Rush Call

"Rush Call" is a short story by Stephen King. Originally published in his brother's self-published newspaper Dave's Rag in 1960, it was later collected in the 2000 work Secret Windows.

Plot summary
The story takes place on Christmas Eve. The "Scrooge-like" character Dr. Thorpe volunteers to attend the scene of a traffic collision, where a boy with acute appendicitis is trapped in a car. After successfully removing the boy's appendix in a four-hour operation, Thorpe gains an understanding of the "true meaning of Christmas".

Publication
King wrote "Rush Call" at the age of 12. It was originally published in Dave's Rag, a weekly neighborhood newspaper self-published by King's older brother David King in Durham, Maine using a hectograph, in 1960. In 2000, it was collected in Secret Windows, unchanged other than spelling corrections.

Reception
Rocky Wood describes "Rush Call" as "clearly juvenilia" but with "some sentences that are stunning when one considers a 12-year-old boy wrote them", noting "sophisticated thinking is evident".