Night Shift #8

Stephen King
Literary Fiction
Pages 234-353

The Last Rung on the Ladder is a more depressing fear that could send someone into depression. Larry and Katrina were the closest siblings could get at a young age. Larry receives a letter from Katrina about a month after she committed suicide. Larry and Katrina grew up on a farm in Nebraska where the closest neighbor was 5 miles away. Larry grew up to become a big time lawyer, and move around allot (thats why he received her letter so late). While Katrina lived a rather depressing life as a substitute teacher, who was married twice and divorced twice. They played this game when there parents weren't home when they were young. They would clime up this old rusty rusty ladder to the top of the barn and jump down from the cross beam into a 50ft high hay stack. It was a normal day when they started doing it in the middle of the afternoon. IT was getting late and Larry said they would both do it one more time before their parents came home, but as Larry was at the top of the ladder he could hear the rungs cracking and felt as if the ladder was going to break. He quickly jumped down and was about to tell Katrina not to go up, but she was already halfway up by the time he got out of the haystack. She was almost at the top when the ladder broke, but was able to hang onto the last rung giving Larry sometime to place hay down so she could drop down safety. Well when Larry read the letter Katrina sent him it said, "I wish that the last rung on the ladder would've broke, things would be easier that way." The letter was dated 2 weeks before her suicide.

If I was Larry i don't know how i would cope with the depression and grief that would come from reading this letter. If only he would've stayed in contact with her or didn't move around as often she would most likely still be alive. Larry knows it to, that if he would've came to talk to her things would be better. I wouldn't be able to functions after reading a letter like that if my sister died.