Funny / Skeleton Crew

• In the "Notes" section at the end of the book, King relates a priceless story related to "The Raft"—a story of late-night drunk driving, some traffic cones, a trip to jail, and a real-life, honest-to-God Deus ex Machina. King had submitted an early version of the tale, called "The Float," to Adam, a girlie magazine, which paid only upon publication. While driving drunk, a traffic cone dislodged his muffler, and in a righteous drunken fury he started driving through the town of Orono, collecting them. A cop caught him, and asked, "Son, are those traffic cones yours?" King represented himself in court a month later and lost, having to pay a fine of two hundred and fifty dollars within thirty days. Lo and behold, he received a check from Adam for exactly that amount. He paid his fine and vowed to go straight and never mess with traffic cones again. As he puts it, "Straight I have not exactly gone, but believe me when I say I'm quits with the cones." At the end of his anecdote, he adds that he never even saw "The Float" in any Adam magazine, although he checked regularly, and asks his readers if anyone has a copy they could Xerox and send to him, just to "make sure it was published somewhere other than the Twilight Zone."
  • The story also doubles as a Moment of Awesome.
• In "The Jaunt", the eccentric scientist Victor Carune is attempting to hitch a ride into town after conducting experiments with his new technology. Someone does stop and offer him a lift, and asks what he's got in the paper sack. He truthfully answers "dead mice." When the next car stops, he goes with "sandwiches."

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