the moving finger

[wally wonder]

this story is a hoot, as funny as it is creepy. 'have you ever thought about how many holes to the underworld there are in an ordinary bathroom?' howard mitla asks o'bannion, one of the bog-trotting irishmen. seven. a prime number. we must have aall come across an access hole that seemed more than suspect to us. i know i have.

nice description of vi mitla, con brio, she comes into the room 'like a pocket hurricane'. 'hang this up for me, will you?' she tells howard, tossing him her coat, 'i've got to pee. do i ever! whew!' you have to wonder why howard felt like he had to protect her from the finger.

and i like how sk does the other character thingy, this time w/howard, TAKING CARE OF THE OLD HOMESTEAD. while ole vi, the Shrinking Violet, is helping dr. stone pull some uppers. the finger wouldn't have stood a chance against vi. :dunno:

[The Outsider]

I love this story. Quite the oddity. I gotta say, I am quite curious as to how King came up with this. A finger coming out of the drain? This is one of my favorite short stories of all tme just cuz of the creature it involves.

[God]

This story is great, N&D has some of Kings stranger stories in it for sure, like this, and Rainy Season and Chattery Teeth. For me the creepiest thing was how the finger seemed to hear Howard and respond to his voice:oh:

[aleth cantos]

SK really got a hell of an imagination. this story is cool.. and creepy at the same time. salutes for SK.:y:

[LisaNH]

We just finished reading this story last week (hubby and I). Hubby didn't get it at all (he's new to SK- I've been reading SK since the mid-80's). LOL.

To me, this story had a sort of "Creep Show" feel to it. I loved it. I was concerned toward the end that they would actually find Vi in the tub rather than bits of the finger.

[doowopgirl]

Oh yes I have always thought about how much we flush and rinse down various drains in our homes. When I was a kid the toilet witch was the way I couls get my brothers not to hog the bathroom!

[wally wonder]

Oh yes I have always thought about how much we flush and rinse down various drains in our homes. When I was a kid the toilet witch was the way I couls get my brothers not to hog the bathroom!

with me it was willard. or one of the many others like him.:biggrin2:

[DancingCorpse]

I actually found some parts of this one absolutely hilarious. Howard's descent into madness is great, when he's going crazy in his flat and shouting random things at a moving finger coming out of his drain... :laugh: It shouldn't work but it does, even though much sense is never came to. I wonder if it was a relative of Pennywise, maybe it was him!

[wally wonder]

it was a real hoot, the length of the thing! it just kept coming and coming. anyone remember the adam's family, that hand? was it called "it"? or "thing"? "it" i think, so yeah, pennywise might be in there somewhere.

[DancingCorpse]

Haha yeah, maybe 'Thing' was Howard's fear! Either way, it was a great story with such an odd idea. There was just something so 'real' about it, he's got a manic finger coming out of his drain, and for some reason, only he can see it. It begs the question, what would you do?

[Cthulhu]

I just watched the old Monsters TV series adaptation of this story recently.

[wally wonder]

I just watched the old Monsters TV series adaptation of this story recently.

no kidding? how old? that guy that was in car 54 where are you? the old black and white munsters/monsters show? what was it like? remember that big fake dragon they had under the stairwell? spot, was it?

[Cthulhu]

no kidding? how old? that guy that was in car 54 where are you? the old black and white munsters/monsters show? what was it like? remember that big fake dragon they had under the stairwell? spot, was it?

I think you are confusing this series with "The Munsters". This was a Twilight Zone type series that came on in the 90's called "Monsters".

[Mr. Jingles]

I just finished reading this story last night.....in the bathtub (of all places). So funny! Poor guy can't even go to work he's so upset.
This one reminds me of "It", when the kids are in Bev's bathroom looking at the mess in there.
I am really enjoying Nighmares & Dreamscapes so far!

[Clustermugger]

I grew up reading King's books...I LOVED this story!!!! Which probably explains the way I turned out in life!!! But yeah, this story inspiried me to write a short story. THANKS Mr. KING!!!!!

[KyleKarabekian]

One great story!

[Pucker]

I very much like the way Howard is still perfectly rational in his madness -- a lot like Louis Creed -- still considering his numbers and extrapolating, an accountant right to the end.

[motocop]

Poor Howard. Drove so far to insanity he had to piss in the alley. Ive never seen a pair of hedge trimmers that run on c batteries. He really started to get into choppin that finger though. At one point he was tryin not to let it back down the drain. It was pretty funny in a gory way.

[Silhouette86]

One of the best monster short stories that I've ever read. A finger in the sinkhole? So damn creepy! It makes me wonder what I would've done. I wonder where Howard will be going to the bathroom from now on.

[king family fan]

Hey Wally glad to see your post,have missed ya. I just love this story. Draino.LOL

[SamanthaS]

I know this probably sounds silly, but this story haunts me. It scared me so much. I've had a disembodied hand phobia since I was about 5 and was flipping channels and caught the end of (I believe it's called) 'The Wax Museum'. A creepy hand came crawling out of the ground and I freaked!! I read 'The Moving Finger' over 4 years ago and I still don't shut the bathroom door in the middle of the night. I know I sound ridiculous. As someone else said awhile back, it reminds me a little of the bathroom scene with Bev in 'IT'.

[Lina]

I've finished reading the story today. Well...It was exciting, it was good. It was kind of strange, too...Sure, Sai King has a great imagination, I doubt any other person could make something like that :)
In a way this story was even creepy for me. When I started to read it yesterday it was already very late and I was absolutely alone...So after some 10 pages I got real scared! I started to imagine what would be with me if I went to my bathroom and saw somwthing like that...Oh, it's creepy indeed! And then I put the book away, having decided to finish reading it today :) So, this story managed to scare me and it is worth a lot (it's not so easy to scare me now). So, that story was just great!

[Coconut]

I just read this story today. Very exciting, creepy and funny. Of all the things to crawl out of your sink...it has to be a finger. I especially love the line, "It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I'm all outta bubble gum.!" I laughed out loud on that part. I was literally spooked by this one. The imagery is horrifying.:grinning:

[omm poppa mow mow]

Recently, I read in Shivers VI, "I Found a Little Hole," by Nate Southard. This story reminded me of "The Moving Finger" from King.
Instead of a finger, there was at first, an eye, and so on.