Night Shift

Lester Billings, a distraught man from Connecticut, visits a psychiatrist’s office with a dire need to tell his story. Records list Billings as 28 years old, divorced, and the father of three deceased children. Billings admits that he killed his children, “One at a time. Killed them all” (100), through negligence. Before Billings shares his tale, he insists that Dr. Harper open the closet door. Billings begins by recounting his family timeline, but Dr. Harper interjects, asking who killed Billings’s children. Billings simply replies, “The boogeyman.”

Billings describes marrying his wife, Rita, while she is pregnant with their first child, Denny. He implies that Rita intentionally got pregnant to tie him down because he is “brighter” than she is. Soon after, he and Rita have a second child named Shirl. Billings is exhausted from his warehouse work and finds the small children grating: “Christ, kids drive you crazy sometimes. You could kill them” (104). When Denny is two, he begins wetting the bed again. Billings doesn’t want his son to grow up as a “sissy” and insists that Rita not coddle him. Denny continues to cry, so Billings gives the toddler a “whack” to quiet him. When Denny points to the closet and says “boogeyman,” Billings dismisses his son’s fear and considers hitting Rita for teaching him the word. Denny mysteriously dies in the night, and an inquest determines crib death as the cause. Billings comments that the only unusual detail he remembers is the ajar closet door.

Billings moves Shirl into Denny’s old room, despite Rita’s pleas against it. He recalls his childhood with his mother and adamantly maintains that overprotecting a child can result in lifelong psychological damage. When Shirl starts crying at night and says “boogeyman,” Billings considers taking her into his room. He doesn’t, however, because he must prove to Rita that he’s the “strong” one. He comments that Rita is weak (“a jellyfish”) for sleeping with him before they wed. Dr. Harper notes that Billings too slept with Rita before they married, and Billings snaps back antagonistically. He nervously glances at the closet and resumes his story.

Before Billings finds Shirl dead in her bed a month later, he asserts that he saw something “slither” near her closet. Shirl says “craws,” and Billings, in retrospect, believes she meant “claws.” Billings recounts the trauma of finding Shirl’s body in the crib. Shirl allegedly swallowed her own tongue, and officials attribute her death to brain convulsions. Billings describes Shirl’s black, doll-like eyes as accusing him of killing her. Dr. Harper inquires as to how Rita felt about Billings after the loss. Billings pridefully remarks that his wife knew her place and loved him anyway. He subtly derides Rita’s subsequent depression and quips that he “knew she’d get over it” (107).

Rita eventually wants another baby. Billings wants them to enjoy their childless relationship and insists that kids are a hassle. He recounts that finding a babysitter was difficult and how his mother wasn’t supportive because “Rita was just a tramp, a common little corner-walker” (107). Rita becomes pregnant again and gives birth to a third child, Andrew Lester Billings. She is joyful, unlike Billings. Billings eventually warms up to Andy and realizes that he loves him more than Denny or Shirl. He describes the happiest year of their family life with baby Andy. Billings even obtains a better job as a salesman, and the family moves to a new neighborhood. Despite their domestic peace, Billings worries about losing Andy. Rita reassures him that Andy is “special.” Even though Andy is two, Billings uncharacteristically allows him to sleep in his and Rita’s bedroom.

Then everything changes. Billings notices a malevolence in their new house and suspects that the creature has found them again. Paranoid, Billings doesn’t like to open the closet doors. Rita comments on his exhaustion, and Billings once again becomes aggressive. He confesses to Dr. Harper that although he was afraid of Rita and Andy being alone in the house, he was relieved when he could leave for work. Billings hears odd sounds emerging from his closet, “as if something black and green and wet was moving around” (109). He becomes convinced that all fictitious childhood monsters—Frankenstein, Wolfman, the Mummy—are based on reality. Soon, Rita is called away to attend to her sick mother, leaving Billings alone with Andy.

With Rita gone, the creature in the house grows bolder, causing damage to the house at night. Billings grows increasingly afraid of a confrontation. Because of this, he moves Andy into another room at night, knowing the creature will go after the weaker prey. That evening, the creature attacks Andy. Billings instinctually responds to the screams and witnesses the creature throttle his son to death: “And I knew how much I loved him because I ran in, I didn’t even turn on the light, I ran, ran, ran, oh Jesus God Mary, it had him” (110). Billings hears the snap of his son’s neck and flees the house, waiting out the night in a 24-hour diner. Billings later convinces the police that Andy broke his neck trying to climb out of his crib. He tells Dr. Harper that the closet door was ajar. After the three accidental deaths, “Rita…finally…knew” and left him (110).

Once Billings finishes his admission, Dr. Harper suggests that Billings book future sessions with the nurse in the waiting room. When he finds the waiting room empty, Billings returns to Dr. Harper’s office only to find that room empty as well. His terror rises when he notices the closet door is partly open. He wets himself. Moments later, the boogeyman emerges, casting aside its Dr. Harper disguise.

The story is told in the first-person through the perspective of an unnamed patron of Henry’s Nite-Owl. During a January snowstorm, young Timmy Grenadine makes his way to a local convenience store to buy his reclusive father a case of beer. Timmy arrives at the store terrified. The owner, Henry Parmalee, calms the boy in the stockroom. Meanwhile, the store patrons muse that they haven’t seen Richie, Timmy’s father, in several months. The narrator shares what he knows of Richie, a heavy-drinking local man who was injured in a sawmill accident and now lives on permanent disability payments. Richie used to frequent the store himself but now sends his son to purchase flats of the cheapest beer. The narrator describes Richie as “a big fat man with jowls like pork butts and ham-hocks arms” (114). Timmy confides in Henry, who enlists Bertie Connors and the narrator to help him with Timmy’s predicament. Henry sends Timmy upstairs where Mrs. Parmalee can watch him while Henry, Bertie, and the narrator head to Richie’s apartment building. Henry shows the men the money Timmy gave him for the beer. The bills are covered in gray slime, and Henry warns the men not to touch them. Before they leave, Henry retrieves the pistol he keeps under the bar.

