The Shining: Chapter 39 Summary & Analysis

It is 7:15, MST, and Wendy finds Danny sitting on the stairs in the lobby. He is singing softly to himself, and his lip is fat and bloody. Wendy sits down and asks him what happened. Danny called Tony, he says, and fell off a chair. Wendy looks doubtful. Jack didn’t do it this time, Danny promises. Wendy asks him what Tony said, but Danny says it doesn’t matter anymore. She grabs his shoulders and asks again, thinking to herself about the irreparable damage she and Jack are doing to Danny. She apologizes to Danny in her mind, and Danny says that Tony can’t come to him anymore. The hotel won’t let him. 

Wendy asks Danny if he can see people in the hotel, and he claims that he can only hear them. He hears them everywhere, and it is all his fault. He is the key, Danny explains to Wendy, and the hotel has been wound. The hotel is tricking Jack, too, and is trying to make him think it wants him most, even though it really wants Danny. But, Danny continues, the hotel will settle for any of them. Wendy says that she wishes the snowmobile worked, and Danny says that Jack threw something from the engine into the snow. The hotel made him do it. Danny dreamed about it. Jack knows all about the ghost of room 217, too, but Danny doesn’t care if Wendy believes him anymore or not.

Wendy tells Danny that she believes him, and she asks if Jack is going to hurt them. Danny says Jack is going to try, but Danny already called Hallorann for help. Hallorann can’t answer him back, so Danny doesn’t know if Hallorann heard him. “Tomorrow,” Danny says, suddenly stopping. Wendy asks about tomorrow, and Danny shakes his head, telling her it is nothing. Wendy asks where Jack is now, and Danny says he is in the basement. He won’t be upstairs tonight. Wendy tells Danny to wait for her, and she runs down the stairs. 

Wendy runs into the kitchen and surveys the knives stuck to the magnetic strip. She grabs the biggest, sharpest one, wraps it in a towel and runs. Danny still sits on the stairs, singing. He can hear the spirits of the Overlook Hotel talking and gathering around him. Danny can hear something about a writing desk and shouts to unmask. Suddenly, Wendy rounds the corner and stops. She asks Danny if he hears something, but he doesn’t answer.