#9 -The Road Virus Heads North

[Stephanie]

As far as freaky stories go, this was one for the books. King tells us he wrote this story about a picture he owns, which I found slightly disturbing, but after all, this is Stephen King we're talking about.

The changeable nature of the picture tells us something about it, and about the possibilities in store for Richard Kinnell. What did the picture make you think of when King first describes it?

We know the picture acts on the garage sale woman, but why did it wait? It was sitting out there all day with her, without changing or imposing its evil on her.

What do you make of Aunt Trudy's reaction? And the fact that she was spared?

[LizzieAnn]

I think this story freaked me out the most. I agree that the fact that SK has such a picture makes it really creepy.

The changeable picture tells us plain & simply that it's not a normal picture, and not being normal, you just know it's going to be bad. It was so telling when Aunt Trudy instinctively knew that the picture was evil - that she actually felt the force of evil and that she felt that the picture was actually looking at her. Then the reaction of the girl at the service area. It did make me wonder why neither Richard or Judy Diment didn't get this horrific feeling that this girl & Aunt Trudy did.

I think it skipped or detoured around Aunt Trudy because she never actually touched it, never had it in her possession - she just glanced at it briefly & looked away. It didn't enter her house either.

I kept thinking that after he had burned it he should have gathered the ashes, mixed them with salt and scattered them, just maybe he could have actually destroyed it. (Too much Supernatural or the like?) Then when he heard it approach, found it over his bed - well I just knew it was the end for this poor guy.

To top it all off, the non-ending ending ~ just enough for you to imagine what happened to him without actually knowing for sure.

This story does make me wonder of what SK sees!