The Complete Stephen King Universe
Page 50
“THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN”: This regal-looking woman, who does not speak with any Spanish accent, is in her sixties. Due to her dark black hair, which has streaks of white running through it, Fletcher thinks of her as “the Bride of Frankenstein.” She dies while attempting to escape from the soundproofed torture room, shot by Fletcher.
HINDS: A small, bald, bespectacled man, he is the torture technician. It is his sadistic task to operate a machine he has apparently devised that sends electrical current through prisoners via the tip of a steel rod. The pain the device induces can be deadly—he almost kills Fletcher while using only one-quarter of the machine’s potential charge. After Fletcher dispatches his three other captors, he insures that Hinds dies the most horrible death of all: Fletcher induces him to put the steel tip into his mouth, turns the dial to full power, then flips the switch.
RAMON: An obese prison guard who is there to watch over the ghastly proceedings. Fletcher jams a lit cigarette into his eye, then shoots him with his own gun.
SECTION EIGHT
Tales from Beyond: Further Parallel Realities
63
RELATED TALES
In discussing the numerous definite, probable, and possible connections between one parallel reality and another in the Stephen King Universe, there are still a few threads left dangling. These are the handful of stories that stand alone in the sense that in each of them King posits a reality—often postapocalyptic—that exists for that tale alone. Even so, all of them share a similar theme: that of the protagonists believing they are in control of their world, only to slowly realize they have no control, and are likewise losing contact with the rest of the “real” world.
The Mist, for example, deals with a group of characters who suddenly find themselves in a world where they are increasingly cut off from reality as we define it. “Trucks” focuses on another small group of individuals who find that in their world man is no longer in control, but sentient machines are. “Home Delivery” takes place in a battered world dominated by zombies. In each story, man is presented as being the hunted, not the hunter.
Three of these stories have no overlapping connection with any other parallel realities, unless one imagines that the breach between worlds that takes place in The Mist is a “thinny” as those phenomena are conceived of in the Reality of the Dark Tower. “Beachworld” is a futuristic tale of doomed space explorers. “The Jaunt” presents us with another futuristic vision, while “The End of the Whole Mess” is yet another grim examination of how the world might someday end.
“Trucks” (from 1978’s Night Shift)
A group of people are trapped in a diner after all the world’s trucks (and possibly planes as well) take on a mind of their own and start to randomly murder, and then systematically enslave, the human race.
“TRUCKS”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS
THE STORYTELLER: The nameless main character of the story is the one who tries to keep the people inside Conant’s Truck Stop & Diner from going insane and/or getting themselves killed. Several individuals die before he and the other remaining survivors realize that they are at the mercy of the trucks. Their bondage begins with their being forced to pump gas around the clock to feed their new masters.
THE COUNTERMAN: Another survivor, he is the short-order cook at Conant’s before being enslaved by the trucks.
JERRY: He dies in a heroic attempt to protect those in the diner.
JERRY’S GIRLFRIEND: The third survivor.
“The Jaunt” (from 1985’s Different Seasons)
A tribute of sorts to two classic science fiction novels, Alfred Bester’s The Stars My Destination (1957) and Robert A. Heinlein’s The Door into Summer (1956), “The Jaunt” is a futuristic tale of the discovery of a teleportation device capable of sending people and objects to other planets.
“THE JAUNT”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS
THE OATES FAMILY: Mark; his wife, Marilys; their son, Ricky; and their daughter, Patricia. While preparing for their teleportation to Mars, Mark relates to his family the history of jaunting, focusing on the trials and tribulations of its inventor, Victor Carune. Although Mark tells his family how important it is for humans to be asleep during the Jaunt, his son, Ricky, holds his breath when the attendant administers his sleep gas. By being secretly awake during his Jaunt, young Ricky is unfortunately driven mad.
VICTOR CARUNE: The man who invents the teleportation process commonly known as “jaunting.” Lionized due to his discoveries, Carune, a “rather peculiar man who showered perhaps twice a week and changed his clothes only when he thought of it,” is remembered by the public at large as a “combination of Edison, Eli Whitney, Pecos Bill and Flash Gordon.”
The Mist (from 1985’s Skeleton Crew)
One of King’s most popular novellas, this first appeared in Dark Forces: New Stories of Suspense and Supernatural Horror (1980), an outstanding volume of original works that many critics believe was the seminal anthology of the decade. The story of two universes colliding, The Mist reflects King’s distrust of technology, a theme he would develop more explicitly in The Tommyknockers. It is also important to note that it seems very likely that the experiments in The Mist probably caused the creation of a thinny, a portal between worlds, a concept richly elaborated upon in the Dark Tower series.
THE MIST: PRIMARY SUBJECTS
THE ARROWHEAD PROJECT: Possibly the cause of the accident that unleashes the Mist. The group in the supermarket theorizes that the military may have created a door into another reality, allowing the creatures that live there to cross over to Earth.
