The Complete Stephen King Universe

by Stanley Wiater

  STEVENS: Stevens, or someone who very much resembled Stevens (he himself claims it was his grandfather), has worked as a butler at 249B for as long as anyone can remember. Stevens has the uncanny ability to choose the club member who is most in need of relating a tale.

  “The Reaper’s Image”

  This story has the distinction of being King’s second professional sale after “The Glass Floor.” It originally appeared in the Spring 1969 issue of Startling Mystery Stories.

  “THE REAPER’S IMAGE”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  THE DeIVER LOOKING GLASS: An enchanted mirror displayed in the Samuel Claggert Memorial Museum, designed by John DeIver, “an English craftsman of Norman descent who made mirrors in … the Elizabethan period of England’s history.” His mirrors are collector’s items because of their fine craftsmanship and because he used a “form of crystal that has a mildly magnifying and distorting effect upon the eye of the beholder.” Over the centuries, many have looked into the mirror and seen the image of the Grim Reaper in the upper left-hand corner of the glass. All those who have done so, including a judge named Crater, then vanished off the face of the earth.

  MR. CARLIN: The current guardian of the DeIver Glass, and the curator of the Claggert Museum. He explains the strange history of the mirror to the curious Mr. Spangler.

  JOHNSON SPANGLER: Johnson visits the Claggert Museum for the express purpose of studying the DeIver Glass, only to become its latest victim.

  “Survivor Type”

  As King explains it, he got to thinking about cannibalism one day, wondering if a person could eat himself. This particularly unpleasant account, reminiscent of King in his Richard Bachman (or George Stark) storytelling mode, was the result.

  A surgeon turned drug dealer, Richard Pine finds himself stranded on a desert island with only meager supplies (including two kilos of heroin) to sustain him. Pine survives a month or so on these provisions, and on the birds he can catch, but soon must resort to his only remaining food source—himself. Using the heroin as anesthetic, he amputates, then eats, his right foot, then his left, then his right leg to the knee, then … well, you get the picture.

  “Morning Deliveries (Milkman #1)” and “Big Wheels: A Tale of the Laundry Game (Milkman #2)”

  These tales were plucked from King’s abandoned novel The Milkman. They are interesting mostly because they seem to be King’s first attempt at developing ideas that eventually appeared in Needful Things (1991).

  In “Morning Deliveries,” readers join milkman Spike Milligan as he makes his predawn rounds. In addition to dairy products, however, Spike delivers such items as spiders, deadly nightshade, and bottles of acid gel to his customers.

  The second story follows the misadventures of two drunken laundry workers, Johnny “Rocky” Rockwell and Leo Edwards, as they visit a gas station to obtain an inspection sticker. We learn that Rocky is being cuckolded by Spike Milligan. Leo has worse problems, however: he has a gaping hole in his back, caused by water dripping from a hole in the laundry’s roof.

  “The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet”

  A story about storytellers, it is one of King’s earliest examinations of the relationship between madness and writing.

  “THE BALLAD OF THE FLEXIBLE BULLET”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  HENRY WILSON: The narrator of the tale, Wilson tells how he fell under the spell of Reg Thorpe, a writer who believed that a tiny creature called a fornit lived in his typewriter, and acted as his muse. At first Wilson goes along with Thorpe’s mad ideas out of respect. But as they continue to exchange letters, he catches Thorpe’s madness, actually validating the writer’s obsession and paranoia. Wilson has since regained his sanity, but still wonders just how crazy Thorpe really was.

  King in 1998 BETH GWINN

  REG THORPE: The author of Underworld Figures and the story that Henry Wilson championed, “The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet,” Reg kills himself after shooting his wife, Jane, their housekeeper, Gertrude, and Gertrude’s son Jimmy. Reg goes off the deep end when he discovers Jimmy shooting his fornit Rackne with “death rays” from a toy ray gun.

  THE FORNITS—RACKNE and BELLIS: Rackne is Reg Thorpe’s fornit, a tiny elflike creature who lives inside his typewriter. Reg believes that Rackne is the true creative force behind his writing and becomes enraged when he discovers that his housekeeper’s son has been torturing the creature. The discovery comes too late, however—Jimmy zaps Rackne with a toy ray gun, exploding the creature’s body. Bellis is the name of Henry Wilson’s fornit. Whether this is all in Reg’s twisted imagination is a matter for debate; true, his typewriter is found drenched in blood, but the blood is Type O—Reg’s blood type.

  “Paranoid: A Chant” and “For Owen”

  Skeleton Crew also contains two poems. The first, “Paranoid: A Chant,” takes readers inside the mind of a man both mad and completely paranoid. In the second, “For Owen,” a father walks his son to school. In spite of the millions of words King has published in his career, in an impressive variety of mediums and forms, he has for reasons unknown published only a handful in his entire writing career in the medium of poetry.

  [NOTE: “Mrs. Todd’s Shortcut” and “The Reach” are discussed in section four. “The Jaunt,” “The Mist,” and “Beachworld” are discussed in section eight. “The Wedding Gig” is discussed in section seven.]

