The Shining (Kubrick Version)

Part 3: One Month Later

A month had passed since Closing Day and the Torrances were settled in. There had been no snow yet, but as of this day, it had been expected within a week's time. The first few days were nice. They had been quite overjoyed about being in a hotel all alone. It gave them a sense of rebellion. But once night came, the hotel was spooky. Wendy felt too spooked to go outside at night, all with the big empty carpark, a huge empty hedge maze, playground, picnic area and other facilities. Jack was the only one who went inside. The dining room was also spooky. All the empty tables and chairs lifted up in a massive room felt like the apocalypse had come. The lobby was sort of spooky too, but not as spooky as the other two. The only sections which weren't that spooky were the empty corridors where the rooms were and their quarters, so as soon as sunset came, the Torrances would go to their quarters. However, Danny's TV time had become quite frequent. Jack and Wendy had decided sneakily to surprise Danny and they got a television from one of the rooms and placed it in Danny's bedroom, with a rule that it mustn't be used at bedtime. Danny had been ecstatic and had been watching several VHS tapes that Wendy had bought from the shop down in Sidewinder on the way to the hotel and Wendy had been watching a variety of programs in their quarters living room/bedroom, distracting Jack from his writing. He had picked up his typewriter and placed it on a table in The Colorado Lounge, and there he had worked in the quiet night until late. He would crawl into bed well after midnight and made love some nights to his wife. On this morning, Wendy had woken up rather late and had gone downstairs to cook breakfast. She walked through the empty dining room and stopped to look outside the large windows. It was quite dim, despite it being 10:30am. But winter was coming in less then a month and she expected it to be like Alaska up here when the snow came in. She walked into the kitchen and cooked Jack breakfast. Two eggs, four strips of bacon, roasted tomatoes and two sausages. Jack would love it. Wendy's breakfast scramble. She cooked it to perfection, thanks to the extremely pricey and fancy kitchen appliances. It looked much better than what the cheap $60 stove back in their apartment had provided. She was about to pick it up and carry it, but thought of an exciting idea that she hadn't done. She walked to the kitchen supply storage and bought out a trolley, specifically used to carry food. It was shiny and squeaky clean and Wendy thought this would have to be the happiest she has ever felt in her entire life. She put the dish on the trolley, along with some freshly roasted coffee for herself and some orange juice for Jack and wheeled it to the elevator. As she walked through the lobby, all empty and the lights switched off, for the first time, she felt 100% at ease. The chairs, empty registration desk, locked doors, packed away items and the shadows didn't make her feel uncomfortable at all now. She was relieved. 

Danny was riding his tricycle through the hotel. His main riding course was through The Colorado Lounge's right hand side, next to the large windows which showed the hedge maze and backyard of the hotel, around the corner where the large fireplace stood and around the other corner through the other side of The Colorado Lounge. There were suites on this floor, around on his right, but he had rarely gone through there. He felt it easier to do laps of The Colorado Lounge, and in a way, safer and more comfortable. It also gave him a feeling of rebellion. The large lounge room, with all its empty chairs and tables clear of stuff, the large staircase not being tread upon by any of the guests or hotel staff. It was, in fact, a beautiful feeling. Danny hadn't seen many ghosts yet. He had seen two people one night from his bedroom window, a man and woman dressed in fancy 1920s fashion, and just as they were about to walk towards the back entrance, they had vanished. It had scared Danny, but he didn't dare tell his parents. He didn't want to leave, despite the danger signs that were visible to him. What would happen if they left? They would be homeless, of course. Destined to be on the streets or in a diseased homeless shelter, where there were druggos, rednecks and the occasional pedophile who liked to touch children in the shelter's bathroom. Danny didn't know much about pedophiles, but he had heard Jack telling Wendy one night as he played with his toy cars that his school had had a strange man lurking outside and later on, when school had finished, he had tried to take a girl and her little brother into his car, with the promise of a puppy. The two terrified children had ran to the staff office and the principal had immediately called the police. Wendy had asked if any children had been taken. Jack said not that he knew of, the school hadn't had any reports of missing children but that now the school was going to get police to stand around the borders and look for the son of a bitch. Wendy had shuddered and said that she hated pedophiles. Jack had agreed. Danny was curious and later, when himself and his mother were at the library, he had went to the non fiction section and looked at the kidnappers section. A book showed a rather disturbing man, who had been sent to death row in 1942 for raping, torturing and murdering a five year old boy who had been missing since 1937 and was finally found buried. Danny didn't have the slightest idea what rape was, but when his mother had watched a crime show that night when Jack was out drinking, the police were looking for a pedophile who had allegedly touched a seven year old girl while she was playing hide and seek with her friend and she had been hiding near the public toilets in a bushy area. Danny never wanted that to happen and the thought of that happening at a homeless shelter terrified him, so he had kept his mouth shut. Dismissing this from his mind, he continued to ride his tricycle around the empty Colorado Lounge, wishing that there was a better alternative to what was offered.