by Lori Savery-Hinze

Created on: April 28, 2010

The Gingerbread Girl, by Stephen King, was originally published as a novella in the July 2007 issue of Esquire magazine. In 2008, it was released as an audio book read by Mare Winningham and in a story collection by Stephen King called Just After Sunset.

The story begins with the line: “After the baby died, Emily took up running.” From the progression of this opening, the reader learns that running is a completely new sport to Emily, but it quickly becomes an obsession following the crib death of her daughter Amy. With each run, she runs a little farther and a little faster, exploring the limits of her endurance. Sometimes she runs to the point of complete exhaustion, sweating, stumbling, and vomiting.

As Em’s husband Henry learns about her extreme running, he confronts her, suggesting she is using the running as an unhealthy way to avoid dealing with her grief. His rationality causes her anger to snap. She throws a paperback book at him and runs right out the door, wearing only her sneakers, shorts, T-shirt, and a fanny pack. She feels exhilarated, and after two miles of running, suspects the feeling is more than temporary. With this realization, she uses a credit card from her fanny pack to check into a hotel.

Upon checking in to the hotel, she calls her father, Rusty Jackson, and explains she has left Henry for a while. He agrees to let her stay at his conch shack on Vermillion Key. She then calls Henry and tells him of her plan. She requests her half of the college fund they had started for Amy. Henry asks if this is the end of them. Em says she doesn’t know, but Henry thinks it is.

Vermillion Key offers just the solitude Emily had hoped for. In the summer through early fall, the beach has few tourists, and most of the homes are empty. Her daily routine consists of eating and running, and the routine starts to bring her some comfort. On one of her daily runs, Deke Hollis, who runs the island’s drawbridge, warns Em about a resident of the island, Jim Pickering. Hollis explains that Pickering always drives to the island with a different “niece” every summer, and they return by boat. Em finds this an odd bit of gossip and asks Hollis if her dad had put him up to checking on her. Hollis says that’s not Rusty Jackson’s style, but Hollis just wants Em to know that Pickering is “not a very nice man.”

As Em continues her run, she spots a Mercedes in front of one of the more elaborate mansions on

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