DAVID DRAYTON: The narrator of the tale, Drayton tells of the coming of the Mist and its frightening aftermath. The Mist comes rolling across Long Lake, Maine, shortly after a terrific storm devastates the town. Accompanied by his son, Billy, and his neighbor, Brent Norton, David leaves his wife, Steffy, at home and travels into town for supplies. Once there, they become trapped in a Federal Foods Supermarket when hideous creatures emerge from the Mist (which by now has engulfed the town) and begin to slaughter those outside. After spending two days in the supermarket, David realizes he and Billy are no longer safe inside, as some of their number have clearly descended into madness. Along with several companions, David braves the Mist and gains his Jeep. When last seen, David was driving across the apocalyptic landscape toward Hartford, Connecticut, in hopes of meeting up with other survivors. It seems unlikely that he will.
STEFFY DRAYTON: Mother of Billy, wife of David, Steffy is presumed dead, most likely killed by the creatures that live in the Mist.
BILLY DRAYTON: David’s son, he survives the siege on the supermarket. He is last seen in the company of his father, traveling toward Hartford, Connecticut.
BRENT NORTON: David’s neighbor, he leads a group into the Mist and is never seen again. Brent and his followers are presumed dead—David asks one member of the group to tie a rope around his waist and tie it to something secure at the other end when it is played out. After screams erupt, the rope goes suddenly slack. The group in the supermarket pulls it back and sees that the blood-soaked end of the rope has been chewed through.
MOTHER CARMODY: Proprietor of the Bridgeton Antiquary, Mrs. Carmody is famous for her “gothic pronouncements and folk remedies” (which are always prescribed in God’s name). Trapped in the supermarket, Mrs. Carmody begins preaching that the end of the world is at hand; not too surprisingly, she soon wins some converts. But when she begins to preach that a human sacrifice is needed to appease God, David Drayton takes it as a sign to leave to search for other possible survivors.
MRS. REPPLER: A third-grade teacher, she joins David and Billy in their quest to find other survivors beyond the supermarket. A practical woman, Mrs. Reppler battles the creatures that emerge from the Mist with weapons as varied as bug spray and a tennis racket.
MRS. TURMAN: Billy’s babysitter, she takes charge of the boy as David, his father, deals with the situation in the supermarket.
AMANDA DUMFRIES: Seeking comfort in the
midst of chaos, Amanda becomes David’s lover. Amanda is the only one in the supermarket who is carrying a weapon—a gun that she keeps in her pocketbook.
[NOTE: “The Mist in 3D Sound” recording was produced in 1987; the script was written in part by acclaimed author Dennis Etchison. Produced using an audio technology called “Kunstkopf” (“artificial head”) binaural sound, this dramatization does have the unique quality of seemingly placing the listener in the midst of the action. Mother Carmody emerges as a truly fearsome personality in this version, lending credence to Drayton’s decision to face the horrors outside rather than dealing with the monsters inside the store.]
“Beachworld” (from 1985’s Skeleton Crew)
Set in the future on a far-flung desert planet, this brief but effective science fiction/horror hybrid would not have been out of place in the EC Comics that King enjoyed as a child.
SHAPIRO and RAND: A spaceship crash-lands on a desert planet, killing one of the crew. By the time a rescue ship arrives, Shapiro is ready to leave, but Rand is not. Rand, you see, is insane, having been consumed by—and having consumed—the sentient sand of which the desert world is composed.
“The End of the Whole Mess” (from 1993’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes)
King mentions in his Notes that readers will “find reflections” of his brother, Dave, in Bobby Fornoy, Howard’s genius brother. It is a cautionary science fiction tale, once again dealing with King’s theme of the dire consequences of anyone possessing special powers or paranormal talents.
“THE END OF THE WHOLE MESS”: PRIMARY SUBJECTS
HOWARD FORNOY: The narrator of the story, Howard tells of growing up with his genius brother, Bobby, opening his narrative with, “I want to tell you about the end of war, the degeneration of mankind, and the death of the Messiah …” Shortly after injecting himself with his brother Bobby’s wonder drug, Howard tells the tale of Bobby’s quest for world peace. Howard is a freelance writer, and his tale is told in a series of diarylike entries, which become increasingly incoherent as the story progresses.
BOBBY FORNOY: Howard writes, “People like my brother Bobby come along only once every two or three generations, I think—guys like Leonardo DaVinci, Newton, Einstein, maybe Edison.” Bobby is a genius, but instead of pursuing wealth, he pursues a cure for man’s inhumanity to man. Bobby finds his cure in an aquifer near Waco, Texas, and arranges to distribute it to the whole world. In an ironic twist of fate, the genius overlooks one thing—the water that pacifies people also causes a precipitous drop in their IQs. In essence, Bobby has turned the entire world into passive idiots.
