The Gingerbread Girl

"The Gingerbread Girl" is a short story by Stephen King that was originally published in the July issue of "Esquire" magazine on June 15 of 2007. It will be included as the second entry in King's 2008 short-fiction collection "Just After Sunset".

Plot summary

In the emotional aftermath of her baby's sudden death, Emily starts running. Soon, she runs away from her husband, to the airport, down to the Florida Gulf and out to the loneliest stretch of Vermillion Key, where her father has offered the use of a conch shack he has kept there for years. Emily keeps up her running. She always runs barefoot everywhere, running on the beach and on the roads, and she sees virtually no one anywhere. This is doing her all kinds of good, until one day she makes the grim mistake of looking into the driveway of a man named Jim Pickering. He also enjoys the privacy of Vermillion Key, but the young women he brings home suffer the consequences. And when Emily finds herself in the den of a madman, she will do anything she must to escape the nightmare.

Trivia

A man named Charlie Pickering appears as a minor antagonist in King's 1994 novel "Insomnia".