Mrs. Todd's Shortcut

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"Mrs. Todd's Shortcut"
Author	Stephen King
Country	USA
Language	English
Genre(s)	Short story
Published in	Redbook (1st release), Skeleton Crew
Publication type	Magazine (1st release)
Media type	Print (Paperback)
Publication date	1984

Mrs. Todd's Shortcut is a story by Stephen King, first published in 1984 in Redbook magazine, and collected in the 1985 anthology Skeleton Crew.

[edit] Plot summary

The story is detailed to a friend of Homer, an older man who enjoys spending time at the gas station.
The plot concerns Mrs. Todd, who is obsessed with finding shortcuts. Homer admires her persistence but begins to have doubts, as there are only so many shortcuts someone can find. Mrs. Todd's habit of resetting her odometer shows remarkable evidence that something weird is going on. He also discovers evidence that her shortcuts are using up less miles than are in a straight line from one destination to another; something that would be impossible anyway in this section of Maine. Mrs. Todd finally convinces Homer to take one of the special 'shortcuts'. Homer loses his hat to the grasping arms of a tree and sees road signs and animals that he cannot explain. Frightened, Homer does not wish to take any more rides. Nonetheless, Mrs. Todd is changing with each trip she takes, and the appeal of this overwhelms Homer, despite his having found a smashed, horrifying creature on the grill of her car (she brushes this off, having perceived it as an unfortunate, normal animal).

The story ends with Homer, who is looking younger himself, getting into Mrs. Todd's car in front of his friend. It is implied that Mrs. Todd (who by this time is considered missing together with her car) will now take him into whatever new world that she has found a shortcut to.