Section Room Number Four

The story is on behalf of Howard Cottrell, a stockbroker of forty-four years from the city of Derry. Once he woke up in a morgue , in a bag for corpses , completely paralyzed. At first it even seemed to him that he was dead, but somehow he continued to feel what was happening. Then he nevertheless came to the conclusion that he was alive, although he did not quite remember what had happened to him - he only vaguely remembered that he was playing golf and was bitten by either an insect or a snake. He tried to give pathologists who were about to open it, at least some signal, but he did not succeed. The shift supervisor, Dr. Arlen, provided an examination to a young trainee, Peter, who did not notice a bite on his leg. Peter was about to start an autopsy when Dr. Arlene became interested in the old scar on Howard’s inner thigh that had been left with him since the Vietnam War . While she examined the scar, with her hand on Howard's penis, a nurse ran into the section hall, screaming that one of the doctors had been bitten by a snake hiding in a bag with golf clubs, and that paralyzed. Everyone was horrified to see that they were about to open a living person - Howard began an erection .

In the afterword, Howard describes how he was bitten by the “Peruvian Boomslang, ” which, among other snakes, was kept at home by a bank clerk who was fond of viperophilia (breeding and collecting snakes), who escaped two days after this story. Howard also mentions that he met Dr. Arlen for some time, but they had to break up - the piquancy of the situation in which they met led to their sexual incompatibility.

In the author’s commentary on the story, King mentions that the idea of ​​Section Four is from the episode of the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents about a seriously wounded man who was about to be opened, deeming he was dead. He made it clear that he was alive, shedding a tear. King considered that it would be more appropriate for him personally to write about a less touching way of communication ^[1] . At a meeting with readers, King described this story as “pretty obscene” ( English pretty gross ) ^[2] . The author also mentions that the snake of the species “ Peruvian Boomslang ” does not exist - he partially borrowed the name of the species from one of Agatha Christie’s novels (it mentioned a real African boomslang ) ^[1] .

The story was first published in 1997 in the collection of Six Stories . In the same year he entered the anthology of Robert Bloch's Psychos . In 2002, it was published as part of the collection “ Everything is Ultimate ” ^[3] . The story was translated into Russian by V. Weber in 2003 and published by the AST publishing house as part of the collection “Everything is Ultimate”; subsequently reprinted several times ^[4] . In 2002, the audiobook Everything's Eventual: 5 Dark Tales was released , which included five stories from the collection “Everything Ultimate”, including Section Room Number Four ^[5] .

V.V. Erlikhman in his book King of the Dark Side. Stephen King in America and Russia ”calls the story one of the best in the collection“ Everything is Ultimate ”, noting that he has a“ happy, even funny ”ending ^[6] . Stephen J. Spignesi in his book The Essential Stephen King calls the story one of the worst in Stephen King. He puts him in the 50th place in his rating ^[2] . The story was nominated for the 1998 Bram Stoker Award ^[7] . In the review of the magazine “ Fantasy World ” by the film “ Room 6 ”, it was noted that the plot moves of the film are repeated from several works by Stephen King, including from Section Section Four, although King is not mentioned in the credits ^{[8 ]} .

• In 2003, the eponymous short film by Stephen Zakman was released . The main role was played by Stephen First , in the role of Dr. Arlen starred Torrey Higginson ^[9] .
• In 2006, the story was filmed in the seventh series of the eight-episode series Nightmares and Fantastic Visions ^[10] . The plot of the story was slightly changed - a line appeared with Howard's lover, Angela, and the light flirtation mentioned in the original between Dr. Arlen and Peter was served as a full-fledged love line.

• Autopsy Room Four on Stephen King's official website
• About the story “Sectional Room Number Four” on the website “Stephen King.ru - Stephen King's Creativity”