Gwendy's Final Task (Gwendy's Button Box Trilogy)

by Stephen King

IT’S A BEAUTIFUL APRIL day in Playalinda, Florida, not far from Cape Canaveral. This is the Year of Our Lord 2026,

The old man is Douglas “Dusty” Brigham. His wife is Sheila Brigham. They retired to the town of Destin ten years ago, but they are originally from Castle Rock, Maine. Sheila, in fact, was once the dispatcher in the sheriff’s office.

Gareth Winston stands next to her,

Winston is her least favorite person on this trip to the up-above,

“Save your biggest smiles for the shitheads, and don’t take your eyes off theirs. The women will think you love their earrings. The men will think you’re smitten with them. None of them will know that you’re actually watching their every move.”

Kathy, her auburn hair sparkling with tiny jewels of disinfectant mist, addresses all eight, but it seems to Gwendy that she pays special attention to the senator and the billionaire.

We will achieve Earth orbit in eight minutes and twenty seconds. We will circle the earth for two days, making either thirty-two or thirty-three complete circumnavigations, the orbits varying slightly to create a Christmas bow shape.

This is your final chance to turn around. If you have even the slightest doubt about your ability to pull your weight from ingress to final egress, you must say so now.”

she is of the relentless neurological decay going on in the gray sponge between her ears.

Most weather concerns have to do with lift-off and reentry.

Why she’s saddled with it while suffering the first stages of early-onset Alzheimer’s is less understandable.

she hears Eileen Braddock in Mission Control say, “T-minus five minutes, terminal countdown begins.”

The box inside is the most dangerous thing on Earth. Which is why it must leave Earth.

The third time was in 2019, while she was running for the Senate,

Each time it was brought by a man who always dressed in jeans, a white shirt, a black suitcoat, and a small bowler hat.

Richard Farris.

But what Gwendy needed to do was write books.

“If nothing else, you could slow his roll and give some hope to all the good folks suffering TD.” “Which is what?” “Trump Depression. Come

“You are go for throttle up, Eagle Heavy.” Kathy and Sam together: “Roger.”

but there’s no doubt about the increasing pressure on her body. Gravity doesn’t want to let go.

“Solid booster rocket has separated,” Sam says, to which Dave Graves responds, “Hallelujah. Swivel those jets, BoPeep.”

“We’re going to ban all Chinese imports except for moo-shu pork and General Tso’s chicken.”

Then she was going to go after Senator Paul Magowan with everything she had. As someone with absolutely no chance of winning, she felt good about that.

Ladies and gentlemen, Gwendy Peterson is BACK!”

Steel floats, she marvels. Holy God, I’m in a place where steel floats.

She announced her intentions in August of 2019, with her husband by her side.

“Welcome to the race, little lady—at least you’ll have your books to fall back on when it’s over.”

Richard Farris was sitting in the kitchen, waiting for her. Same clothes, same round black hat, but otherwise how he’d changed. He was old. And sick.

and—of all things—a Keurig coffee maker. Coffee in your cabin, she thinks. The height of space travel luxury.

that looked like the Ranexa her father took for his angina.

The years I was forgiven—there have been many—are rushing back like hungry diners into a restaurant.” He offered his charming little smile. “I’m their buffet.”

“Every year it gains power. Every year its ability to do good grows weaker and its ability to do evil grows stronger. Do you remember the black button, Gwendy?”

“A good name for it. That’s the one with the power to end everything. Not just life on Earth but Earth itself.

Gwendy, but the Vachon woman seemed so right. Yet in the end the box destroyed her, too. Even before I put a bullet in her head, she was destroyed. I’m responsible.”

the memory notebook pinned against her chest by one tightly clenched fist,

She was shivering, and every time she opened her mouth a fleeting misty cloud appeared in front of her face—fairy breath they used to call it when they were kids—yet when Farris spoke, there was nothing, not even a trace.

“But what you choose to do with it is entirely up to you.”

She shuddered, staring down at their intertwined fingers, thinking: He doesn’t feel human. He’s not human.

Richard Farris explained what needed to be done.

The wicker chair was empty. Richard Farris had left the building. Like Elvis.

next. “He was fiddling with the latch on your cabin door.”

The button box, snug in its canvas bag, was waiting for her inside.

This goddamned thing. How I hate it. How I loathe it.

It’s the only place they can’t come for it. You have to try, Gwendy, before it’s too late. You’re the only one I trust.

She owed her husband the truth after all these years, and it would feel good to finally tell it. Damn good.

This year would obviously be a different story. All of a sudden, thanks to the man in the little black hat, she had more important matters to worry about than shoe sales and triple value coupons.

He’d spend half the night moaning and groaning in the bathroom and wake up the next morning swearing that he wasn’t going back next year.

Gwendy finally made it home at 7:45 p.m.

As he explained what had happened—a hit-and-run, her husband of so many years taken in mere instants—Gwendy

“Where?” Thinking she must have misheard. Derry was over a hundred miles north of the Rock ’N Bowl and Billy Franklin’s Rumford apartment.