The Moving Finger (short story)

Infobox short story |
name = The Moving Finger
title_orig =
translator =
author = Stephen King
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Horror
published_in = "Cemetery Dance" (1st release),
"Nightmares and Dreamscapes"
publication_type = Magazine
publisher =
media_type = Print
pub_date = 1990
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Moving Finger" is a short story by Stephen King. It was first published in "Cemetery Dance" magazine in 1990, and included in King's collection "Nightmares & Dreamscapes".

Plot summary

A very ordinary man who has a strange fascination with Jeopardy, named Howard Mitla is confronted by the bizarre sight of a human finger poking its way out of the drain in his apartment's bathroom sink. He tries to deny the reality of what is happening, but the solitary digit eventually proves to be infinitely long and multijointed, and capable of attacking him. Mitla burns it with a bottle of heavy-duty drain-cleaner, then chops it off with a pair of electric hedge trimmers. Soon, the police arrive, after Howard calls his neighbor a "bog-trotting Irishman", and making an enormous racket, and constantly swearing. When the police arrive, the officer they send in checks in on Howard, who is lying in a daze next to the toilet. He tells the officer, "If you have to go to the bathroom, I definitely suggest you hold it." and the toilet lid pops up. Howard, after cutting up the finger, starts thinking about the creature to which it was attatched. He realizes it surely had multiple digits and that there were several openings in an average bathroom, and an ominous sound is heard from the toilet. The story ends with the officer lifting the lid after Howard asks, "Final Jeopardy. How much do you want to wager?" In the notes section of "Nightmares & Dreamscapes", King comments that the story is one of the few modern stories written without a reason as to why the events occurred.

Adaptations

* This story appeared in an episode of "Monsters" in 1991.