My Introduction to Stephen King
I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was sixteen years old and it was spring break. I was bored out of my mind. I lived at a local group home and it was strict. We were not allowed to do much without a house parent with us. It was to make sure we did not do anything that could cause us to hurt ourselves or others. The problem with that was we usually only had one house parent per cottage. That meant we did not do much that week.
I was going stir crazy. I had tried to prepare myself before school had let out. I had checked out six books (the limit at school library) and had devoured them in two days. I had read every book that was on the campus of the group home. By the third day, I was walking around the cottage for a couple of hours. The house parent thought I was going nuts and I knew it, but I am not a person who could sit still without a book in my hands.
One of the other girls in my cottage noticed I was going stir crazy. She knew I loved to read. She had a collection of books I would love to get my hands on, but she never lent her books to anyone. I respected that as a book love myself. That was why I never asked her to borrow a book.
She could see I was in pain from the boredom. I guess that is why she did what she did. After lunch, she called me into her room. She handed me a decent size book and asked if I had ever read it…
