He turns the box over and over in his hand as he talked, like a rabbit's foot.

[kttlt]

The following text is from Stephen King's short story The Woman in the Room. The entire story is written in present simple which, I believe, is a stylistic choice; however, there's one sentence where that is not the case. I'm providing it within a larger portion of text for context, the sentence in question being the bolded one:

'I don't think she can really go on much longer,' he tells his brother later that night. His brother lives in Andover, seventy miles west. He only gets to the hospital once or twice a week.
'But is her pain better?' Kev asks.
'She says she itches.' He has the pills in his sweater pocket. His wife is safely asleep. He takes them out, stolen loot from his mother's empty house, where they all once lived with the grandparents. He turns the box over and over in his hand as he talked, like a rabbit's foot.

Why isn't "talked" in present simple here like the rest of the sentence/text? Is that sentence even grammatical? Is this also a stylistic choice and if so, what purpose does it serve?

 

[Tarheel]

You would have to ask the writer. The grammar, I think, is not consistent.

 

[Skrej]

Let me counter with a different question: Does it really matter?

The answer is no. It affects the story not one whit. People don't read fiction to learn grammar. They read it to be entertained.

 

[jutfrank]

It does seem odd to me.

 

[emsr2d2]

Did you take the quote direct from a printed copy of the story? It's very unusual to find an error in Stephen King's work (I've read everything he's ever written!) If you copied the quote from a website (or from a pirate site), I suspect the error appears only there but not in the original short story.

 

[kttlt]

Did you take the quote direct from a printed copy of the story?

I don't have a physical copy and was reading a pirated pdf. Your post made me inspect available online copies more thoroughly, and while a few of them share this same mistake, there's at least one that doesn't, meaning this is surely just a typo. I should've done this prior to making the thread, I apologise for wasting everyone's time.

 

[SoothingDave]

I'm still wondering how a rabbit's foot talks.

 

[kttlt]

I'm still wondering how a rabbit's foot talks.

"Like a rabbit's foot" refers to the box of pills he fiddles with while talking on the phone. Those pills play a key role in the story, and the character is sort of meditating on a decision concerning them, hence the comparison to a charm.

 

[SoothingDave]

I was joking. Pointing out the misplaced modifier. "Talked, like a rabbit's foot."