Weeds (short story)

Infobox short story
name = Weeds
author = Stephen King
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
subject =
genre = Horror short story
publisher = Cavalier (magazine)
pub_date = May 1976
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages =
isbn = "Weeds" (also known as "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill") is a short story by Stephen King. It was first published in Cavalier magazine in May of 1976.

Plot summary

"Weeds" is a darkly humorous story about a backwoods hick farmer in New Hampshire named Jordy Verrill who thinks his newfound discovery of a meteorite will provide enough riches to pay off the remaining $200 of his bank loan, but he instead finds himself overcome by a rapidly spreading plant-like organism that arrives in the meteorite. He makes the mistake of taking a bath to relieve the itching caused by the grass, which waters it instead.

The story ends with Verrill, completely covered by the alien grass and barely resembling a human at this point, killing himself by shotgun, as the grass continues to grow across his property and beyond.

Some aspects of the story are loosely based on "The Colour Out of Space," a short story by King's fellow New Englander and noted influence H.P. Lovecraft. Mostly the idea of a meteorite coming from space and infecting the surrounding environment.

=Film, TV or theatrical adaptations= :"Main article:"Creepshow"The story was made into the second film in Creepshow as "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill", a reference to the Bob Dylan song "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll". Stephen King himself plays the doomed protagonist in the film adaptation. In it, the location of Verrill's farm is changed to Maine. The end was given a cliffhanger ending: a radio forecaster predicts that long periods of rain and sunshine will soon follow.

Connection to Dreamcatcher

It should be noted that the overall storyline of an alien weed spreading across the land without any hope of restraining it is one that King revisited with his novel Dreamcatcher.