Horror Short Story Review: Rainy Season by Stephen King

 

PLOT SUMMARY: John and Elise visit a small town during Rainy Season unaware that it isn't the rain they need to be concerned about.

It isn't often that a story has the capacity to instill fear into me. I know I'm reading a fiction piece; I know not to let it affect me. As a writer I try to learn from what I read which is why I perhaps don't completely immerse myself as a reader would. I do study the story but more as a means to educate myself.

And then I came across Rainy Season, a short story from Stephen King's Nightmares and Dreamscapes, and my resolution to be unaffected by anything I read was thwarted.

Rainy Season and Salem's Lot were the only two stories I have read so far that gave me nightmares. In fact, I couldn't bring myself to reread them because I was sure I would have nightmares again.

Rainy Season especially, gave me nightmares for two consecutive nights.

Years later, I finally read it again, and at first, raining toads seems a bit ludicrous, right? No way could you picture toads falling from the sky and not feel amused by it. But then the event in the story occurs and it is as frightening as one can imagine.

RAINY SEASON Plot

John and Elise travel to Willow, Maine to spend the summer. John is writing a book and it has been barely two years since he married Elise and so is on tenterhooks when it comes to the discomfort he faces during the journey.

They realize they need to buy groceries and come across two locals Henry and Laura, and a dog.

The two locals appear eccentric to John and Elise who think they must be joking when they tell them about the rainy season that occurs every seven years, on June Seventeenth. There's another mention of Route 17 where the couple can get clams. A lot of sevens in there...

Henry and Laura explain to the couple how every seven years a strange phenomenon takes place wherein toads fall from the sky like rain. They insist that it practically "pours" toads. Laura and Henry advise them to stay elsewhere for the night but the couple obviously doesn't believe the locals. Who would, after all? Toads falling from the sky? Pfftt.

It doesn't escape the couple that the town is pretty much deserted. But they still don't suspect something odd is afoot.

Elise and John dine on clams on the way. Elise is concerned about what the locals said and can't bring herself to eat. John is certain that locals are playing a prank on them. In his mind, he has already compared the absurd locals and the situation to that of The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.

They head home and go straight to bed.

Sure enough, Elise wakes up later to the sound if something falling on the roof. She awakens John when she hears more noises. John thinks the townsfolk gathered to throw rocks at the house to spook them.

But that's when all hell breaks loose. The windows shatter, toads pour in. They are gross and black and have pointed needle teeth. They are hellbent on attack and John pretty much busts his toes trying to shake them off him.

The couple fight off as many as they can and the scene is certainly graphic and intense. They decide the only way to escape is to hide in the cellar. The couple barely makes it but the toads have the ability to chew through the wood and doors.

Elise had been screaming and quite hysterical but as more toads pour in and it is obvious that there will be no escaping this nightmare, the fight goes out of her and she is too stunned to react anymore.

John, who had been trying to be brave, loses it in the end and screams as he succumbs to death.

Morning comes and by then the toads have melted away. The only evidence that they had even appeared is the damage left behind.

Laura and Henry lament that the couple couldn't he saved but remind each other that they had warned the couple, they were the ones who didn't believe them and so they must let the ritual continue every seven years.

The ritual is the same. Every seven years a man and a woman come to stay at Willow, Maine. They are warned to spend the night elsewhere. They do not listen. They are killed by the onslaught of toads.

But what is the ritual? Is it supposed to bring prosperity to the small town? The ritual is never explained entirely, but the occurrence, the menacing toads causing havoc, the relentless way in which they go for the kill and the desperation of the couple to fight them off, is palpable and exactly what nightmares are made of.

Read it at your own risk.

Scare Scale: 4/5