King visits Malden, zombies in tow

MALDEN -- Stephen King has fond memories of Malden. He's showing his affection by unleashing a horde of zombies on Salem Street. It's kind of touching, really.

In his new horror novel ''Cell," which begins in downtown Boston, a mysterious cellphone ''pulse" turns all those who answer into subhuman maniacs. In a 60-page section called ''Malden," a small band of survivors escapes the carnage in the Hub and takes temporary refuge from the ''phone-crazies" in a house at 140 Salem St. in Malden.

The selection of Salem Street, and of Malden itself, as the setting for a horror story could have city residents scratching their heads. King's explanation?

''My mother's sister, my Aunt Molly Donahue, lived in Malden, she lived on Salem Street," King explains by phone from Florida. ''So I went back to what I knew. She was actually a milkman in Malden when I was growing up, and we spent a lot of time there when we were kids."

King said he was ''tight" with Molly's youngest son, Robert, known as Robbie, exchanging long summer visits to Malden and King's family home in Maine. In Malden, King remembered, ''There's a quarry up there that's this high bluff, and we'd sit up there with sodas and watch the drive-in movies in Revere." He thinks some family members still live in the area.

King said he began planning ''Cell" in 1999, but set it in New York. It wasn't until he was in Boston in 2004, while he and Stewart O'Nan worked on their book ''Faithful" about the Red Sox championship season, that he decided to move the action here. ''The book opened right up. It was like nasal spray for the mind," he said with a bad-boy chuckle.

A limo driver and friend named Ray Slyman took him for an afternoon-long tour of the suburbs one day, rolling through Malden, Everett, and Revere. King's memories -- and the city's convenience for survivors walking up Route 1 -- made Malden the choice, he said. He'd already given a shout-out to Malden in at least two other books, ''The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon" and ''Bag of Bones."

You'd think if your town was overrun by zombies, you'd know about it. But few residents had gotten the news.

''It's the first I've heard of it," said Eric MacCuish, manager of the Weir Funeral Home, at 144 Salem St. Its parking lot appears to encompass the address where King deposited his characters.

''There's a neighborhood bar down the street. I guess at night there's a couple in there you could call zombies," said funeral director Dan DePiano.

''I had no idea that place was a funeral parlor," King said, adding that he chose the street number 140 arbitrarily. ''I trust my subconscious."

Outside the funeral home, mail carrier David Shanahan was parking his car in the corner of the lot. He said he was reading ''Cell," and pointed out that ''it's right there on the front seat."

''That guy's address in the first chapter, there's no such number," he noted. A King fan, he allowed that the book was pretty good as far as he'd read, but said he didn't have time to stand around and talk about it. Shouldering a load of mail, he headed off. And, no, he wasn't worried about encountering any zombies on his route.

King's Malden geography exhibits plenty of what he called ''artistic license."

In ''Cell," soon to be a movie directed by Newton's Eli Roth (''Hostel"), he has his northbound characters take a Salem Street exit from Route 1 (doesn't exist). Then he walks his tired, ragtag band from Route 1 to 140 Salem St. in 10 minutes (maybe if they were sprinting). And he insists that the address is west of the center of town, but it's east, so all those moaning zombies are either heading somewhere else or staggering in the wrong direction.

''No matter where you set these things, somebody will point out the geographic errors, unless you've lived there your whole life," King said. ''So I just put this thing in, saying that I take liberties," in an author's note.

He said it was not unusual to get 100 letters and e-mails per book just complaining about geographic issues, although a check with his office determined that ''Cell" has so far received less than a dozen.

One reason he never wrote the New York version of ''Cell," he said with a laugh, ''is that New York people are real geography snobs. They make Boston people look laid-back when it comes to that."

Then he slipped into a sarcastic imitation of a whiny Noo Yawk accent: ''Oh, no, you've got the uptown side confused with the downtown side, and he wouldn't take the bridge, he'd take the tunnel! And blah, blah, blah, you know?"

At the Malden Public Library, at 36 Salem St., information librarian Sothy Orn giggled at the notion of a zombie invasion.

She said she was surprised to find only three local residents have put their name on the waiting list for the book, which hadn't come in yet. The library had the audio version on CD, and it, at least, was checked out.

''I can't wait to read it now, although I'm not a Stephen King fan," she said.

The fictional doings on Salem Street were news to a secretary at City Hall, who chuckled, but the mayor didn't call back.

Maria Raposa, owner of Annie's Book Stop at 661 Salem St., ordered three copies of ''Cell" for her business, even though she mostly stocks used books. She reported that all three sold last weekend. She said she's surprised that more of her customers aren't talking about the book.

''Maybe it's just not getting the publicity," Raposa said.

But some along Salem Street were not surprised to hear there are zombies roaming through their city.

''That's why I'm in before dark," joked resident Laura Gouvalaris.