Stationary Bike

Stephen King brilliantly revisits themes his fans will happily recognize in Stationary Bike - a streamlined fever dream of a tale, in which an ordinary household object assumes otherworldly powers and a familiar journey takes a terrifying twist.When commercial artist Richard Sifkitz finally gets around to having that physical he'd been putting off for years, and his cholesterol comes back dangerously high, he does what so many thirty-something, junkfood-eating couch potatoes have done before him: he buys a stationary bike, and vows to ride it regularly.Unlike many a mid-life exercise convert, however, Richard actually starts to ride his new stationary bike. A lot. Soon he's spending so much time on his bike that he decides to put his artistic talents to use and paint a mural on the wall opposite his stationary bike - a picture of a quiet country lane that he can easily imagine himself pedaling down for hours at a time. But it turns out that Richard's mural is no ordinary picture - and soon his stationary bike is taking him places he doesn't want to go ... and can't stay away from.A riveting riff on artistic frustration, midlife mortality, and hard-won redemption, Stationary Bike is a thrill ride that could come only from the mind of Stephen King.Stationary Bike may be the least-read story Stephen King ever published. It was originally published in the fifth installment of the Borderlands series of horror anthologies, edited by Elizabeth E. and Thomas F. Moneteleone. The anthology was published in two editions:Borderlands 5 (Borderlands Press h/c, 11/03): 1-88032537-3: Bookscan rtd sales: 122 copiesFrom the Borderlands (Warner mm p/b, 9/04): 0-446-61035-6: Bookscan rtd sales: 38,506