The Short Story Lover's Guide to Stephen King - Wrapping Up 'Night Shift'

Alright, constant reader, let's finish up this first chapter in the series A Short Story Reader's Guide to Stephen King, by taking a look at the last four short stories in King's first collection Night Shift.

The four stories discussed here are The Last Rung on the Ladder, The Man Who Loved Flowers, One for the Road, and finally, The Woman in the Room, two of them are horror stories and are pre-published before being included in Night Shift, while the remaining two are rather contemporary, or even literary short stories that are rather on the emotional side and which have been written specifically for this work.

As usual, it might be better to read the short stories beforehand, because I will spoil everything.

The Last Rung on the Ladder

Stories like Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Body (filmed as "Stand by Me"), The Life of Chuck, or Mr. Harrigan's Phone prove that King is not out for conjuring only and only horror in his readers, but is perfectly capable of writing about other emotions too. Some of these "feel-good stories" can have eerie or spooky undertones, but aren't necessarily scary or terrifying.

Last Rung on the Ladder is one of these stories and distinguishes itself in that it does not resort to the supernatural.

It is the story of a man who receives the news that his only sister has killed herself, and him remembering an incident from their childhoods in which he saves her life, regretting that he couldn't do so this time.

Sibling stories are very dear to me, and I'll read them with pleasure in any genre. I'm a ride-or-die kind of person with people I consider my friends, and all the more with my siblings, but in the case of siblings, the trick is that even in situations in which they're objectively in the wrong, you'll stick with them.

John Hornor Jacobs writes "Violence leaves its mark, and horror makes siblings of us all", which only highlights the solidarity and closeness one feels for people who undergo the same shitty life as yours, add to it the intimacy of being actual siblings, and that interaction will leave its mark on how you connect to people. I guess I'm always looking for something of my siblings in friends and lovers and I tend to not get along as much with people who have never had that connection.

Just like Kitty in this story, my older sibling saved my life twice, and once saved me from being kidnapped, and we too grew up with a parent who believed in corporal punishment. It is always nostalgic to remember those days and always sad to see yourself drifting apart from such an important bond, but it happens. It is, again, a strength of King's that he can put the finger on that exact wound and generate powerful feelings, and the pool he's helping himself from is, this time, one of powerful emotions, so it's all very intense.

"The Last Rung on the Ladder" is connected within the Stephen King universe too, the farm the events of the story take place is set in Hemingford Home, Nebraska, which is where The Stand's Mother Abagail lived up until the pandemic, and where the short story 1922 is set in. It is neighbored to the town of Gatlin where "Children of the Corn" takes place, and is mentioned in It, and Cell.

And wouldn't you know it, there's an adaptation in post-production! To be honest, from the poster to the motto, this doesn't look very promising to me, but with a shoestring budget, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt. And you never really know, maybe it's great. 

The Man Who Loved Flowers (Gallery 1977)

As you might have realized by now, for me, the most enjoyable King stories are those with a shock value. So the story of a man dynamically, lovestruck and euphorically wandering in the streets of New York City, buying flowers for his loved one, turning out not at all what he looks like, is of course my pleasure to read.

The radio broadcasting the remains of a woman who was killed by a serial killer is in direct contrast with this wonderful, radiant man in love, right? Except - he is the serial killer the radio reports of, and the way this story tips from casually joyful into creepy psycho territory, showing how frightfully deceiving looks can be, is delicious.

King's depiction of serial killers/shooters/school shooters from their own point of view has been criticized as problematic before, although I don't know if this story particularly was among the writings in question. The grounds for the demur was that such writings bring us horrible people closer and create an atmosphere of understanding and lenience for them, disrespecting the victims of such people. Although I can definitely see where that's coming from, and I need to think twice while reading stuff like Rage or Cain Rose Up, there's no need for concern in "The Man Who Loved Flowers", in my humble opinion, since the background of the killer is explored in a fashion that doesn't necessarily give way to identification or sympathy.

Here's a great audiobook production, there is a short film adaptation from 2015 I haven't found or seen, and, interestingly, a music video, "Literatura rusa" by Jose Madero, which is based off this short story and seems to be an homage to King's work in general.

One for the Road (Maine Magazine 1977)

A sort of sequel to the novel 'Salem's Lot, set two years after the events of the iconic vampire novel. Narrator Booth and his friend, bar owner Herb "Tookey" Tooklander, try to rescue the wife and daughter of Gerard Lumley, who was stranded in the cursed town of Jerusalem's Lot during a blizzard. Lumley's wife and daughter are, of course, long gone, became part of the accursed vampiric clan residing in that horrible town, and the two men try telling him, but to no use. The story ends on the unsettling notion that Lumley's daughter is still waiting on that spot, to get her good-night kiss.

I love how this story builds up tension. Even though we as readers know what happened to the two women in the car, and know it's heartbreaking, we still want to believe that there's a shimmer of little hope that they made it. But how? I think this is one of those nearly perfect horror stories, everything feels right - the bigger tension of the uncertainty of what happened to the people in the car versus the smaller tension of the three men going on a rescue mission, all three of them being from different background and temperament. An amusing aside is the thought that all these people live beside a town where they know vampires go berserk at nights and people can still casually go there and get lost etc. Just think about how Potsdam were like that and all Berlin knew it, but people from afar were clueless, lol.

Here's the audiobook, here a short film version that took some liberties and is not quite like the written story, but still quite good, and here is one that is even better (there are many more short film adaptations, I was surprised to find out). Too bad I couldn't find a full feature film, I think it would make a good one.

The Woman in the Room

A piece of writing which can be called psychological horror with a stretch of the imagination, but is rather closer to literary fiction.

Johnny's mom has terminal stomach cancer and is in a messy condition so he helps her die through painkillers.

I don't mean to imply that King did the same thing as Johnny, but King's own mom also died of cancer, and if you have been reading King's especially non-fiction or memoir type of writings, you will recognize stuff in here that is suggestive that this short story, which is rather emotional, and relatable, and political, than frightening, is autobiographical. King has one older brother and in the foreword to 'Salem's Lot he recounts the story of his mom, always with a cigarette in her hand, sat on their kitchen table and checked the books he and his brother brought home from the library to see to it that the books her sons brought home weren't all that trashy. Here, he lights and holds one last cigarette to his mother's mouth, and it's a small, and maybe a little touchy gesture for me, because I have a mom who is a chain smoker who claims that she would die of withdrawal symptoms if she ever quit, and she would totally ask us to do that. Combine all this with the already touchy feeling of letting people die in dignity, I think this is an excellent story which elevates this collection, and gives it a dignified end too.

So, about half a year has passed, and I only managed to discuss this first SK short story collection, but I hope I can speed up a little on our next read, his second short story collection (He has an additional collection between these two works, Different Seasons (1982), which is a collection of four of his novellas, not short stories, and to be frank, I might have included it, if the short stories were more on the horror side, which they aren't.) Skeleton Crew, which was published in 1985. I'm not sure whether I prefer Night Shift or Skeleton Crew as my favorite SK collection, so the re-read will surely help me decide.

See you then!