From international bestseller Stephen King, a classic story that engages our emotions on the most primal level, a fairy tale grimmer than Grimm but aglow with a girls indomitable spirit.What if the woods were full of them? And of course they were, the woods were full of everything you didnt like, everything you were afraid of and instinctively loathed, everything that tried to overwhelm you with nasty, no-brain panic. The brochure promised a moderate-to-difficult six-mile hike on the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trail, where nine-year-old Trisha Mc Farland was to spend Saturday with her older brother Pete and her recently divorced mother. When she wanders off to escape their constant bickering, then tries to catch up by attempting a shortcut through the woods, Trisha strays deeper into a wilderness full of peril and terror. Especially when night falls. Trisha has only her wits for navigation, only her ingenuity as a defense against the elements, only her courage and faith to withstand her mounting fear. For solace she tunes her Walkman to broadcasts of Boston Red Sox games and the gritty performances of her hero, number thirty-six, relief pitcher Tom Gordon. And when her radios reception begins to fade, Trisha imagines that Tom Gordon is with herher key to surviving an enemy known only by the slaughtered animals and mangled trees in its wake.