Blockade Billy and Morality by Stephen King
Blockade Billy and Morality
by Stephen King
(Audio)
I'm not a baseball fan. I thought, even despite this fact, I might try this book when I saw it on the shelves. It's two separate Stephen King short stories, and I really love his short stories, because they can have such great concepts without getting tiring.
The first story, "Blockade Billy," was about a young baseball catcher who saves a sub-par team just when they need it. He's short of words and repeats a lot of what is said, which I thought really strange. And he has a band-aid on one finger that comes and goes. Instantly I thought him some supernatural being or alien. The story is told to Stephen King by a former manager of the team who was there when Billy came in, watched him earn his "Blockade" nickname, and was there the day Billy's true nature caught up to him. The narrator is conversational, casual, and lots of fun. He addresses Mr. King, the writer, several times, which is a fun and engaging technique. He knows the story and is telling it to us beautifully, with mystery and hints and the personal perspective of an old-time baseball fan. Even though the sport isn't one I enjoy, I really liked hearing him talk about it. However, I didn't understand half of the terminology and I kept getting players mixed up in my mind, not sure which team each one played on. So I was a little confused about the baseball aspects from time to time, but I enjoyed the mystery, waiting for the shoe to drop. And then it did... and it was not at all what I thought, not remotely satisfying. I found it to be a let-down for a Stephen King story. But it was so well written, I didn't mind too much.
The second story, "Morality," was even more engaging and chilling. I didn't see the ending coming either. But it was a great example of an extremely well crafted literary story. A reverend who had a stroke and needs a nurse (I had HUGE flashbacks to Revival which also had a reverend who had a stroke and needed a nurse) hires her to commit a sin for him, because he can't commit one himself. She gets her husband to help her, and they're paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. The sin is a small one, so they think it's worth it. But it ruins them both just to think about it and especially after they've gotten away with it. Their characters are corrupted forever, no matter what they try to do in life. This story says a lot about human nature and says it simply and beautifully.
This was an interesting pairing of stories, not at all what I expected. There were no supernatural elements in either, but some definitely horror-filled ones.