-Stephen King, The Last Rung On The Ladder
This, roughly twenty page, short story from the Night Shift collection is a gripping, albeit rather tragic, tale of two young children and the temptation of adventure, no matter how dangerous. Starting off, I was unsure about how the story would go down, I let my guard down, believing that I couldn't possibly get attached to any of these characters enough to actually feel anything upon completion, however King somehow finds a way.
The story's hook is the suspense of what the letter, that a lawyer called Larry received from his sister, Kitty, said that was so shocking that Larry feared telling his father of the contents of the letter would give him yet another heart attack. So from the get go, to me at least, the success of this short story hinges on whether or not he reveal was satisfying, and let me tell you it sure as hell was. If I hadn't been giving say, 15 pages to really get attached to Larry and his sister, both of which King writes as mischievous but also loving and endearing, the contents of the letter wouldn't have meant all that much to me, but after getting to care for these two characters, it feel like a punch in the gut, a strangely beautiful, poetic punch in the gut.
So yeah, if you've got twenty pages to spare, and you too feel like being satisfied by a punch in the gut, then I would definitely recommend checking this thing out.
