The Raft (short story)
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- For the Marvel comic book prison of the same name see The Raft (comics)
| Author | Stephen King |
|---|---|
| Country |  USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror short story |
| Released in | Gallery (1st release), Skeleton Crew |
| Publication type | Magazine |
| Media Type | Print (Periodical & Paperback) |
| Released | 1982 |
"The Raft" is a horror short story by Stephen King first published in Gallery in 1982, and collected in the 1985 Skeleton Crew anthology.
[edit] Plot summary
The Raft is about four college students, two young men (Randy and Deke) and two young women (Rachel and LaVerne), who go out to swim on a remote Pennsylvania lake during the autumn, when nobody is around. After they swim out onto the raft in the middle of the lake, a mysterious oil slick-like creature appears in the water beneath them. One of the girls (Rachel) touches it and it wraps around her finger, pulling her into itself and dissolving her gradually. Deke then decides he could make a swim to the shore, but as he prepares to jump into the lake he steps on a crack on the raft and the creature grabs him by his foot. Unable to free his friend, Randy watches as Deke is slowly consumed by the creature. Randy and LaVerne take turns in watching the creature (the creature changes positions every now and then - it is either under the raft, or out of it)- one stands while the other one sits. During the course of the night, LaVerne convinces Randy that they should both sit and keep each other warm, which leads to close body contact and they end up making love. During the intercourse, LaVerne's hair falls through the cracks of the raft and the creature gets her. All alone, Randy spends the night and the next day on the raft, standing most of the time. By the next sunset he is raving and wonders if the creature can ease his pain.
In the television version as soon as the creature eats LaVerne, Randy tries to make a swim for it and gets eaten on shore.
[edit] Film adaptation
"The Raft" was adapted to film as a segment of the 1987 horror anthology movie Creepshow 2, directed by Michael Gornick with a screenplay by George Romero.
[edit] Background
In the afterword to the book Skeleton Crew, King relates an anecdote about the story's possible 1969 publication in Adam magazine in different form, under the title "The Float". He explains that the story was accepted for publication by Adam magazine. A short time after that King was arrested in the town of Orono, Maine for removing a number of traffic cones from the street after one of them had damaged his car. He was unable to pay the two hundred and fifty dollar fine handed down by the court and was about to be jailed for thirty days when the payment check for "The Float" arrived in the mail, an event King referred to as akin to "having someone send you a real Get Out Of Jail Free Card." Despite the fact that King received payment for the story he has never been able to locate a copy of the magazine with the published story in it.
