The Stand

Too frightened to ride his motorcycle after his near-accident, Larry journeys on foot through New Hampshire. He is almost delirious from lack of sleep because nightmares of the dark man haunt him. “It was the devil, and he was stalking Larry with a lightless grin frozen on his face” (504).

In the middle of the afternoon, Larry comes to a white farmhouse where he decides to rest. He doesn’t realize that a woman and a young boy who wears only undershorts and brandishes a butcher knife observe him. The boy wants to kill Larry as he sleeps, but the woman commands him to stop. She says they will follow the man to decide if it’s safe to approach him.

When he awakens, Larry goes in search of a bicycle and continues his journey. The woman and boy travel close behind. Larry now senses someone following him but chooses to let his pursuers reveal themselves in their own time. He crosses the Maine state line, still followed by the woman and boy. Near the town of Wells, Larry makes a detour to sit by the ocean, feeling a sense of relief to have reached land’s-end. The boy unexpectedly charges him with the knife, but Larry drops him to the ground and disarms him.