Harper\'s Magazine - 03.2020

STORY 67

STORY

THE FIFTH STEP

By Stephen King

H

arold Jamieson,

once chief engi-

neer of New York

City’s sanitation depart-

ment, enjoyed retirement.

He knew from his small

circle of friends that some

didn’t, so he considered

himself lucky. He had an

acre of garden in Queens

that he shared with several

like- minded horticulturists,

he had discovered Netflix,

and he was making inroads

in the books he’d always

meant to read. He still

missed his wife—a victim

of breast cancer five years

previous—but aside from

that persistent ache, his life

was quite full. Before rising

every morning, he reminded

himself to enjoy the day. At

sixty- eight, he liked to think he had a

fair amount of road left, but there was

no denying it had begun to narrow.

The best part of those days—

assuming it wasn’t raining, snowing, or

too cold—was the nine- block walk to

Central Park after breakfast. Although

he carried a cell phone and used an

electronic tablet (had grown depen-

dent on it, in fact), he still preferred

the print version of the Times. In the

park, he would settle on his favorite

bench and spend an hour with it, read-

ing the sections back to front, telling

himself he was progressing from the

sublime to the ridiculous.

One morning in mid- May, the

weather coolish but perfectly adequate

for bench sitting and news-

paper reading, he was an-

noyed to look up from his

paper and see a man sitting

down on the other end of

his bench, although there

were plenty of empty ones in

the vicinity. This invader of

Jamieson’s morning space

looked to be in his mid to

late forties, neither hand-

some nor ugly, in fact per-

fectly non descript. The

same was true of his attire:

New Balance walking shoes,

jeans, a Yankees cap, and a

Yankees hoodie with the

hood tossed back. Jamieson

gave him an impatient side-

glance and prepared to

move to another bench.

“Wait,” the man said.

“I sat down here because

I need a favor. It’s not a big one, but I’ll

pay.” He reached into the kangaroo

pouch of his hoodie and brought out

a twenty- dollar bill.

“I don’t do favors for strange men,”

Jamieson said, and got up.

“But that’s exactly the point—the

two of us being strangers. Hear me out.

If you say no, that’s fine. But please

hear me out. You could ... ” He cleared

his throat, and Jamieson realized the

Stephen King’s story “Batman and Robin

Have an Altercation” appeared in the Sep-

tember 2012 issue of Harper’s Magazine.

Central Park Conservancy Gardens, by Frank Lupo © The artist