The Things They Left Behind is King’s latest short story and you can find it in the collection Transgressions edited by Ed McBain. King’s contribution is the shortest in the collection (27 pages) but it’s a good one. It’s King’s 9/11 story…

The Things They Left Behind is about Scott Staley who after avoiding the 9/11 disaster starts receiving items that belonged to his fellow co-workers, co-workers that worked in the Twin Towers when the planes came. It’s things that they had on their desks or around the office. Things that was special to them.

At night he can hear the items talk and tell the story of what happened to their owners that day, horrific things. He tries to get rid of them but every time he does they come back. He even tries to give them to a neighbor but she soon return them, unable to stand what the items tell her. More and more items show up until he finally understands why they keep coming back…and what he has to do with them!

The Things They Left Behind is a nice story about a terrible thing. I don’t know if it’s King’s way to process his feelings about what happened but it sure could be. It’s interesting to see how King puts this terrible event in a story and get a really nice one out of it. The Things They Left Behind is about a nice way to handle a terrible thing. Read it!

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