Stephen King
Literary Fiction
Pages 206-234
Stephen King's short story, Children of The Corn, is easily one of my favorite stories in this book, maybe even better then the Bogeyman. Burt and Vicky are on a cross country road trip to California to hopefully rekindle their lost love before their marriage falls completely apart. Burt decides to take an exit of the turnpike to view the scenery of Nebraska, bad move. They drive on a open road surrounded by walls of corn stacks. For the past 2 hours of driving on the road Burt gets suspicious because they haven't passed one car. A boy came out of the corn filled all bloody and collapsed on the road. By the looks of it he was 18 and was killed by something in the cornfield. Burt plans to drop him off at the next town they come across. On the way to the town, they come across a very strange religious station, where it sounds like a young boy is preaching about the one who walks beyond the cornfield. They reach the small town to only find that there is no life in it. Burt can't accept the fact that something is wrong with the town and keeps looking around. In the bar he find that the calender hasn't been updated for 13 years. When he returns to the car he finds Vicky screaming as little kids with knives and axes take her away. He manages to kill one of them, but a whole swarm chases him. He heads into the corn field and runs for over 12 hours straight and eventually loses them. He then comes to an open patch in the corn field where he sees dead bodies crucified all of them looks like they just turned 18. He then saw Vicky who was brutally mutilated. He realized that these people where sacrificed but by who? He turns around and sees the one who walks beyond the cornfield.
The story in its entirety is very exciting and makes you think about all the small little towns out in the Midwest. I'm sure a town with a population of only around 50 people could vanish and our society wouldn't have a clue. Thats what is scary that an entire town was just wiped out in the middle of no where and nobody knew. There are counties in Nebraska and Iowa with very few people and only rows and rows of corn. The next time I pass a corn field I'll be thinking about the one who walks beyond the corn even if it is a made up story.. right?
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