After having just re-read Misery, and remembering the profound impact it had not only on King's professional life but on his readers as well, and being surprised that this does not already exist somewhere, I felt that, for those of us so inclined, we should have a forum to bear our wordslinging souls in a unique manner. Ergo, I now introduce the game of Can You? to the site.
For those not in the know, here's how it'll go:
You are presented with a scenario that is probably (but not necessarily; this is at the writer's discretion) "impossible". Your job is to provide a scenario in which you, who will assume the role of the character, could escape the scenario in question. As Annie Wilkes puts it, "it doesn't have to be realistic, just fair." I.e., if you were looking down the barrel of a gun, how would you survive? A fair answer might be that the magazine was exhausted, or the firing mechanism jammed, or a cop shot the would-be murderer, or even that the weapon's wielder was not aiming at you but at a would-be assailant behind you. An unfair answer would be a cheap copout, something that absolutely could not happen in real life, such as you ducked the bullet in midflight, or that it bounced off you because your clothes were so tight. Those of you who have heard tales of the latter have been lied to. I was a Marine and, briefly, a forensic student, and have seen people shot, and let me tell you, the effect tight clothes has is like shooting a snare drum: it only causes more damage to the hollow space between entry and exit, because there is no breath of air in which the velocity of the slug can be retarded, actually increasing its potency.
We understand then, right? Great. In lieu of the ten seconds Paul Sheldon's summer camp instructor allowed in campfire sessions, we shall instead offer you two chances to purvey a logical, or "fair", solution. If you fail both, you must drop out, and the scenario stands and is passed to the next person. (You only drop out for that scenario you have failed; you may take a pass at the next one posed.)
Ready? Here goes.
You have been in an auto wreck. The vehicle lies in an embankment off the side of the road. You, however, lie in the middle of a two-lane highway, numb and immobile. It is dark, after midnight, with no trace of cloud nor star in the sky, and an eighteen-wheeler with a pair of busted headlights bears down upon you ominously. It is the only vehicle (indeed, the only other sign of life) on the road, there are no residences within sight, your cell phone shattered in the collision with the large tree, and your voice, strain though you might, is ragged and hoarse.
Can You?