporary vampire tale, written in much the same vein (ahem) of “The Night Flier.”

  “POPSY”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  SHERIDAN: A gambler who has fallen on hard times, Sheridan kidnaps small children and sells them to an unsavory character named “the Turk.” One day, he makes the mistake of snatching a small child whose grandfather turns out to be a vampire. The grandparent eventually catches up with Sheridan, beats him, and then feeds him to his grandson.

  POPSY: The boy’s grandfather, who just happens to be a vampire. In his commentary on the story, King asks, “Is this little boy’s grandfather the same creature that demands Richard Dees open his camera and expose his film at the end of ‘The Night Flier’? You know, I rather think he is.”

  “Rainy Season” (from 1993’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes)

  The second “peculiar town” story in this collection, this one recalls Shirley Jackson’s 1948 classic tale of ritual sacrifice, “The Lottery” (a story that has always been a personal favorite of King’s). It’s never explained why these deadly toads rain from the sky every seven years on the rural Maine hamlet of Willow; what matters is that somebody—anybody—has to be sacrificed to make it stop.

  “RAINY SEASON”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  ELISE and JOHN GRAHAM: A vacationing couple visiting the small Maine town on the eve of what the locals call the rainy season, Elise and John ignore the warnings to beware an imminent rain of toads from the sky. They are both eaten alive when they encounter the hideous rain of killer toads that hits Willow every seven years on June 17. The only way the bizarre rain of razor-toothed toads can be stopped is to sacrifice two outsiders to appease whatever dark gods have cursed this otherwise idyllic town. The snobbish Grahams serve that purpose well.

  “Riding the Bullet” (from 2002’s Everything’s Eventual)

  This short story, only available online and in a read-only format, created quite a stir when King published it early in the year 2000. Web sites offering the tale were inundated with requests; it is estimated that more than four hundred thousand customers downloaded it.

  This story of college student Alan Parker’s unfortunate encounter with the supernatural echoes such tales as “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut” and “The Road Virus Heads North” in what is essentially a travelogue through King’s Maine. Informed that his mother has just suffered a stroke, the carless Parker decides to hitchhike from the University of Maine at Orono to his hometown in Lewiston, some 120 miles south. Along the way, he is picked up by one George Staub, who Parker knows died in a car accident almost three decades prior. Staub, whose body is apparently held together by stitches, tells the frightened Parker that he must choose between his life and his mother’s. Panicked, Parker chooses his own, and is released from the car. Mrs. Parker lives for a few years after her stroke, but Alan is always tortured by his cowardice.

  Describing his ordeal early in the story, Parker says something that many denizens of the Stephen King Universe might agree with:

  The way I looked at the world changed that night, changed quite a lot. I came to understand that there are things underneath, you see—underneath—and no book can explain what they are. I think that sometimes it’s best to just forget those things are there. If you can, that is.

  “RIDING THE BULLET”: ADAPTATIONS

  King favorite Mick Garris adapted this property for the screen. Jonathan Jackson is appropriately troubled in the role of Alan Parker, but the movie is pretty much stolen by the quirky David Arquette, who essays the role of the undead George Staub. Barbara Hershey and Erika Christensen also appear, but their performances are wasted. Released to little fanfare in 2004, it has recently become available on DVD.

  SECTION FIVE

  The Prime Reality, Part IV: Tales of The Shop

  It is a familiar theme by now, particularly in the post–X-Files generation: Within the American government there exists a covert organization dedicated to the study of the paranormal. In the Stephen King universe, that organization is known only as “The Shop.”

  As noted in the chapter entries below, The Shop investigates such phenomena, but it also instigates. As in Firestarter, they have been known to fund experiments in the paranormal. Further, however, like all great, ominous covert groups (mostly fictional, we hope), they are willing to go to any lengths, including assassination, to achieve their goals and keep their secrets.

  The tales surrounding or tangentially touching upon The Shop very clearly exist within the Prime Reality of the Stephen King Universe. One must only read The Tommyknockers, which includes Shop agents as supporting characters, to know that. For in that novel, there are connections to a great many other King works set in the Prime Reality (see below).

