Part 18 (2/2)

Roland opens his eyes on a billion stars wheeling through the blackness, then closes them again.

He doesn't know what's going on but he thinks everything's okay. The deck's still moving, the cards still shuffle More of the sweet, tasty chunks of meat. He feels better. Eddie looks better, too. But he also looks worried.

”They're getting closer,” he says. ”They may be ugly, but they ain't completely stupid. They know what I been doing. Somehow they know, and they don't dig it. Every night they get a little closer. It might be smart to move on when daybreak comes, if you can. Or it might be the last daybreak we ever see.”

”What?” This is not exactly a whisper but a husk somewhere between a whisper and real speech.

”Them,” Eddie says, and gestures toward the beach. ” Eddie says, and gestures toward the beach. ” Dad-a-chack, dum-a-chum, Dad-a-chack, dum-a-chum, and all that s.h.i.+t. I think they're like us, Roland-all for eating, but not too big on getting eaten.” and all that s.h.i.+t. I think they're like us, Roland-all for eating, but not too big on getting eaten.”

Suddenly, in an utter blast of horror, Roland realizes what the whitish-pink chunks of meat Eddie has been feeding him have been. He cannot speak; revulsion robs him of what little voice he has managed to get back. But Eddie sees everything he wants to say on his face.

”What did you think I was doing?” he nearly snarls. ”Calling Red Lobster for take-out?”

”They're poison,” Roland whispers. ”That's why-”

”Yeah, that's why you're hors de combat. hors de combat. What I'm trying to keep from you being, Roland my friend, is What I'm trying to keep from you being, Roland my friend, is hors d'oeuvres hors d'oeuvres as well. As far as poison goes, rattlesnakes are poison, but people eat them. Rattlesnake tastes real good. Like chicken. I read that somewhere. They looked like lobsters to me, so I decided to take a chance. What else were we gonna eat? Dirt? I shot one of the f.u.c.kers and cooked the living Christ out of it. There wasn't anything else. And actually, they taste pretty good. I been shooting one a night just after the sun starts to go down. They're not real lively until it gets completely dark. I never saw you turning the stuff down.” as well. As far as poison goes, rattlesnakes are poison, but people eat them. Rattlesnake tastes real good. Like chicken. I read that somewhere. They looked like lobsters to me, so I decided to take a chance. What else were we gonna eat? Dirt? I shot one of the f.u.c.kers and cooked the living Christ out of it. There wasn't anything else. And actually, they taste pretty good. I been shooting one a night just after the sun starts to go down. They're not real lively until it gets completely dark. I never saw you turning the stuff down.”

Eddie smiles.

”I like to think maybe I got one of the ones that ate Jack. I like to think I'm eating that d.i.n.k. It, like, eases my mind, you know?”

”One of them ate part of me, too,” the gunslinger husks out. ”Two fingers, one toe.”

”That's also cool,” Eddie keeps smiling. His face is pallid, sharklike... but some of that ill look has gone now, and the smell of s.h.i.+t and death which has hung around him like a shroud seems to be going away.

”f.u.c.k yourself,” the gunslinger husks.

”Roland shows a flash of spirit!” Eddie cries. ”Maybe you ain't gonna die after all! Dahling! I think that's mah-vellous! mah-vellous!”

”Live,” Roland says. The husk has become a whisper again. The fishhooks are returning to his throat.

”Yeah?” Eddie looks at him, then nods and answers his own question. ”Yeah. I think you mean to. Once I thought you were going and once I thought you were gone. Now it looks like you're going to get better. The antibiotics are helping, I guess, but mostly I think you're hauling hauling yourself up. What for? Why the f.u.c.k do you keep trying so hard to keep alive on this scuzzy beach?” yourself up. What for? Why the f.u.c.k do you keep trying so hard to keep alive on this scuzzy beach?”

Tower, he mouths, because now he can't even manage a husk. he mouths, because now he can't even manage a husk.

”You and your f.u.c.king Tower,” Eddie says, starts to turn away, and then turns back, surprised, as Roland's hand clamps on his arm like a manacle.

They look into each other's eyes and Eddie says, ”All right. All right! right!”

North, the gunslinger mouths. the gunslinger mouths. North, I told you. North, I told you. Has he told him that? He thinks so, but it's lost. Lost in the shuffle. Has he told him that? He thinks so, but it's lost. Lost in the shuffle.

”How do you know? know?” Eddie screams at him in sudden frustration. He raises his fists as if to strike Roland, then lowers them.

I just know-so why do you waste my time and energy asking me foolish questions? he wants to reply, but before he can, the cards he wants to reply, but before he can, the cards shuffle being dragged along, bounced and b.u.mped, his head lolling helplessly from one side to the other, bound to some kind of a weird travois travois by his own gunbelts, and he can hear Eddie Dean singing a song which is so weirdly familiar he at first believes this must be a delirium dream: by his own gunbelts, and he can hear Eddie Dean singing a song which is so weirdly familiar he at first believes this must be a delirium dream: ”Heyy Jude... don't make it bad... take a saaad song... and make it better...”

Where did you hear that? he wants to ask. he wants to ask. Did you hear me singing it, Eddie? And where are we? Did you hear me singing it, Eddie? And where are we?

