The Shining Chapter 16 Summary

Danny

• Happily, Wendy listens to the sound of Jack typing.
• This is one of the best writing periods of his life, and he plans to be done with the play, called The Little School "by the end of the year, for better or worse, and then he'd be on to something new" (16.1).
• Wendy is happy that Jack is writing, because she feels like it helps him shut "a huge door on a room full of monsters" (16.1).
• Danny is working hard right now on learning to read. He has the Dick and Jane books Wendy bought for him and "the workbook pages his father made up for him every afternoon" (14.6).
• The intensity of Danny's studying worries her. She doesn't like it at all. When he gets very excited over some sentences, she decides it's time for him to go to bed.
• He goes in to kiss Jack goodnight. He tells his father that Mommy made him stop reading.
• Jack says that 8:30 is too late to be up studying.
• Danny goes into the bathroom to brush his teeth, locking the door behind him for privacy.
• Wendy sits in his room to wait for him. She sees the wasps' nest. She wonders if the thing is clean and decides to ask the doctor tomorrow.
• Hmmm. The water is still running in the bathroom. Wendy calls to Danny.
• He doesn't answer. She pounds and yells -- no answer. Jack gets up from his desk, irritated, and knocks on the door, saying, "Stop fooling, doc. Bedtime's bedtime. Spanking if you don't open up" (16.44).
• Wendy is worried. Jack hasn't hurt Danny since the arm incident two years ago; now he sounds angry enough to hurt him.
• Jack yells another threat of physical violence. He kicks the door down. The water is running in the sink.
• Danny is sitting on the ledge of the bathtub, staring and dazed; Wendy wonders if he's "having some sort of epileptic seizure" (16.52).
• Jack pushes Wendy out of the way really hard and kneels in front of Danny.
• Danny is saying strange things, in a deep voice, like a much older boy. Jack shakes him. Danny says "Roque. Stroke. Redrum" (15.59).
• Danny comes back, stuttering, and Jack screams at him. Frightened and disoriented, Danny starts crying.
• Jack hugs him, apologizing, just like he did after he broke Danny's arm.
• Wendy feels like she's back in that time. Going to Danny, she takes him from Jack's arms. Jack doesn't look happy about this.
• Danny says he saw Tony inside the mirror and he says he doesn't remember what happened after that, or what Tony showed him.
• When pressed, Danny gets a little upset, so Wendy drops it. She asks him if he wants her to read him a story, but he doesn't. He wants Jack to put him to bed.
• When Danny is falling asleep he asks Jack if he'd ever hurt him and Wendy. Shocked, Jack says he would not. Danny says Tony told him about the game of roque.
• He asks Jack if he knows what "Redrum" means. Jack thinks he's saying "red drum" (16.130).
• Now Danny is asleep and Jack is feeling guilty. He wishes he had a drink.
• Jack tells Wendy he's really glad they have a doctor's appointment for Danny in the morning. If Danny is sick, Jack is sending Wendy and Danny to stay with Wendy's mother. He has to keep the job, because he has no other options, but he doesn't want to put them at risk.
• Wendy tells Jack how much she and Danny love him. She also tells him how much it would hurt Danny to be away from Jack. If she has to, she'll get a job in a nearby town, but she isn't going to her mom's.
• Jack tells her not to worry and they go to sleep.
• Meanwhile, Danny is having the Redrum vision/dream again. He's running from the angry, drunk person chasing him with the roque mallet. He almost sees the face of the person, but then he wakes up because there is a creeping sensation on his hand.
• Three wasps are on his hand and he starts screaming.
• Jack and Wendy wake up and rush in. Jack starts killing wasps, in a frenzy, then puts Danny in he and Wendy's bed.
• Down in the kitchen Jack finds a clear glass baking dish with high sides. Back upstairs, he covers the nest with it.
• Wendy and Danny are both looking at him "reproachfully" (16.210).
• Danny's hand is swelling really badly. Wendy sprays it with something and gives him some baby aspirin.
• Jack starts taking pictures of Danny's hand. He wants to sue the company that makes the bug bomb. The bomb must have been defective.
• Wendy and Danny are in bed; Danny will sleep with his parents tonight. Jack goes to Danny's room to get a picture of the nest.
• Under the glass dish, the nest is teaming with wasps now. There might be a hundred wasps.
• He can't understand. He remembers shaking the dead wasps from the nest after he'd bombed it.
• Jack slides the glass dish onto a puzzle of Danny's so he can take the nest downstairs. He puts it outside, still under glass, so the wasps will freeze to death overnight.
• Going back upstairs he promises himself he won't lose his temper again, no matter what.