  Though The Shop does not play any obvious role in the grand cosmic struggle between the Purpose and the Random, it does seem logical to think that they may have served either side unwittingly over the years. Further, though there is no immediately visible link between The Shop and any of the other realities, two observations can be made. First, though operating in the Prime Reality, they seem to share certain facets with the “Low Men in Yellow Coats” from Roland’s Reality (Hearts in Atlantis). Second, it stands to r
eason that if there are thinnies between the Prime Reality and any of the others, The Shop is almost certainly aware of them.

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  FIRESTARTER

  (1980)

  Considering its similar protagonist—a young girl with terrifying paranormal powers—Firestarter is an interesting counterpoint to Carrie (1974). Where the latter is, without question, a tale of great tragedy and loss, Firestarter is, more than anything, an uplifting if relentless thriller. In part, it is the account of two innocent college students, Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson, who take part in a secret government experiment intended to jump-start paranormal abilities in test subjects. In the case of Andy and Vicky, the experiment succeeds—and more successfully than anyone could have ever imagined. Partially as a result of this shared experience, they fall in love, marry, and have a daughter.

  This girl, Charlie McGee, is actually the central character of Firestarter. In fact, the title takes its name from her ability to start fires simply with her mind: pyrokinesis. And that’s only one of Charlie’s amazing paranormal abilities.

  The novel is a masterwork of paranoia that preceded TV’s The X-Files (1993–2002) by well over a decade. And yet, without question, this is exactly the type of case that series’ Scully and Mulder would get involved with—though hopefully they would not be as merciless as the government agents from The Shop. In the late 1960s, Andy and Vicky participated in an experiment run by the Department of Scientific Intelligence, which portrays itself as a benevolent research organization. However, it is actually The Shop, a top-secret government agency doing whatever it takes—including parascientific research—to create fantastic new weapons for America’s arsenal. (The Shop would receive mention in later works by King, but none of the principal characters of Firestarter have made appearances in other works. Not yet, anyway.)

  As noted, Carrie is also the chronicle of a young woman born with paranormal abilities. But the two could not be more different. Whereas Carrie is subject to emotional and physical abuse by her mother, Charlie McGee is purely a victim of circumstance and greed by ruthless adults. Her dad loves her more than life itself, and ultimately proves it. Where Carrie is finally destroyed by her “wild talent,” Charlie is tempered by it, like steel in the forge. She emerges only more powerful—and wiser—after the tragedy of her tale.

  The evil King presents here is not Charlie’s fantastic talent, but the fact that government agents would purposely use human beings in immoral experiments simply to better develop secret weapons. The killers here are people in the U.S. government—salaries for whom the public pays without even being aware of it.

  Firestarter is among a small handful of King’s novels that, like ’Salem’s Lot (1975), absolutely demands a sequel. The story of Charlie McGee can hardly be considered over after she walks into the offices of Rolling Stone magazine to tell a reporter all that has happened to her thus far in her amazing life.

  To return once again to the counterpoint of Carrie, Firestarter proves itself to be a book about hope and affirmation, not destruction and loss. Whereas Carrie concerns itself mostly with the despair and tragic life of its central female character, the heroine of Firestarter is just that—a hero. And a survivor against incredible odds. Charlie McGee overcomes the gravest injustices and immoral actions a nation can heap on one of its own citizens, and manages to triumph over that adversity, to stand proud and shout her defiance to the world.

  But lest we forget, those still working for The Shop remain deeply concerned that a girl with Charlie’s power might one day, as she matures, gain the awesome power to split the world itself in two with merely a concentrated thought.

  And Charlie and others just like her are still out there, in the Stephen King Universe.

  FIRESTARTER: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  CHARLIE McGEE: From birth, Charlene “Charlie” Roberta McGee has shown herself to be gifted—or cursed—with a number of remarkable psychic abilities. These have included limited telekinesis, a kind of instinctive clairvoyance, and, most powerful of all, pyrokinesis.

  As college students, Charlie’s parents, Andy McGee and Vicky Tomlinson McGee, were experimented upon by a shadowy government agency called The Shop. While most of the subjects in that test died or committed suicide, Andy and Vicky both gained certain psychic abilities, and later married.