But before he can ask anything shuffle Cort would bash the kid's head in if he saw that contraption, Roland thinks, looking at the Roland thinks, looking at the travois travois upon which he has spent the day, and laughs. It isn't much of a laugh. It sounds like one of those waves dropping its load of stones on the beach. He doesn't know how far they have come, but it's far enough for Eddie to be totally bushed. He's sitting on a rock in the lengthening light with one of the gunslinger's revolvers in his lap and a half-full water-skin to one side. There's a small bulge in his s.h.i.+rt pocket. These are the bullets from the back of the gunbelts-the diminis.h.i.+ng supply of ”good” bullets. Eddie has tied these up in a piece of his own s.h.i.+rt. The main reason the supply of ”good” bullets is diminis.h.i.+ng so fast is because one of every four or five has also turned out to be a dud. upon which he has spent the day, and laughs. It isn't much of a laugh. It sounds like one of those waves dropping its load of stones on the beach. He doesn't know how far they have come, but it's far enough for Eddie to be totally bushed. He's sitting on a rock in the lengthening light with one of the gunslinger's revolvers in his lap and a half-full water-skin to one side. There's a small bulge in his s.h.i.+rt pocket. These are the bullets from the back of the gunbelts-the diminis.h.i.+ng supply of ”good” bullets. Eddie has tied these up in a piece of his own s.h.i.+rt. The main reason the supply of ”good” bullets is diminis.h.i.+ng so fast is because one of every four or five has also turned out to be a dud.

Eddie, who has been nearly dozing, now looks up. ”What are you laughing about?” he asks.

The gunslinger waves a dismissive hand and shakes his head. Because he's wrong, he realizes. Cort wouldn't bash Eddie for the travois, travois, even though it was an odd, lame-looking thing. Roland thinks it might even be possible that Cort might grunt some word of compliment-such a rarity that the boy to whom it happened hardly ever knew how to respond; he was left gaping like a fish just pulled from a cook's barrel. even though it was an odd, lame-looking thing. Roland thinks it might even be possible that Cort might grunt some word of compliment-such a rarity that the boy to whom it happened hardly ever knew how to respond; he was left gaping like a fish just pulled from a cook's barrel.

The main supports were two cottonwood branches of approximately the same length and thickness. A blowdown, the gunslinger presumed. He had used smaller branches as supports, attaching them to the support poles with a crazy conglomeration of stuff: gunbelts, the glue-string that had held the devil-powder to his chest, even the rawhide thong from the gunslinger's hat and his, Eddie's, own sneaker laces. He had laid the gunslinger's bedroll over the supports.

Cort would not have struck him because, sick as he was, Eddie had at least done more than squat on his hunkers and bewail his fate. He had made something. something. Had Had tried. tried.

And Cort might have offered one of his abrupt, almost grudging compliments because, crazy as the thing looked, it worked. worked. The long tracks stretching back down the beach to a point where they seemed to come together at the rim of perspective proved that. The long tracks stretching back down the beach to a point where they seemed to come together at the rim of perspective proved that.

”You see any of them?” Eddie asks. The sun is going down, beating an orange path across the water, and so the gunslinger reckons he has been out better than six hours this time. He feels stronger. He sits up and looks down to the water. Neither the beach nor the land sweeping to the western slope of the mountains have changed much; he can see small variations of landscape and detritus (a dead seagull, for instance, lying in a little heap of blowing feathers on the sand about twenty yards to the left and thirty or so closer to the water), but these aside, they might as well be right where they started.

”No,” the gunslinger says. Then: ”Yes. There's one.”

He points. Eddie squints, then nods. As the sun sinks lower and the orange track begins to look more and more like blood, the first of the lobstrosities come tumbling out of the waves and begin crawling up the beach.

Two of them race clumsily toward the dead gull. The winner pounces on it, rips it open, and begins to stuff the rotting remains into its maw. ”Did-a-chick?” ”Did-a-chick?” it asks. it asks.

”Dum-a-chum?” responds the loser. responds the loser. ”Dod-a-” ”Dod-a-”

KA-BLAM!.

Roland's gun puts an end to the second creature's questions. Eddie walks down to it and grabs it by the back, keeping a wary eye on its fellow as he does so. The other offers no trouble, however; it is busy with the gull. Eddie brings his kill back. It is still twitching, raising and lowering its claws, but soon enough it stops moving. The tail arches one final time, then simply drops instead of flexing downward. The boxers' claws hang limp.

”Dinnah will soon be served, mawster,” Eddie says. ”You have your choice: filet of creepy-crawler or filet of creepy-crawler. Which strikes your fancy, mawster?”

”I don't understand you,” the gunslinger said.

”Sure you do,” Eddie said. ”You just don't have any sense of humor. What happened to it?”

”Shot off in one war or another, I guess.”

Eddie smiles at that. ”You look and sound a little more alive tonight, Roland.”

”I am, I think.”

”Well, maybe you could even walk for awhile tomorrow. I'll tell you very frankly, my friend, dragging you is the pits and the s.h.i.+ts.”

”I'll try.”

”You do that.”

”You look a little better, too,” Roland ventures. His voice cracks on the last two words like the voice of a young boy. If I don't stop talking soon, If I don't stop talking soon, he thought, he thought, I won't be able to talk at all again. I won't be able to talk at all again.

”I guess I'll live.” He looks at Roland expressionlessly. ”You'll never know how close it was a couple of times, though. Once I took one of your guns and put it against my head. c.o.c.ked it, held it there for awhile, and then took it away. Eased the hammer down and shoved it back in your holster. Another night I had a convulsion. I think that was the second night, but I'm not sure.” He shakes his head and says something the gunslinger both does and doesn't understand. ”Michigan seems like a dream to me now.”

<script>