Language English Publication date 1974 Country United States of America | Originally published 1974 | |
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Adaptations Sometimes They Come Back (1991), Sometimes They Come Back... for More (1998) Similar Stephen King books, Other books | ||
"Sometimes They Come Back" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the March 1974 issue of Cavalier and later collected in King's 1978 collection Night Shift.
Contents
Plot summary
In 1957, nine-year-old Jim Norman and his twelve-year-old brother, Wayne, walk to the local library to return Jim's books. They are attacked by a gang of local greasers. Wayne is stabbed to death by two of the older boys, but Jim escapes.
In 1974, Jim is married. He returns to his home town of Stratford, Connecticut, to accept a job as an English teacher. All seems to go well until after the Christmas holiday. Jim learns that one of his students was killed in a hit and run accident. A new student is added to Jim's class. Jim recognizes the boy as Robert Lawson, one of the greasers who killed his brother. Lawson appears to be the same age as he was in 1957.
Another student falls to her death a week later, and another of the greasers, David Garcia, joins Jim's class. He also appears to be the same age as he was in 1957.
When a third student disappears - after expressing to Jim his concerns about the suspicious new arrivals - a third greaser, Vincent 'Vinnie' Corey, joins the class. Terrified, Jim calls an old acquaintance, Donald Nell, a policeman who knew him and his brother in 1957. Donald reveals that the three greasers died in a car accident soon after Wayne's murder; they were electrocuted when they crashed their car into a telephone pole.
Jim does not tell his wife Sally about the greasers, believing it would be better for her not to know. Sally is killed while riding a taxi cab when the resurrected greasers force the vehicle off the road. Jim decides to take justice into his own hands. He finds a spell to summon a demon, and asks that it defeat the undead greasers. In answer to his summons, Wayne appears and kills the greasers.
Adaptations
A TV movie adaptation aired in 1991, starring Tim Matheson as Jim. The story was originally planned to be part of the 1985 film, Cat's Eye (which included two other stories adapted from Night Shift: "The Ledge" and "Quitters, Inc"). However, producers thought the segment would do better on its own.
In the film adaptation, Jimmy's brother Wayne comes back after Mueller (one of the original greasers who had survived the crash) sacrifices himself; he learned from the resurrected greasers that a dead person can come back when a living person dies. Jim's wife is not killed. Wayne's return is not sinister, and instead gives Wayne closure, allowing him to move on to the afterlife.
The TV movie was followed by two straight-to-video sequels in 1996 (Sometimes They Come Back... Again) and 1998 (Sometimes They Come Back... for More).