Plot summary
Katie Weiderman is talking to her sister on the phone one night. Her husband, Bill, a famous horror novel writer, is in his study trying to find inspiration for a new novel. Her children are arguing about whether or not to watch ''Ghost Kiss'', a gory TV adaptation of Bill's earlier novel. Katie receives a second phone call. The incoming call is a sobbing and traumatized caller who sputters, "Take... please take..." before the line goes dead. Katie immediately assumes the call came from her daughter Polly, who is away at boarding school, but a call to Polly proves otherwise. Katie also rules out her mother, but she cannot reach her sister Dawn. Katie and Bill rush over to Dawn's house; despite the appearance of forced entry, Dawn is all right and did not call. Assuming that someone must have dialed the wrong number, Katie forgets about the call. That night, Katie finds her husband slumped in his chair, dead from a heart attack. The story then jumps forward in time to Polly's wedding day, five years to the day after Bill's death. Katie has remarried, but she still misses Bill. On the anniversary of Bill's death, Katie is in Bill's old office and she finds an old VHS tape of ''Ghost Kiss'' and puts it into the player. She is immediately overcome with grief as she recalls the events of five years past. Dazed, she grabs the phone and dials her old phone number. She is startled when the phone is answered by herself five years previously. She tries to warn her younger self of the tragedy that is about to happen, and tries to say, "Take him to the hospital! If you want him to live, take him to the hospital! He's going to have a heart attack!" In her state of shock, she is only able to say, "Take... please take...," before the line goes dead. She realizes the truth of what happened that night, and the episode ends with Katie sobbing over her lost opportunity to save her husband and a close-up shot of the ominous-looking telephone.Release
The episode is available on VHS as part of volume 4 of the ''Tales from the Darkside'' compilation, as well as part of the complete collection released on DVD on October 19, 2010.See also
* Strange loop * Stephen King short fiction bibliography * List of ''Tales from the Darkside'' episodesReferences
External links
* (short film) * (TV episode) {{Media based on Stephen King works 1987 American television episodes Television shows based on works by Stephen King Short stories by Stephen King Horror short stories Horror television episodes Television episodes written by Stephen King