Summary

King declares that a story about the end of the world is a good place to end his collection. He was thinking of the 1986 Harley Softail which he loved, but no longer rides because his reflexes are too slow. He remembers a ride he took during which he watched the sunset in Kansas. He thought it was the “finest sunset of my life” (480).

In “Summer Thunder,” Robinson’s life after the certain deaths of his wife and daughter had improved after he rescued a stray dog he called Gandalf. They mostly stayed in Robinson’s house near the lake. On June 6, Robinson’s wife and daughter had been in Boston checking out prospective colleges.

Timlin, the only other person still alive in the area, said they were doomed. Robinson concentrated on how beautiful things were with no boats on the lake and little...