'Salem's Lot

The prologue opens weeks or months after the events in ’salem’s Lot are over. Ben Mears and Mark Petrie travel south and west away from New England. Along the way, they look in a Maine newspaper for articles about strange happenings in Jerusalem’s Lot. Mark displays oblique disinterest in the newspapers and will not talk about what happened. Eventually, Ben finds a story about a ghost town in Maine called “Ghost Town in Maine?”

The article says that no one lives in Jerusalem’s Lot now. A little over a year ago, people began to disappear, though some were found in nearby towns or across the country. None of the people who were found would talk about what happened. The article lists other missing people whose current whereabouts are unknown. Ben knows some of them were killed or converted by the vampires.

Mark makes his first confession, and the village priest comes to visit Ben. Ben tells him Mark’s confession is true. The priest asks Ben what he intends to do about Jerusalem’s Lot. Ben decides to go back and burn the vampires out forever. He asks Mark if he will go with him. Mark asks if Ben loves him. When Ben says yes, he begins to weep. Ben lies awake that night, remembering.

The epigraph (19) for Part 1 comprises the opening paragraph of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. The narrator describes the imposing “darkness” and “stillness” of an old, haunted home.

On September 5, 1975, the moderately successful author Ben Mears returns to Jerusalem’s Lot after 25 years. He is startled by a motorcycle cutting him off as he drives; the incident reminds him of the accident two years ago in which his wife, Miranda, died. He wonders if he is foolish to come back and considers abandoning his plan. As he debates, he looks up and sees the Marsten House.

The Marsten House seems unchanged from the last time he saw it, when he was fleeing from the horror within. Hunched in its weedy lot like the prototypical haunted house, the Marsten House conveys a sense of madness.

Ben speculates as to what one would witness if they entered: rotting wallpaper, junk, the smell of wet plaster, the sound of vermin in the wall, an ominous door on the second floor. Cutting off the memory, he decides to see if he can lease the house.

A few days later, Ben watches a pretty girl on a park bench reading his second novel. The girl introduces herself as Susan Norton. Ben makes conversation about inconsequential beginnings sometimes making for monumental events. The girl laughs and asks Ben to sign her book. Susan was born around the time Ben left the Lot, making her seven or eight years older than he assumed. She plans to go to New York someday, maybe to work in a publishing house. Ben tells her not to move to New York unless she has job offers lined up. His advice makes Susan uncomfortable, but she acquiesces that he knows more than she does. She changes the subject and is excited to learn that he is writing a new book. They make plans to see a movie together and reflect on how natural the coincidence of their meeting seems.

Nolly Gardner, the deputy constable of Jerusalem’s Lot, calls Constable Parkins Gillespie’s attention to Ben and Susan together. He remarks that Floyd Tibbits is not going to be happy about some other man hanging around his woman. Parkins replies that Susan is a grown woman and free to do as she likes. Word has it that Ben Mears tried to lease the Marsten place through Larry Crockett, the realtor, but the house had already been sold. Crockett has also sold the Village Washtub, a long defunct laundromat.

The narration describes the origins and environs of Jerusalem’s Lot. The town was incorporated in 1765 and remains an idyllic rural countryside insulated from the concerns of the rest of the country, almost a place out of time: “Nothing too nasty could happen in such a nice little town” (44).

Susan’s mother, Ann Norton, is ironing when Susan bursts in, gushing about meeting Ben. Mrs. Norton passive-aggressively asks if Floyd Tibbits, whom Susan has been dating, would like Ben’s book. Susan reminds her mother that there is “nothing firm” between herself and Floyd. They squabble over Mrs. Norton’s assumption that Susan and Floyd will marry.

Ben and Susan enjoy a movie in Portland. Driving home, Ben tells Susan about his impulse to rent the Marsten House while he writes his book. Susan is surprised to hear that the Marsten House was purchased. The story of Hubert Marsten and his wife, Birdy, is infamous in the town. Hubie Marsten built his house in 1929. In 1939, Hubie shot Birdy and hanged himself. No one has lived there since.

Susan has never been inside the house. Ben has. He was nine years old and went in on a dare. He went upstairs to the room where Hubie Marsten hanged himself. There, he saw Hubie hanging from an overhead beam. The apparition opened its eyes, and Ben ran screaming from the house.

Looking toward the Marsten House from the back porch of Ben’s rooming house, they see a light in an upper window. Susan tells Ben that she likes him. He replies that he likes her too, and it surprises him. Their connection feels fortuitous or fated.

The author goes through a day in the life of the town. At 6:05 a.m., 17-year-old Sandy McDougall is awakened by her 10-month-old son, Randy. She drags herself out of bed and finds the baby with poop smeared all over his hands, his hair, and the wall. He is screaming. She screams back and hits him several times.

10:00 a.m. is recess hour at Stanley Elementary school. Richie Boddin, the school bully, searches for Mark Petrie, the new kid. Mark knows if he lets Richie get the better of him now, he will be taking abuse for as long as he lives in salem’s Lot. Richie charges him. Mark trips the much bigger boy, jumps on his back, and twists his arm until Richie cries uncle.

At 12:00 noon realtor Larry Crockett thinks uneasily about deals with the devil. Over a year ago, he sold the Marsten House and the disused laundromat to Richard Throckett Straker and his business partner, Kurt Barlow. Crockett purchased the properties himself and signed them over to Straker and Barlow, and in exchange, they signed over to him a piece of land worth several million dollars.

At 5:00 p.m. Matthew Burke leaves his job as an English teacher at the high school. On his way home from school, he passes the Marsten House and sees a car parked in the driveway.

At 7:30 p.m. Danny Glick and his little brother Ralphie take a shortcut through the woods to Mark Petrie’s house. It is already full dark, and whippoorwills are calling. They feel they are being watched. Ralphie points to something in the shadows of the woods. Danny turns and looks, and darkness falls over him.

At 11:59 p.m. at the cemetery, a dark figure prays to the Lord of Flies to accept a sacrifice of spoiled meat and stinking flesh and asks for a sign to begin his master’s work. The man—Straker—sacrifices Ralphie Glick.