The Monkey is a novelette written by Stephen King, first published as a booklet included in Gallery magazine in 1980. It was significantly revised and published in King's collection Skeleton Crew in 1985.
"The Monkey" was nominated for a British Fantasy Award for best short story in 1982.
Plot[]
The story begins with two young brothers, Peter and Dennis, finding a cymbal-banging monkey toy in the attic of their great uncle's house. Soon, it's revealed how their father, Hal, discovered the toy monkey inside an antique chest owned by his father (Hal's father was a merchant mariner who disappeared under mysterious circumstances; Hal suspects that the monkey led to his father's disappearance). The monkey is actually cursed, and every time it claps the mechanical cymbals together, someone close to Hal dies. Hal was tormented by the monkey as a child. He helplessly watched as the toy worked its lethal enchantment onto his family and killed them off, until Hal chucked it down an old well at the home of his uncle. In the present, Hal takes the monkey and throws it into Crystal Lake, hoping that it will be finished for good and never kill anyone again. The story ends with an excerpt from a newspaper article, which reports the mysterious death of many fish in the lake.