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The Kid is a minor character and antagonist in The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition

In interviews, Stephen King has stated that The Kid was modeled after spree killer Charles Raymond Starkweather.

Character Biography[]

Lekid

The Trashcan Man meets The Kid.

The real name and age of The Kid is not known, but he claims to be from Shreveport, Louisiana. He is very short (about 5'3") and artificially boosts his height an additional six inches by means of tall hairdo and high-heeled cowboy boots. He is also armed with dual .45 pistol that he carries in a belt rig on his waist.

He drives a heavily customized 1932 Ford deuce coupe, which he drives recklessly and at "speeds high enough to induce brain damage". He has very particular anachronisms involving things he does and says, for instance his personal choice of beer is Coors and states that as long as there's some left he'll only drink Coors, repeatedly forcing "Trashy" to drink until he's ready to throw up as well as threatening him that if he were to "waste" such a good drink that he'd kill the man. Later he claims that whiskey mixed with Pepsi is his drink of choice, negating his previous claim he'd only drink Coors beer. He also has idioms that he says repeatedly like "don't tell me I'll tell you" often after asking others direct questions as well.

After the superflu outbreak, The Kid encounters the Trashcan Man southwest of Sterling, Colorado. They are both on the way to Las Vegas, Nevada in response to the call of Randall Flagg.

Initially The Kid seems jovial and charming — if vain, boastful, and obsessed with his gaudy car and gaudy appearance. But he quickly reveals himself to be a quick-tempered and violent sociopath.

After travelling together for a while, at a rest stop of a motel, the Kid shows these traits in a night of excessive drinking. After a short time drinking alone, he begins threatening Trash's life, pulling his gun out and suggesting he has thoughts of killing himself and Trash. He forces Trash to drink a whole Coors on his own and threatens him with death if he fails to chug it all without vomiting. He soon collapses on the bed in a drunken stupor and Trash quietly sneaks into the adjoining room to sleep. However, The Kid slips into bed with him and sodomizes Trash with the barrel of one of his pistols, again threatening him with death if he tries to resist or leave.

However, the Kid's worst revelation lies in how he brags about his intentions to enter Las Vegas, feign his way into Flagg's good graces and then overthrow him. To the Trashcan Man's ears this is intolerable blasphemy; but Flagg reassures him in a dream that he has the situation under control.

One evening in the Rockies, after near 100 mph driving and a near road collapse, the pair come across a wide road block 12 miles from the Eisenhower Tunnel. Though The Kid was able to drive around a VW Microbus nearly sending them off a sheer cliff, they make it to the end of the traffic jam. The Kid sends Trash ahead to assess their situation; demanding he find a way through for the Coupe and when Trash can't, he attempts to get around and away from the Kid, only to be caught and threatened with death again. The Kid drives them back to the Microbus and finds they can't drive around it again; the edge of the road has crumbled away. The Kid forces Trash to push the Microbus over the edge; if Trash can't do it quickly, The Kid will kill him. However Flagg summons a pack of timberwolves which are implied to be either controlled by or actually Flagg in person, they befriend Trash and attack The Kid. The Kid manages to kill some of the wolves but has to leaps for the protection of the nearest derelict car, which the surviving wolves encircle. The remaining wolves of the pack lead the Trashcan Man away, safely through the Eisenhower Tunnel leaving The Kid to his fate, Trash using the Kid's own idioms to mock him as he leaves, thrilled that the man he has pledged to would have come through so splendidly.

A grim vigil begins. It is a toss-up whether hunger, thirst, or daytime heat will finish The Kid off, or else he will grow desperate and try to fight his way through the ring of wolves.

Lekiddd

Wolves corner The Kid.

That September, when Stu Redman, Larry Underwood, Ralph Brentner and Glen Bateman head to Las Vegas to confront Flagg, they encounter the remains of The Kid (whom they dub "the Wolfman") and try to deduce how he met his grisly end.

By his thinness they guess he lasted in the car about a week. After managing to shoot several wolves he had tried to make a break for it and opened the passenger door.  One wolf had torn out his throat, but The Kid has managed to strangle the beast before he died.

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