“Home Delivery” (from 1993’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes)
This tale of homicidal zombies, originally commissioned for a 1989 theme anthology entitled Book of the Dead and purposely set in writer/director George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) universe, takes place on Little Tall Island, the setting of Dolores Claiborne (1993) and Storm of the Century (1999). Clearly, however, this is not the Little Tall Island of the Prime Reality, but a nightmarish mirror image from some parallel dimension. Though focused on the ordeal of Maddie Pace, it’s also a story about the stubbornness and sheer gumption of “Mainers” to never give up without a fight—no matter how daunting the odds.
“HOME DELIVERY”: PRIME SUBJECTS
MADDIE PACE: Widowed when her husband falls off a fishing boat, Maddie still carries his baby. When the zombies attack humanity, Maddie, like the other citizens of Little Tall, determines to do what it takes to save their island, even if it means combating deceased family members and loved ones.
JACK PACE: Maddie’s late husband, who has returned from the dead as a hideous zombie, seeks to make her his next victim. Although she had once truly loved Jack, she knows this monster is no longer her husband. To save herself and their unborn child Maddie takes an ax and chops Jack into little pieces.
“The Doctor’s Case” (from 1993’s Nightmares & Dreamscapes)
This story was King’s contribution to a 1987 anthology entitled The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a group of original stories written in honor of the great Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930).
“THE DOCTOR’S CASE”: PRIME SUBJECTS
SHERLOCK HOLMES, DR. WATSON, and LESTRADE: If you don’t know who these three gentlemen are, you have clearly failed Great Literary Characters 101. Suffice it to say that King indulges in a bit of role reversal here, allowing Dr. Watson to solve a locked room mystery instead of master British sleuth Holmes.
STEPHEN KING:
A Chronology
1947
Stephen Edwin King born September 21, in Portland, Maine, at Maine General Hospital. He is the son of Donald and Nellie Ruth (Pillsbury) King. The couple had previously adopted an older son, David King, in 1945.
1949
Donald Edwin King separates from Nellie, then deserts his family and is never heard from again.
1954–1958
Stephen King begins first attempts at writing stories, inspired by the science fiction movies and books that he reads. Early movie influences include The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956).
1959–1960
Stephen King discovers a box of science fiction and horror books that had once belonged to his father. Obtains first typewriter during this period, and begins to actively submit stories to genre magazines.
1962–1966
Stephen King attends high school in Lisbon Falls, Maine. During this period, he writes his first novel-length manuscript, The Aftermath. He also starts work on Getting It On, which would later be published under a pseudonym as Rage (1977).
1965
Stephen King publishes his first short story, “I Was a Teenage Graverobber,” in Comics Review, a fanzine.
1966–1970
Stephen King attends the University of Maine at Orono, graduating with a B.S. in English. He writes a regular column for the university newspaper entitled “King’s Garbage Truck.”
While working at the university library, he meets Tabitha Jane Spruce (b. 1949), an aspiring poet and short story writer.
Makes his first professional sale in 1967, with the story “The Glass Floor” in the pulp magazine Startling Mystery Stories.
Completes two novel-length manuscripts, The Long Walk and Sword in the Darkness. The Long Walk would later be published as a Richard Bachman title, while Sword in the Darkness would never see print.
Stephen King begins making sales of his short fiction to various men’s magazines, most notably to Cavalier.
1971
Stephen King marries Tabitha Spruce.
1971–1973
Stephen King teaches high school English at Hampden Academy in Hampden, Maine.
Completes early novel Getting It On, but is unable to sell it. Writes The Running Man over the course of a long weekend, but is unable to sell it. Begins work on a short story called “Carrie,” which his wife encourages him to complete as a short novel.
1973
Sells Carrie to Doubleday and Co. publishers for a hardcover advance of $2,500.
Stephen King’s mother, Nellie Ruth King, dies of cancer before the publication of Carrie.
1974
Writes Roadwork, which will later see print as a Richard Bachman book.
Carrie is published in hardcover by Doubleday. Paperback rights are sold for $400,000. King receives half, the other half going to Doubleday.
1975
’Salem’s Lot is published by Doubleday.
1976
The movie version of Carrie, directed by Brian De Palma, is released by United Artists and becomes a surprise summer hit. The movie tie-in paperback edition of the novel becomes a bestseller.
1977
The Shining is published by Doubleday. On only his third published novel, the dust jacket copy proclaims Stephen King “the undisputed master of the modern horror story.”
The first “Richard Bachman” novel, Rage, is published by New American Li
brary, Stephen King’s paperback publisher, as a mass-market paperback original.
King travels with his family to England for an aborted yearlong stay. There he begins a lifelong friendship with horror and suspense novelist Peter Straub, with whom he would later collaborate on The Talisman (1984) and Black House (2001).
1978
His first collection of short stories, Night Shift, is published by Doubleday.