The Moving Finger (short story)
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The Moving Finger | |
---|---|
by Stephen King | |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre(s) | Horror |
Published in | The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (1st release), Nightmares & Dreamscapes |
Publication type | Magazine |
Media type | |
Publication date | 1990 |
"The Moving Finger" is a horror short story by American writer Stephen King. It was first published in December 1990 in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and three years later in 1993 was included in King's collection Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
Plot summary[]
A very ordinary man named Howard Mitla, who has a strange aptitude for Jeopardy!, is confronted by the bizarre sight of a human finger poking its way out of the drain in his apartment's bathroom sink. He tries to deny the reality of what is happening, but the solitary digit eventually proves to be infinitely long and multijointed, capable of attacking him, and smart enough to hide whenever his wife, Vera, would go to the bathroom. Eventually, while Vera's at work, Howard burns it with a bottle of heavy-duty drain cleaner, then chops it to bits with a pair of electric hedge trimmers before dropping the pieces in the toilet. After this is done, Howard starts thinking about the creature and the hand to which it was attached. As he realizes it probably has multiple digits and that there were several openings in an average bathroom, an ominous sound is heard from the toilet.
Investigating reports of noise coming from Howard's apartment, the police arrive to find him lying in a daze next to the toilet in a bathroom covered with blood. A police officer asks where the body is and he cryptically tells them, "If you have to go to the bathroom, I definitely suggest you hold it." Just then, the toilet lid starts to shake from the inside. The story ends with the officer deciding to lift the lid to "wager it all" after Howard, in a shocked daze, laughs and asks, "Final Jeopardy. How much do you wish to wager?"
Adaptations[]
This story appeared in the 1991 series finale of the TV series Monsters. It starred Tom Noonan.[1]
Gilbert Cruz ranked The Moving Finger at number twenty-four out of twenty-seven in a list of King television adaptations. In a negative review, Cruz said that the internal monologue of King's characters does not translate well to television.[2]
References[]
- ^ Muir, John Kenneth (2001). Terror Television: American Series, 1970-1999. McFarland. ISBN 9781476604169.
- ^ Cruz, Gilbert (2013-07-01). "All of Stephen King's TV Work, Ranked". Vulture.com. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
See also[]
- Short stories by Stephen King
- 1990 short stories
- Horror short stories
- Works originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
- Short stories set in New York City
- Horror short story stubs
- 1990s short story stubs