  SKELETON CREW: TRIVIA

  • A signed, limited edition of Skeleton Crew was published by Scream/Press in 1985. It reportedly sold out before the trade edition was published.

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  CAT’S EYE

  (1985)

  The film Cat’s Eye was produced during an extraordinarily prolific period in Stephen King’s career, when there seemed to be almost as many movies made from his novels as there were books being published. During the preceding two-year period, no less than six motion pictures were produced based on his works: Cujo (1983), The Dead Zone (1983), Christine (1983), Children of the Corn (1984), Firestarter (1984), and Silver Bullet (1985).

  What is perhaps most noteworthy about the relatively minor Cat’s Eye is that it was only the second original screenplay of his to be produced, and that the author intentionally made fun of several established elements of his still-burgeoning Stephen King Universe.

  The movie is also noteworthy in that King was not responsible for its genesis. Veteran producer Dino De Laurentiis, who would eventually be responsible for a half dozen movies based on the author’s work, held the screen rights to several of the remaining short stories from Night Shift (1978). (King, of course, had already adapted some of them for his first produced screenplay, Creepshow, in 1983.) De Laurentiis had been so impressed with Drew Barrymore’s work in the yet-to-be-released Firestarter that he flew to Bangor, Maine, to convince King to write a script that would not only be based on those unused stories from Night Shift, but would somehow feature rising star Barrymore in each episode.

  Intrigued by the challenge, King readily agreed, but with a hidden agenda—he would have as much fun in amusing his audience as he would in trying to frighten them. (He also agreed to work within the restrictions of a PG-13 rating. Typically a horror movie was produced with the understanding that it would receive an R, or “Restricted,” rating.) What he also attempted—but largely failed in—was to conceal the fact that the movie, like Creepshow, would also be an anthology of unrelated stories. In theory, a cat was to be the connecting link between each of the tales, each of which take place in a different part of the United States.

  Based on two previously published stories—“Quitters Inc.” and “The Ledge”—and a new one called “The General,” Cat’s Eye is unquestionably and overtly an anthology film. It shares much in spirit with the adaptations that were used in Creepshow in that King purposely attempted to blend a satisfying mixture of humor and horror, of gore and guffaws.

  To a large degree, the ninety-three-minute feature succeeds on that intended middle ground—especially considering the MPAA rating and the mainstream
audience for which it was intended. Unfortunately, in the form that the picture was finally released, audiences were immediately confused by, rather than drawn into, the story line. Who was the anonymous cat? Why was this ghostly vision of a little girl speaking to him as if he might be a former pet? What is the cat traveling across America in search of? For what is not widely known is that the first part of the wraparound story to the entire movie, although shot, was removed from the completed film after being seen by only a handful of preview audiences.

  The way King originally wrote the movie, the narrative opens with the funeral of a little girl who has died in her sleep for reasons never clearly explained. Her mother, insane with grief, believes that somehow the girl’s pet cat had “stolen her life’s breath” (as was believed in ancient times by some European cultures) and was the cause of her sudden demise. Going berserk, she attempts to kill the cat with an Uzi machine gun. The cat manages to escape, and the ghost of the little girl urges the feline to find the supernatural creature that actually stole her life—a hideous little troll that secretly lived in the walls of her bedroom.

  Studio executives at MGM were concerned that audiences wouldn’t respond favorably to a movie that opened with the funeral of a child, nor would they react well to seeing a harmless cat being put in such extreme peril. And so the prologue was deleted, which meant that anyone who did see the film would wonder why star Drew Barrymore (who plays multiple roles) would first appear as a ghost, and why this seemingly ordinary cat was wandering in and out of each different plot line. (Of course, the fact that this was promoted as “the latest Stephen King thriller” should have tipped off potential audiences that they weren’t going to see Terms of Endearment.)

  If we disregard the crippled wraparound story, what remains is certainly entertaining enough—albeit not particularly memorable or distinctive. Cat’s Eye is perhaps only important as an affectionate send-up of what was already recognizably the Stephen King Universe. For besides the considerable novelty and suspense inherent in the stories themselves, King demonstrates from the outset (with the full cooperation of director Lewis Teague, who had previously helmed Cujo) that the world’s bestselling horror author was not above poking fun at himself. Consider that:

  • Early on, an obviously rabid St. Bernard chases the cat. (Cujo)

  • The cat is nearly run over by a red ’58 Plymouth Fury. (Christine)

  • Morrison complains, “I don’t know who writes this crap!” while watching a horror movie starring Christopher Walken and Herbert Lom on television. (It’s The Dead Zone.)

  • Morrison’s daughter attends a private school appropriately called “Saint Stephen’s School for the Exceptional.”

  • Amanda’s mother is reading an appropriately scary novel in bed. (It’s Pet Sematary.)

