Countdown: The Top 20 Stephen King Works of American Gothic Short Fiction--#17

[For earlier entries, click on the "Top Twenty Countdown" label under Features in the sidebar]

#17. "The Last Rung on the Ladder"

King's short story from his first fiction collection, Night Shift, draws on the Gothic convention of the mysterious letter--a message sent to the narrator Larry by his sister Kitty, the contents of which Larry holds back from readers.  "The Last Rung on the Ladder" is also a distinctly American piece, as Larry flashes back to the rural Nebraska scene where he and his sister "grew up hicks": "In those days all the roads were dirt except Interstate 80 and Nebraska Route 96, and a trip to town was something you waited three days for."  Sometimes Larry and Kitty would entertain themselves in the family's barn, by climbing the ladder leading up to the third loft, shimmying out along the crossbeam, and then stepping off and plunging into the haymow seventy feet below.  But these invigorating frolics take an ominous turn when the rickety old ladder splinters as Kitty scales it, leaving her dangling from the last rung.  Larry scurries to build an improvised hay mound beneath her just before she slips and falls, and the only physical damage Kitty suffers from the mishap is a broken ankle.

Tragedy, though, has not been averted, merely postponed.  Flashing forward again to the present, Larry reveals the reason he and his father have just returned from California: they were there to attend Kitty's funeral.  Nine days earlier, Kitty committed suicide by jumping from the top of an insurance building in Los Angeles.

Larry's narrative ultimately addresses not "the incident in the barn" but the more profound fall from innocence.  He now carries in his wallet a terrible news clipping about Kitty, "the way you carry something heavy, because carrying it is your work.  The headline reads: CALL GIRL SWAN DIVES TO HER DEATH."  Larry bears a huge burden of guilt, because if he hadn't fallen out of touch with his sister, she might not have ended up jumping from the insurance building.  He concludes by finally sharing the contents of the letter he received from Kitty: an obvious cry for help in which she states she would have been better off if she'd died that day in the barn.  The letter is postmarked two weeks prior to her suicide, but Larry didn't receive it in time, because he never provided Kitty with his current address as they drifted apart over the years.  Larry's realization of his own negligence, his failure to help save Kitty from her fatal descent through adult life, makes for a devastating denouement.

"The Last Rung on the Ladder" is a human story, a heartbreaking story.  It serves as an early indication that Stephen King has more to offer than just monsters and carnage; he is also a master of quiet horror.


One final note: Fans of King's early short fiction will be sure to love the audiobook The Stephen King Collection: Stories from Night Shift.  Actor John Glover does an incredible job of reading/performing King's lines.  Personally, I love to pull the Night Shift: to grab the book off the shelf late at night, pop in the corresponding CD, and read along as I lie in bed in listening.  It's a doubly-pleasurable experience, one I recommend not just to King's Constant Readers but also to writers looking to prime their imaginations for dreamtime.