Desperation

It drops Ripton ’s body-the body feels as light as a burst seedpod-and strides toward the door, listening to the seams of Josephson ’s khaki shirt tear open as his shoulders widen and his arms lengthen. His feet don’t grow as much, but enough to burst the laces of his te

Tak stands outside, gri

Tak is here, liberated from the well of the worlds. Tak is great, Tak will feed, and Tak will rule as it has always ruled, in the desert of wastes, where the plants are migrants and the ground is magnetic.

It gets into the Buick, splitting the seam ru

David stopped. He still sat with his back against the wall of the Ryder truck, looking down at his sneakers. His voice had grown husky with talking. The others stood around him in a semicircle, pretty much as Joh

You know it’s not, Terry said from her cozy little place in Der Bitchen Bunker.

Joh

“Anyway, that’s how he does it,” David said in his husky voice. “He goes across on their breath, like a seed on a gust of wind.”

“The kiss of death instead of the kiss of life,” Ralph said.

David nodded.

“But what kissed Ripton.” Cynthia asked. “When he went into the mine the night before, what kissed him.”

“I don’t know,” David said. “Either I wasn’t shown or I don’t understand. All I know is that it happened at the well I told you about. He went into the room… the chamber… the can tahs drew him, but he wasn’t allowed to actually touch any of them.”

“Because the can tahs spoil people as a vessel for Tak,” Steve half-said, half-asked.

“Yes.”

“But Talc has a physical body. I mean, he-it-we’re not just talking about an idea, are we.

Or a spirit.”

David was shaking his head. “No, Tak’s real, it has a being. It had to get Ripton into the mine because it can’t get through the mi-the well. It has a physical body, and the well is too small for it. All it can do is catch people, inhabit them, make them into can tak. And trade them in when they wear out.”

“What happened to Josephson, David.” Ralph asked. He sounded quiet, almost drained.

Joh

“He had a leaky heart valve,” David said. “It wasn’t a big deal. He could have gone on without any problem for years, maybe, but Talc got hold of him, and just…

David shrugged. “Just wore him out. It took two and a half days. Then he switched to Entragian. Entragian was strong, he lasted most of a whole week… but he had very fair skin. People used to kid him about all the sun—bum creams he had.”

“Your guide told you all this,” Joh

“Yes. I guess that’s what he was.”

“But you don’t know who he was.”

“I almost know. I feel like I should know.”

“Are you sure he didn’t come from this Talc. Because there’s an old saying: ‘The devil can wear a pleasing aspect.’ “He wasn’t from Talc, Joh

“Let him talk,” Steve said. “All right.”

Joh

“The back part of the hardware store here in town is a clothes store,” David resumed.

“Work clothes, mostly. Levi’s, khakis, Red Wing boots, stuff like that. They order special for this one guy, Curt Yeoman, who works—worked-for the telephone company. Six-foot—seven, the tallest man in Desperation. That’s why Entragian’s clothes weren’t ripped when he took us, Dad. Saturday night, Josephson broke into the True Value and grabbed a set of khakis in Curt Yeoman’s size. Shoes, too. He took them to the Municipal Building and actually put them in Collie Entragian’s locker. Even then he knew who he was going to use next, you see.”

“Was that when he killed the Police Chief.” Ralph asked.

“Mr. Reed. No. Not then. He did that Sunday night. By then Mr. Reed didn’t matter much, anyway. Ripton left him one of the can tahs, you see, and it messed Mr. Reed up.

Bad. The can tahs do different things to different people. When Mr. Josephson killed him, Mr. Reed was sitting at his desk and-”

Looking away, clearly embarrassed, David made his right hand into a tube and moved it rapidly up and down in the air.

“Okay,” Steve said. “We get the picture. What about Entragian. Where was he all weekend.”

“Out of town, like Audrey. The Desperation cops have-had-a law-enforcement contract with the county. It means a lot of travelling. Friday night, the night Ripton killed the blast-crew, Entragian was in Austin. Saturday night he slept at the Davis Ranch. Sunday night-the last night he was really Collie Entragian-he spent on Shoshone tribal land. He had a friend up there. A woman, I think.”

Joh

What does Tak want. To get out of its hole in the ground and stretch its legs. Eat pork rinds. Snort cocaine and drink Tequila Sunrises. Sorew some NFL cheerleaders. Ask Bob Dylan what the lyrics to ‘Gates of Eden’ really mean. Rule the earth. What.”

“It doesn’t matter,” David said quietly.

“Huh.”

“All that matters is what God wants. And what he wants is for us to go up to the China Pit. All the rest is just… story-hour.”

Joh

“I can’t stop you if you mean to go,” David said.

“Maybe Steve and my dad could, but it wouldn’t do any r good. Because of the free-will covenant.”

“That’s right,” Joh