"Premium Harmony" is a 3,700-word short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by American author Stephen King

Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...

. It was published in the November 2009 issue of The New Yorker

The New Yorker

The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...

magazine. The story is set in Castle Rock

Castle Rock (Stephen King)

Castle Rock, Maine is part of Stephen King’s fictional Maine topography and provides the setting for a number of his novels, novellas, and short stories...

, King's famous fictitious city, and is the first to take place in that setting since the short story "The Man in the Black Suit

The Man in the Black Suit

"The Man in the Black Suit" is a short story by Stephen King. It was originally published in the October 31, 1994 issue of The New Yorker magazine. In 1995, it won the World Fantasy Award and the O. Henry Award for Best Short Fiction. In 1997, it was published in the limited-edition collection Six...

" (1995); in "Premium Harmony" the city is almost ghost-like and run-down.

Plot summary

While en route to Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...

 for grass seed, Ray and Mary Burkett, with their dog Biznezz in the back seat, fight about the state of their lawn, his smoking

Smoking

Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco or cannabis, is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. This is primarily practised as a route of administration for recreational drug use, as combustion releases the active substances in drugs such as nicotine and makes them...

, and her obesity

Obesity

Obesity is a medical condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to the extent that it may have an adverse effect on health, leading to reduced life expectancy and/or increased health problems...

. Mary demands they stop at a convenience store

Convenience store

A convenience store, corner store, corner shop, commonly called a bodega in Spanish-speaking areas of the United States, is a small store or shop in a built up area that stocks a range of everyday items such as groceries, toiletries, alcoholic and soft drinks, and may also offer money order and...

 in order to purchase a purple kickball

Penny floater

A penny floater is a kind of cheap football commonly used by children in the western world. Its name derives from the fact that when they were first developed in the 1960s they cost a penny...

 for their niece's birthday, and while in there she suffers a heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

 and immediately dies. Her husband Ray is fetched from the car by a store employee. The emergency medical technician

Emergency medical technician

Emergency Medical Technician or Ambulance Technician are terms used in some countries to denote a healthcare provider of emergency medical services...

s arrive, pronounce

Legal death

Legal death is a legal pronouncement by a qualified person that further medical care is not appropriate and that a patient should be considered dead under the law. The specific criteria used to pronounce legal death are variable and often depend on certain circumstances in order to pronounce a...

 her, and remove her body. Ray remains with the store employees and customers, recounting Mary's County Fair

Fair

A fair or fayre is a gathering of people to display or trade produce or other goods, to parade or display animals and often to enjoy associated carnival or funfair entertainment. It is normally of the essence of a fair that it is temporary; some last only an afternoon while others may ten weeks. ...

 awards for her quilting

Quilting

Quilting is a sewing method done to join two or more layers of material together to make a thicker padded material. A quilter is the name given to someone who works at quilting. Quilting can be done by hand, by sewing machine, or by a specialist longarm quilting system.The process of quilting uses...

. After nearly two hours have passed, he returns to the car, where Biznezz has died from hyperthermia

Hyperthermia

Hyperthermia is an elevated body temperature due to failed thermoregulation. Hyperthermia occurs when the body produces or absorbs more heat than it can dissipate...

, with the remnants of a Sno Ball

Sno Balls

Sno Balls are cream-filled chocolate cakes, which are then covered with marshmallow frosting and coconut flakes. They are marketed by Hostess. Sno Balls are usually pink; however, they are also available in chocolate, lemon, white, green, blue and other colors, depending on the holiday...

 Ray had fed him earlier still in his whiskers. This causes in Ray a simultaneous welling-up of "great sadness" and "amusement." The story is written in third-person limited narrative

Third-person limited narrative

The third-person limited is a narrative mode in which the reader experiences the story through the senses and thoughts of just one character. This is almost always the main character—e.g., Gabriel in James Joyce's "The Dead", the titular character in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown",...

 and reveals a number of Ray's more egocentric

Egocentrism

Egocentrism is a personality trait which has the characteristic of regarding oneself and one's own opinions or interests as most important or valid...

 thoughts throughout the story's events, such as being disturbed at the similarity between the manager's attempts at mouth-to-mouth resuscitation

Artificial respiration

Artificial respiration is the act of assisting or stimulating respiration, a metabolic process referring to the overall exchange of gases in the body by pulmonary ventilation, external respiration, and internal respiration...

 and French kissing

French Kissing

"French Kissing" is a song by German singer-songwriter Sarah Connor from her debut album, Green Eyed Soul . Written and produced by Rob Tyger and Kay Denar, the track incorporates a sample of Blackstreet's 1996 hit song "No Diggity" featuring Dr...

, the thought that a bystander might give him a mercy fuck, and, as the story closes, the thought that he can now smoke whatever, whenever and wherever he likes.