  Unlike Creepshow, in which the stories that were adapted for the screen were relatively obscure, the stories adapted for Cat’s Eye are familiar to most long-time King readers from their appearance in Night Shift. Therefore, we have chosen to consider the original stories as published in Night Shift to be “in continuity.” They are covered in that section, and thus only the original story “The General” will be dealt with here.

  “The General”

  Here we follow the trail of the apparently indestructible cat (who made fleeting appearances in the previous two episodes) to the home of another little girl, this time in Wilmington, North Carolina. (It’s now irrelevant whether this is the same child whom the cat had been seeing in ghostly visions previously throughout the story line.) There the cat—now named “the General”—battles a deadly little troll that intends to steal the life force of this young girl while she sleeps. Naturally, her unsuspecting father (James Naughton) and mother (Candy Clark) have no idea what kind of mortal danger their daughter is truly in after they go to bed. They mistakenly believe that the General is the cause of their daughter’s vivid nightmares. Ultimately, good triumphs over evil in this overt tale of the supernatural, as both the youngster and the cat (even though it has no doubt used up most of its nine lives) survive the final attack of the horrid little monster. To keep the bizarre incident a secret, Amanda sweetly blackmails her still-perplexed parents into letting the General join their little family.

  “THE GENERAL”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS

  AMANDA: A precocious little girl who suffers from bad dreams about a tiny monster coming into her room late at night when everyone else is asleep and trying to steal her life force through her breath. Of course, Amanda is correct in her wild belief that it is more than just a bad dream, even if she can’t convince her understandably skeptical parents. Fortunately for her, she is able to convey her fears to the stray cat she calls the General, and this brave feline is instrumental in the destruction of the deadly troll.

  HUGH: Amanda’s sympathetic dad, he doesn’t believe her story of a monster hiding inside the walls of her room, but fortunately for her, he does share her innate love of cats. He sides with Amanda every time her mother tries to convince them that the General is the monster in the child’s nightmares.

  SALLY ANN: Amanda’s less than sympathetic mom, who does not believe in monsters lurking in the closet or skulking about under her daughter’s bed. Worse still, she is definitely not a cat lover, and at one point captures the General and brings him to an animal shelter to be put to sleep. Of course, once she realizes that the animal has somehow truly saved her only child’s life, she finally relents on her firm anti-feline policy.

  THE TROLL IN THE WALL: This nameless creature invades the home of Amanda and her parents. True to legend, the little monster comes out only at night, and scampers close to the face of the sleeping child. Then it tries to suck out the youngster’s very life force by magically stealing the breath from her body. Although armed with a tiny dagger, it still cannot survive a wild battle to the death with the faithful cat known only as “the General.”

  CAT’S EYE: TRIVIA

  • Country-and-western singer Ray Stevens sings the original theme song “Cat’s Eye” over the movie’s end credits.

  • The prop department made a bed for “the General” sequence that was later cited in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest bed.

  • The screenplay for “The General” was later published in Screamplays (Del Rey, 1997), edited by Richard Chizmar and Martin Greenberg.

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  MISERY

  (1987)

  Although Stephen King would make writers the protagonists of some of his most intriguing novels (The Tommyknockers, The Dark Half, Bag of Bones), it is Misery that remains his most memorable examination of that profession. When you think about it, who would be better qualified to write a story about a bestselling author who is stalked by an insane fan than a bestselling author who has in real life been stalked by an insane fan?

  Paul Sheldon is a very popular novelist with an unusual dilemma. His problem is that he has become successful due to the creation of a single character—one who has in many ways taken over his entire career. That character is Misery Chastain, star of a series of historical romances that have made Sheldon a household name and a minor celebrity. But Sheldon desires to be more than a writer of popular genre fiction; he wants to produce a novel that will keep his name alive long after he has passed on. To serve that end, he has just completed a mainstream novel, Fast Cars, about his rough-and-tumble life growing up on the mean streets of an urban landscape. The second step in his carefully conceived plan is to publish Misery’s Child, in which Misery Chastain dies during a difficult childbirth. By doing so, Paul hopes to free himself from the literary shackles with which success has burdened him.

  But fate is not going to allow Sheldon to change gears so quickly and painlessly. As has been his custom for many years, the novelist retreats to a small resort hotel in the Colorado Rockies to finish his new book—of which he has yet to make a copy. Leaving the rural hotel, Sheldon finds himself driving in a sudden blizzard. When he loses control of his car and crashes, his l
ife is saved by a mysterious stranger who takes him to her secluded farm. The new woman in his life is Annie Wilkes, and fortunately for Sheldon, she just happens to be a former nurse. She also happens to be his “number-one fan.” She owns every Paul Sheldon book—and every Misery Chastain novel—that has been published. She has even named her pet pig Misery.

  As the days pass, Sheldon comes to realize that his hostess is not altogether sane. Unfortunately, there is not much he can do about this unsettling realization. He is her prisoner, and he has a multitude of injuries, including a dislocated pelvis and two broken legs. He’s not only completely bedridden and totally at her mercy, she has also hooked him on a potent brand of painkillers.