On the way to Richie’s, Henry discloses the disturbing story Timmy related. Roughly two months prior, Timmy brought his father some beer that Richie claimed tasted terrible, though this didn’t prevent him from finishing the can. The beer smelled foul and had “gray dribble” on the can’s mouth. After this, Richie began experiencing sensitivity to light and lethargy. He stayed indoors in front of the television, drinking in the dark. He’d leave money on the table for Timmy to pick him up beer after school. Over the weeks since the first bad beer, which the narrator suggests spoiled from bacteria, Timmy watched his father progressively transform into a “gray jelly” (121). When Timmy offers to call the doctor, Richie threatens to touch him with his gelatinous hand. Richie’s condition worsens, and he eventually covers all the windows in the apartment to block out the light. Earlier that evening, a terrified Timmy watched his father, now nothing more than a “great big gray lump” (121), eat a fetid dead cat. The grotesque scene sent Timmy fleeing to the convenience store for help.

The men arrive at Richie’s apartment building and immediately notice the stench. They look around and realize that Richie’s neighbors are eerily absent, as dust covers the hallway floor. Outside of the apartment, then men look down and discover they’re walking in gray slime. Henry requests that Richie come into the hallway to speak with them, but Richie refuses. Richie confirms Timmy’s whereabouts before directing the men to shove the beer through the open door. He instructs them to remove all the beer tabs first. Henry listens to Richie’s “decayed voice” and asks, “It ain’t just dead cats anymore, is it?” (123). The narrator recalls a few missing persons and realizes the depth of Henry’s question. Richie, “like a huge wave of gray jelly” (124), bursts into the hall. For a moment, the narrator sees that the gray blob is in the process of dividing in two. Bertie and the narrator flee while Henry fires his gun at the approaching creature.

Back at the Nite-Owl, the narrator quietly calculates the possibilities of Richie’s exponential growth and the catastrophic effect it will have on humanity. He drinks his beer and waits to see who comes back to the store, hoping to see Henry.

Third-person limited narration focuses on John Renshaw, a professional assassin. Renshaw returns from Florida after executing Hans Morris, the affluent owner of Morris Toy company. At his penthouse, a package is waiting for him, postmarked five days ago from Miami. Renshaw recognizes the handwriting on the package and attributes it to Morris’s “number-one idea girl” (127), his mother.

Renshaw carefully assesses the package and determines that it can’t be a bomb. Suspicious, he methodically opens the package and finds a metal box labelled: “G.I. JOE VIETNAM FOOTLOCKER” (127). The footlocker, manufactured by Morris Toy company, contains dozens of toy soldiers, armored jeeps, and helicopters. He sees something move inside the box and calmly goes to turn on the lights: “Tiny foot soldiers, about an inch and a half tall, began to crawl out” (128). Concerned with only his survival and not the possibilities of the situation unfolding before him, Renshaw surveys the soldiers. He throws a pillow at the growing army, but their bullets strike him like “bee stings.” Miniature helicopters swarm him as soldiers with bayonets stab his feet. Renshaw grabs his .44 Magnum and fires back at the toys. His apartment becomes a full-blown battlefield, with tiny medics attending to the fallen soldiers. It isn’t until Renshaw takes a bazooka hit to the thigh that he bolts down the hall. The sight of the rocket launcher shakes his confidence, and Renshaw realizes that he’s losing.

After a desperate counterattack fails, Renshaw retreats into his bathroom to bandage his wounds and plot his escape. His hands shake, and he imagines the rocket hitting his face: “Damn it, that wasn’t even listed on the box!” (131). Helicopters blast through holes in the door, and Renshaw snuffs them out with a heavy towel. The soldiers cease fire for 15 minutes, in which time Renshaw tries to concoct a countermove. He reaches for a can of lighter fluid when the soldiers slip a piece of paper under the door, demanding he surrender. Renshaw reads the ultimatum and responds with a single word: “NUTS” (132), echoing American General McAuliffe’s infamous response to the Nazis who besieged him. This infuriates the toy soldiers, and they destroy most of the bathroom door with rocket fire. When the gunfire stops, Renshaw grabs the lighter fluid and shimmies out the bathroom window onto the narrow ledge.

Renshaw slowly works his way around the building, mindful of the 40-story drop that awaits him if he slips. He makes his way to the balcony and peers inside the living room, plotting his next steps: “In through the opening like gangbusters. Wipe out the ones by the footlocker, then out the door. Then a quick taxi to the airport. Off to Miami to find Morris’ number-one idea girl” (133). Renshaw fantasizes about searing Morris’s mother’s face with a flamethrower. Next, Renshaw crafts a Molotov cocktail, intending to attack the base camp of the soldiers in his living room. Before he can throw his weapon, however, his entire apartment explodes.

At street level, a passing couple pauses to watch the devastating blast. They catch remnants of a bloodied shirt. Instead of calling the police, they quickly hail a cab. A scrap of paper floats downwards, bearing the “Limited Time Only” contents of the footlocker, including the new addition of “1 Scale-Model Thermonuclear Weapon” (134).