"Here There Be Tygers" is a short horror story by Stephen King. It was originally published in the Spring 1968 issue of ''

Ubris ''Ubris'' was a literary journal published by the University of Maine. It is most notable for having published a number of Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, sus ...

'' magazine, and collected in King's ''

Skeleton Crew A skeleton crew is the minimum number of personnel needed to operate and maintain an item such as a business, organization, or ship at its most simple operating requirements. Skeleton crews are often utilized during an emergency and are meant to ...

'' in 1985. This story is extremely short, and written from the perspective of a boy who believes a

tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on ...

is lurking in his school bathroom. The title references the phrases used by medieval cartographers when they put warnings on unexplored portions of their maps. The phrase was also used in King's later story "

The Reploids "The Reploids" is a science fiction short story by American writer Stephen King. It was first published in the 1988 book '' Night Visions 5''. Plot summary The story takes place on 29 November 1989. A mysterious man named Edward Paladin shows ...

." In the

film version A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...

of King's novel ''

The Dark Half ''The Dark Half'' is a horror novel by American writer Stephen King, published in 1989. ''Publishers Weekly'' listed ''The Dark Half'' as the second best-selling book of 1989 behind Tom Clancy's ''Clear and Present Danger''. The novel was adapt ...

'', the story Thad's mother looks at is a copy of this story. As Stephen King noted in the foreword to ''Skeleton Crew'', this is one of the first stories King ever wrote. It was written when King was a high school student.

Plot

Charles is a third grader. He needs to use the bathroom in the school's basement, and his teacher Miss Bird humiliates him by addressing his need in front of the class. ("Very well Charles. You may go to the bathroom and urinate. Is that what you need to do? Urinate?") Arriving at the lavatory, he peeks around the corner and sees a tiger lying on the bathroom floor. He stands at the door, too afraid to enter. Eventually, a child named Kenny Griffen comes to get him. Charles begins to cry and Kenny leads him in to the bathroom, reassuring him that he imagined the tiger. Kenny goes around the corner and disappears. Charles escapes from the bathroom, and when he forces himself to go back in, he sees the tiger has a torn piece of Kenny's shirt on its claw, and notes that the air smells of blood. Charles, seeing no other option, relieves himself in the sink, but Miss Bird catches him. She goes around the corner to find Kenny, and Charles leaves the bathroom and returns to class, leaving Miss Bird with the tiger.

References

1968 short stories Horror short stories Tigers in literature Short stories by Stephen King Works originally published in Ubris {{1960s-horror-story-stub

Plot

See also

References