Alex Weller’s Reviews > Night Shift > Status Update

Katrina was supposed to go to business college after high school, but ended up entering a beauty contest that were followed by two marriages that ended in divorce, which left her broken and depressed. Larry was never able to visit her due to law school and his job, but they exchanged letters until Katrina stopped writing. Then Larry moved but never wrote Katrina to tell her he did. Damn.

That night, Kitty confessed to Larry that she didn't know he was making a mini haystack but let go of the ladder rung anyway because she trusted him to save her. She spent less than a month in a cast. The ladder was replaced but neither one played the game afterward. Larry then reveals that nine days ago, Katrina committed suicide by swan-diving off the roof of a building. Holy shit!

Kitty escaped the situation with merely a broken ankle, which the doctor described as a miracle. Larry's father paddled him harshly for the incident and told him to thank God with every paddle that Kitty was still alive. And that's exactly what Larry did.

Just started reading the seventeenth story, "The Last Rung on the Ladder". After getting a letter from his sister Katrina, a lawyer named Larry recounts a game the two played as kids: climbing a rickety barn ladder, walking across a beam, and diving into a haystack. One day, the ladder broke while Kitty was climbing it, forcing Larry to build a small makeshift haystack for her. She fell into it but survived.

Finished "Children of the Corn"! Nine-year-old preacher Isaac announces that He Who Walks Behind the Rows is angry at their failure to sacrifice Burt and has lowered the Age of Favor to eighteen. Pregnant cult member Ruth is upset to see her fiancee Malachi be sacrificed and secretly wishes to burn the corn, but she fears it too much. Overall, great story!

Burt and Vicky arrive in the town of Gatlin but find out the occupants are a cult of children who worship He Who Walks Behind the Rows. In 1964, they killed the adults and started sacrificing themselves when they turned 19. The kids kidnap Vicky and kill her. Burt tries to run away through the corn, but stumbles into the holy place of He Who Walks Behind the Rows and is killed by the God. Holy shit!

Just started reading the sixteenth story, "Children of the Corn". Dysfunctional couple Burt and Vicky are on a road trip to rekindle their marriage when they run over a kid who barged out of the cornfield with a slit throat. As they continue down the road, they hear a teenage preacher give a sermon on the radio, lambasting "defilers of the corn", and Vicky finds a corn crucifix in the boy's suitcase. Creepy!

Finished "I Know What You Need"! Beth goes to Ed's house and discovers that Ed used voodoo to manipulate her into wanting him and even kill Tony. Ed returns and angrily declares his love for her and jealousy for her popularity. Beth stomps on the voodoo doll and breaks up with him, but Ed claims she'll want him back someday. Feeling sorry for him, she throws his magic stuff off a bridge. Overall, good story!

Beth takes a bus into town and contemplates whether she really loved Ed or if she only loved his ability because it provided her with a mirror of herself, showing only what she wanted to see. She gets off the bus, feeling very lonely.

Alice reveals to Beth that Ed has been lying about a lot of things, so she hired a private detective to get info on him. Turns out, Ed knew Beth back in the first grade and helped his father win at gambling and the stock market as a kid. His mother believed he was a demon and tried to kill him twice. He's been using his powers to manipulate Beth into loving him. But Beth doesn't wanna hear it and storms away.