Autopsy Room Four
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Autopsy Room Four" is the first short story in the collection Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King. It was first published in the anthology Robert Bloch's Psychos and was adapted into a short film in 2003. It is also part of TNT's Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King series in the summer of 2006.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Howard Cottrell awakes from some form of unconsciousness to find himself laid out in an autopsy room. As the doctors prepare to begin, Howard struggles to come to grips with what is happening.
After realising that he is not dead, he deduces that he is in a paralysed state, and struggles to somehow inform the doctors of this fact before they cut into him.
While prepping Cottrell's body, the doctor in charge, Katie Arlen, finds shrapnel wounds around his nether regions. While she is absent-mindedly examining these, another doctor rushes into the room to inform them that Howard is still alive. Katie looks down - to find herself holding Howard's stiff penis.
In a humorous after note, Howard explains that he was possibly bitten by a very rare snake, causing the death-like paralysis. Another one of the doctors discovered that same snake in his golf bag and was promptly bitten. It is presumed that he will recover. Howard adds that he and Katie dated for awhile, but broke up due to an embarrassing problem in the bedroom: he was impotent unless she was wearing rubber gloves.
[edit] Note
Supposedly Howard was bitten by a snake called a Peruvian boomslang. However, boomslangs only live in Africa; the word literally means "tree snake" in the Afrikaans language. In his notes at the end, King says he got the name from Agatha Christie; the snake featured in one of her famous Hercule Poirot books.
[edit] Adaptations
The short story was adapted as an hour-long episode of the Turner Network Television mini-series Nightmares and Dreamscapes in 2006, along with The Road Virus Heads North.
