He’s in First Grade and has Seen Dead People for as Long as He Can Remember

 

Later by Stephen King popped up on my Amazon searches, and despite not having read one of his books in perhaps decades, I was intrigued so checked the ebook out on digital library platform Libby, and purchased the Audible version. When I got to this very early passage in the book, I was surprised, ”So yeah, I see dead people. As far as I can remember, I always have. But it’s not like in that movie with Bruce Willis. It can be interesting, it can be scary sometimes (the Central Park dude), it can be a pain in the ass, but mostly it just is. Like being left-handed, or being able to play classical music when you’re like three years old, or getting early-onset Alzheimer’s, which is what happened to Uncle Harry when he was only forty-two.” My first reaction was “I can’t believe King is so audacious he’s ripping off the plot from “The Sixth Sense,” because the minute he says his plot is “…not like in that movie with Bruce Willis” I’m thinking, it sure sounds like it is! You either see dead people or you don’t, but as I read further, there were specifics about the way dead people appeared in this book, and rules of how they behaved that did make it unique. 

By page 22 the narrative inspires a feeling of admiration, familiarity, and ease of flow that reminds me I am in the hands of a master storyteller who has spent his life doing what he was born to do. Main character Jamie Conklin is being raised by his mother who works as a literary agent in her brother’s firm. Conklin is telling this story about his childhood as a young adult of 22 years, and describes his life: “Looking back on it, I sometimes think my life was like a Dickens novel, only with swearing.” Having just finished Book of Sheen by Charlie Sheen, King’s book falls far below that standard of swearing. Although Conklin’s childhood is fraught with a certain amount of drama due to situations arising from interactions with dead people, and the machinations of his mother’s lover, a policewoman who finds his special gift of communication with the dead opportunistic, his life doesn’t approach the pathos of a Dickens’ childhood. 

The first dead person Conklin speaks to in this book is with the spouse of a neighbor after being told sad news of her passing, although he lets us know this type of situation has been happening for as long as he can remember. He recounts their conversation, “That was when Mrs. Burkett spoke to me. She was hard to hear, but not as hard as some of them because she was still pretty fresh. She said, ‘Turkeys aren’t green, James.’ ‘Well mine is,’ I said. My mother was still holding Mr. Burkett and kind of rocking him. They didn’t hear her because they couldn’t, and they didn’t hear me because they were doing adult things: comforting for Mom, blubbering for Mr. Burkett.” At this point Conklin is in first grade, and his mother has been skeptical of her son’s “gift” up to this point, but something he tells her soon sets up a situation that reveals the truth of her young son’s claims. 

Basically this book is a coming of age for Conklin as he continues having interactions with the recently deceased, some more challenging than others, and a few that nearly cost him his life. His family goes through financial difficulties, various crises, a kidnapping, illicit drug and alcohol use, as Conklin matures in the understanding of his gift. At one point his mother states, “‘So now we know something we probably shouldn’t. It’s done and can’t be undone. Everybody has secrets, Jamie. You’ll find that out for yourself in time.’ Thanks to Liz and Kenneth Therriault, I had found that out already, and I found out my mother’s secret, too. Later.“ 

Conklin ruminates about frightening things he encounters as a result of his experiences with unknown entities in the mix, “I’ve come across a lot of strange superstitions and odd legends…and while there are plenty concerning the possession of the living by demons, I have never yet found one about a creature able to possess the dead. The closest I’ve come are stories about malevolent ghosts, and that’s really not the same at all. So I have no idea what I’m dealing with. All I know is that I must deal with it.” At one point a recently deceased professor and neighbor cautions Conklin, “A faint shadow of irritation came into his voice. “I wonder. You were incredibly brave, but you were also incredibly lucky. You don’t understand because you’re just a child, but take my word for it. That thing is from outside the universe. There are horrors there that no man can conceive of. If you truck with it you risk death, or madness, or the destruction of your very soul.” An uncertain future awaits our young man in his cavalcade of encounters with the dead.