  Not long after Charlie’s birth, the infant begins to set fires with her mind. Her crib and other areas need to be fireproofed, and Andy and Vicky have to fire-train her, in a manner similar to the way in which parents potty-train their children. Charlie’s memory of the burning of her beloved teddy bear stays with her to this day.

  Her father tells her that starting fires is a very bad thing. So Charlie, even as a very small girl, determines never to do it again.

  But then her mother is murdered by The Shop, and its agents set out on a horrible quest to bring Andy and Charlie in for scrutiny. Eventually, they succeed. Under the direction of Cap Hollister, and with the influence of the assassin known as John Rainbird, Charlie is convinced not only to light fires again, but to practice doing so, to learn to control it better.

  When her father reveals to her the depth of The Shop’s deceptions, and their intention to kill them both when she outlives her usefulness, Charlie uses her power to burn The Shop compound to the ground.

  Charlie McGee’s current whereabouts are unknown.

  ANDY McGEE: In 1969, in order to earn two hundred dollars he desperately needed, Andy McGee participated in an experiment held on his college campus. The testing, conducted by Dr. Joseph Wanless for The Shop, involved a drug known as Lot Six. Lot Six was supposed to draw out of the dormant parts of the human brain certain paranormal abilities that would otherwise never manifest themselves.

  In Andy McGee, it is something he calls “the push.” With a bit of a mental push, Andy can suggest very strongly to someone that they do a particular thing, and they will comply instantly. He can also convince people that they are seeing something they are not.

  Eventually, Andy marries Vicky Tomlinson, who was also part of the Lot Six experiment, and together they produce a child, Charlie.

  Over time, Andy’s “push” ability diminishes. He begins to suspect that using the power causes him minor brain damage each time, and that the ill effects are growing worse. He tries not to use the power anymore, but is later forced to employ it quite frequently. Meanwhile, Vicky is murdered by The Shop, and Andy and Charlie have to go on the run.

  After their eventual capture, Andy spends months in a drug-induced haze. However, after that time, he is able to recover the “push” ability, and uses it to arrange for his and Charlie’s escape. During their flight, Andy goes up against the assassin, John Rainbird, and is killed.

  VICKY TOMLINSON McGEE: As a young woman, Vicky Tomlinson had been sexually assaulted. It is only through the special mental contact that she and Andy McGee share during the Lot Six experiment that she is able to overcome the fears of intimacy that had been with her since that assault.

  She and Andy marry, and she later gives birth to Charlie. For many years, she has a low-grade telekinetic ability that seems to come and go. Her use of it is instinctive, and sometimes she doesn’t even realize she is employing it. Apparently the limited scope of her gift made her very expendable. When The Shop determines to take Charlie and Andy into custody, Vicky is tortured and murdered.

  JOHN RAINBIRD: A Native American assassin for The Shop, John Rainbird is obsessed with death. He enjoys looking into the eyes of the people whose lives he claims, trying desperately to determine what happens to their life force when they die, searching for some sign of an afterlife, of passage to another world.

  Rainbird is assigned the execution of Dr. Joseph Wanless, the scientist behind the Lot Six experiment. He is also responsible for the eventual capture of Andy and Charlie McGee. Later, Rainbird uses knowledge of The Shop’s operations and the personal life of its director, Captain Hollister, to force Cap into allowing him certain “freedoms” with young
Charlie.

  In order for The Shop to study her, and so that Rainbird can observe her, the assassin poses as an orderly at The Shop installation where Charlie is a prisoner and cleans her rooms every day for months. One night, during a blackout, he finally gains the girl’s confidence by fabricating a story about his Vietnam War service, playing on the sympathy she feels for him because of the horrible scars on his face and the loss of one of his eyes.

  It is Rainbird who convinces Charlie to start setting fires again, to cooperate with The Shop. It is also Rainbird who gets everything The Shop wants from her. He does all of this in return for a guarantee from Cap Hollister that when it comes time for Charlie to be executed, the job will be his. She is, in Rainbird’s estimation, an extraordinary and powerful young girl. As such, he wants to watch her eyes while he slowly kills her.

  When Rainbird discovers that Andy McGee has his special power back, he foils the man’s escape plan and kills Andy, only to be then burned to death by Charlie.