Song of Susannah

I don’t know. Not all that long.

Then we have to get started. I have to find a telefung.Phone.In a private place.

Susa

I’ll leave it here,Mia had said, speaking of the ring Eddie had made her,I’ll leave it here, where he’ll find it. Later, if ka wills, you may wear it again.

Not a promise, exactly, at least not a direct one, but Mia had certainlyimplied—

Dull anger surged through Susa

She didn’t cozen me; she let me cozen myself.

Mia stood up again, and once again Susa

What? Susa

I’ll help you with the chap,Susa

I did what I had to,Mia said nervously.It’s my baby, my chap, and every hand is against me now. Every hand but yours, and you only help me because you have to. Remember what I said…if ka wills, I said—

It was Detta Walker’s voice that replied. It was harsh and crude and brooked no argument. “I don’t give a shit bout ka,” she said, “and you bes be rememberin dat. You got problems, girl. Got a rug-monkey comin you don’t know what it is. Got folks say they’ll he’p you and you don’t know whatdey are. Shit, you doan even know what a telephone is or where to find one. Now we goan sit here, and you’re goan tell me what happens next. We goan palaver, girl, and if you don’t play straight, we still be sittin here with these bags come nightfall and you can have your precious chap on this bench and wash him off in the fuckin fountain.”

The woman on the bench bared her teeth in a gruesome smile that was all Detta Walker.

“Youcare bout dat chap…and Susa

A woman pushing a stroller (it looked as divinely lightweight as Susa

“So!” Detta said brightly. “It’s be purty out here, don’t you think? Good weather for talkin. You hear me, mamma?”

No reply from Mia, daughter of none and mother of one. Detta wasn’t put out of countenance; her grin widened.

“You hear me, all right; you hear me justfahn. So let’s us have a little chat. Let’s us palaver.”

5th Stanza: The Turtle

Mia said:Talking will be easier—quicker and clearer, too—if we do it face-to-face.

How can we?Susa

We’ll have our palaver in the castle,Mia replied promptly.The Castle on the Abyss. In the banquet room. Do you remember the banquet room?

Susa

The gunslinger saw me there,Mia said.The boy, too.

There was a pause. Then:

I have met them both before.

Who? Jake and Roland?

Aye, they.

Where? When? How could y—

We can’t speak here. Please. Let us go somewhere more private.

Someplace with a phone, isn’t that what you mean? So your friends can call you.

I only know a little, Susa

Susa

And there were the bags spread around her feet. She’d seen plenty of bag-folkenin New York, aye. Now she felt like one herself, and she didn’t like the feeling. She’d been raised to better, as her mother would have said. Each time someone passing on the sidewalk or cutting through the little park gave her a glance, she felt like telling them she wasn’t crazy in spite of how she looked: stained shirt, dirty face, hair too long and in disarray, no purse, only those three bags at her feet. Homeless, aye—had anyone ever been as homeless as she, not just out of house but out of time itself?—but in her right mind. She needed to palaver with Mia and get an understanding of what all this was about, that was true. What shewanted was much simpler: to wash, to put on fresh clothes, and to be out of public view for at least a little while.

Might as well wish for the moon, sugar,she told herself…and Mia, if Mia was listening.Privacy costs money. You’re in a version of New York where a single hamburger might cost as much as a dollar, crazy as that sounds. And you don’t have a sou. Just a dozen or so sharpened plates and some kind of black-magic ball. So what are you go

Before she could get any further in her thinking, New York was swept away and she was back in the Doorway Cave. She’d been barely aware of her surroundings on her first visit—Mia had been in charge then, and in a hurry to make her getaway through the door—but now they were very clear. Pere Callahan was here. So was Eddie. And Eddie’s brother, in a way. Susa

Susa

Those in the cave didn’t even look around at her. What was this? Had she come here todash from New York, just to add to the fun? If so, why hadn’t she heard the chimes?