The Shining

After Wendy and Jack have sex that night, she thinks about their past. They met in college and moved in together after a semester. He helped her break away from her domineering mother. Relatively early in their relationship, Jack asked for a brief separation to see if Wendy would choose him over her father, who also held an undue amount of influence over her. When Wendy chose Jack, he proposed immediately, but her mother did not come to the wedding.

Danny’s birth helped Wendy reconcile with her mother. Wendy stayed at home with Danny, and Jack’s drinking was under control at the time. He wrote for an hour each day and was well-respected. Moreover, Wendy enjoyed listening to his long talks with students in their home.

Jack got the Stovington job because of four published short stories. The night Esquire accepted a story, Jack celebrated with his friends. He came home drunk at four in the morning and dropped Danny.

Wendy remembers the morning after he broke Danny’s arm; she was going to ask for a divorce and had already been considering it for six months. It surprised her when he asked for a week away, and then surprised her more as the weeks went on without him drinking. She never knew what changed Jack, but she assumed there must have been an important incident involved.

Wendy was in “awe” (50) of Danny; she also dreaded him, like an irrational superstition. His face had been covered with a caul at birth, a rare but harmless membrane which, to superstitious folks, is a sign of precognitive abilities. She admits to herself that Danny was the main reason she stayed with Jack: Danny adored his father, and she could not deprive her son of that relationship. She felt that Danny was opposed to divorce, even though he was too young to know what it was.

Danny wakes, again hearing the voice of the man with the hammer. He looks at the street through his window. He hears Tony calling, then sees the word REDRUM against a black backdrop.