Here There Be Tygers (1968 short story)

"Here There Be Tygers" is a short story by Stephen King. It was originally published in the Spring 1968 issue of Ubris magazine, and collected in King's Skeleton Crew in 1985. This story is extremely short, and written from the perspective of a boy who believes a tiger is lurking in his school bathroom.^[1]

The title references the phrases used by medieval cartographers when they put warnings on unexplored portions of their maps. The phrase was also used in King's later story "The Reploids." In the movie version of King's novel The Dark Half, the story Thad's mother looks at is a copy of this story.

As King noted in the foreword to Skeleton Crew, this is one of the first stories King ever wrote. It was written when King was a high school student.

Plot

Charles is a third grader. He really needs to go to the bathroom and his "mean" teacher Miss Bird asks him if he has to go before she allows him, embarrassing him. ("Very well Charles. You may go to the bathroom and urinate. Is that what you need to do? Urinate?") Arriving at the lavatory, he peeks around the corner, and sees a tiger lying on the bathroom floor. He stands at the door, too afraid to enter. Eventually a child named Kenny Griffen comes to get him. Charles begins to cry and Kenny leads him in, saying that he made up the tiger. Charles escapes out of the bathroom, and when he forces himself to go back in, he sees the tiger has a torn piece of shirt on its claw. Charles decides to relieve himself in the sink, but Miss Bird catches him. She goes around the corner to find Kenny, and Charles leaves the bathroom. He returns to his classroom and begins reading Roads to Everywhere.

References

1. ^ The story at HorrorKing.com