Settled things
Abandoned things is the title of a short story by Stephen King (original: The Things They Left Behind ), originally published in the collection Transgressions - Terror's Echo (edited by Ed McBain ).
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Almost a year after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 happened in the life of the narrator Scott Staley, the insurance office 'Light & Bell' of the 110th floor World Trade Center was working, strange things. Not only is Scott plagued by guilt (on the day of the attacks, he followed an inner voice that enticed him to spend the beautiful day in the park), but things also appear in his apartment that belong to his colleagues who have died. Sunglasses, a baseball bat, a whoop's pillow - Scott recognizes everything immediately. After confirming that he is not delusional (others can see things too), he tries to throw them away, but they keep reappearing.
He confides in his neighbor Paula, who offers to keep one of the things that were left behind (a Lucite cube). The item triggers the worst nightmare of their life as it conjures up in their mind the last minutes of the owner's life. Paula immediately gives the object back, but it is through her that Scott understands his mission: He has to give things back to the bereaved of the victims - and when he sees the joy on their faces, he feels his guilt go back more and more.
History of origin
The American writer Ed McBain is a big fan of novels and with the series Transgressions offers other authors a niche for this otherwise difficult to market format between short stories (up to approx. 5,000 words) and novels (from approx. 60,000 words). Requirements: The story was not allowed to be published before and could be assigned to the genre 'Mystery'.
As McBain cited in the preface, the reactions of the authors addressed were mixed; some rejected the idea: 'Up went the hands in mock terror. What? A novella? I wouldn't even know how to begin one! ' ('Hands shot up in mock horror. What? A novel? I don't even know how to start one!') Nevertheless, McBain found nine willing authors, including Jeffery Deaver , and also contributed a novel himself.
useful information
- King also refers to philosophers like Henry David Thoreau and poets / writers like Borges or Marquez when looking at feelings of guilt and everyday horror . The narrator shares her opinion that it is not we who own things, but that these things (such as the objects mentioned above) have us firmly under control. They have a driving force because they seem to have caught part of the owner's personality and can trigger a wide variety of emotions in other people (laughter, fear and sadness) - emotions that have nothing to do with the things themselves but only with the memories they carry.
- King dares to portray the last minutes in the life of a man trapped in the World Trade Center and also remembers those people who could not help but jump to certain death from the skyscraper to escape the flames. A colleague (the only other survivor from 'Light & Bell') remembers having recognized Sonja D'Amico - the owner of the sunglasses - in a photo. She fell and pressed her fluttering skirt almost chastely to her thighs. King quotes the poet James Dickey , who in his long poem Falling recalls the fate of a stewardess who was ripped out of an airplane in October 1962 because of a broken door and fell over Connecticut to her death. The poem describes her thoughts on the crash and ultimately her death. If you put the picture of Sonja D'Amico and the title Falling together, the reader almost inevitably comes to the much discussed photo The Falling Man , which went around the world and shows a man who almost resembles an elegant high diver from the World Trade Center falls to his death.
- Survivors' guilt is a well-known phenomenon as a psychologist. Whenever they think back to the misfortune or come into contact with the bereaved of the dead, they are overwhelmed by the feeling that they should have died in their place, or at least with them. When Scott first sees 'Things', he thinks they are projections of his guilty mind as the first anniversary of the calamity is just around the corner.
- In the entire short story, the words World Trade Center or Twin Towers do not appear once.
- In the series The Dark Tower , King bites for the first time on September 11th , when the boy Jake Chambers hides a magical sphere in the World Trade Center and is certain that it will be in good hands there for all eternity.
Further editions of the story
- Transgressions - Terror's Echo has now been published as a paperback in four parts in the USA. The Things They Left Behind was published with John Farris' story The Ransome Women .
- These two stories were in turn published as an audio book along with the novella Keller's Adjustment by Lawrence Block (read by John Bedford Lloyd).