（外文电子版资料）Stephen King - Straight Up Midnight.pdfVIP

Introduction STRAIGHT UP MIDNIGHT: An Introductory Note Well, look at this - were all here. We made it back again. I hope youre half as happy to be here as I am just saying that reminds me of a story, and since telling stories is what I do for a living (and to keep myself sane), Ill pass this one along. Earlier this year - Im writing this in late July of 1989 - I was crashed out in front of the TV, watching the Boston Red Sox play the Milwaukee Brewers. Robin Yount of the Brewers stepped to the plate, and the Boston commentators began marvelling at the fact that Yount was still in his early thirties. Sometimes it seems that Robin helped Abner Doubleday lay down the first set of foul lines, Ned Martin said as Yount stepped into the box to face Roger Clemens. Yep, Joe Castiglione agreed. He came to the Brewers right out of high school, I think - hes been playing for them since 1974. I sat up so fast I nearly spilled a can of Pepsi-Cola all over myself. Wait a minute! I was thinking. Wait just a goddam minute! I published my first book in 1974! That wasnt so long ago! Whats this shit about helping Abner Doubleday Put down the first set of foul lines? Then it occurred to me that the perception of how time passes - a subject which comes up again and again in the stories which follow - is a highly individual thing. Its true that the publication of Carrie in the spring of 1974 (it was published, in fact, just two days before the baseball season began and a teenager named Robin Yount played his first game for the Milwaukee Brewers) doesnt seem like a long time ago to me subjectively - just a quick glance back over the shoulder, in fact - but there are other ways to count the years, and some of them suggest that fifteen years can be a long time, indeed. In 1974 Gerald Ford was President and the Shah was still running the show in Iran. John Lennon was alive, and so was Elvis Presley. Donny Osmond was singing with his brothers and sisters in a high, p