The Blue Air Compressor
Mrs. Leighton finds the story and mocks it, saying that she was too big for him to write about her, so he shoves the nozzle of an air compressor into her mouth and overinflates her, causing her to explode.Her remains are buried under the tool shed, and Nately flees to the Near East after retitling his story "The Blue Air Compressor."Nately 's crime is never discovered, and eventually he cuts off his own head with a guillotine (after writing several dark and misunderstood novels, essays, short stories, and poems).[1] "The Blue Air Compressor" was first published in Onan, a literary magazine of the University of Maine at Orono, in January 1971, shortly after King had graduated.[9] Michael R. Collings cites "The Blue Air Compressor" as an example of King's "vision [...] expanding, incorporating not only his own observations and interests but also tags of literary heritage as well.