Song of Susannah

What are you waiting for?Mia demanded.Why are we just sitting here?

I’m giving the Swede a chance to do his business for us at the hotel and clear out,Susa

And when she thought enough time had passed for him to have done that, she gathered her bags, got up, crossed Second Avenue, and started down Forty-sixth Street to the Plaza—Park Hotel.

The lobby was full of pleasant afternoon light reflected by angles of green glass. Susa

Because it’s the future,she thought.

God knew there were enough signs of that. The cars looked smaller, and entirely different. Many of the younger women she saw were walking around with their lower bellies exposed and their bra-straps showing. Susa

Would have gotten you arrested anywhere but Coney Island,she thought.No doubt about it.

But the thing which made the biggest impression was also the hardest thing to define: the city just seemedbigger. It thundered and hummed all around her. It vibrated. Every breath of air was perfumed with its signature smell. The women waiting for taxis outside the hotel (with or without their bra-straps showing) could only be New York women; the doormen (not one but two) flagging cabs could only be New York doormen; the cabbies (she was amazed by how many of them were dark-ski

She paused for a moment just inside the lobby, pulling the scrimshaw turtle out of her pocket and getting her bearings. To her left was a parlor area. Two women were sitting there, chatting, and Susa

To the right was a little shop. Somewhere in the shadows behind it a piano was tinkling out something blessedly familiar—“Night and Day”—and Susa

Directly ahead of her was the reception desk, and behind it was the most exotic woman Susa

Never mind, it’s the future,Susa

I don’t care what it is or when,Mia said.I want to be near a telephone. I want to see to my chap.

Susa

AS OF JULY 1ST, 1999, THE NEW YORK PLAZA—PARK HYATT

WILL BECOME THE REGAL U.N. PLAZA HOTEL

ANOTHER GREATSOMBRA/NORTH CENTRAL PROJECT!!

Susa

She felt a sudden twinge of pain go through her head. Twinge? Hell, a bolt. It made her eyes water. And she knew who had sent it. Mia, who had no interest in the Sombra Corporation, North Central Positronics, or the Dark Tower itself, was becoming impatient. Susa

She fight you ever’ damn step of the way,Detta said. Her voice was shrewd and tough and cheerful.You know dat too, don’t you?

She did.

Susa

“I believe that my friend, Mathiessen van Wyck, has rented a room for me,” she said. She saw the reception clerk looking at her stained shirt with well-bred disapproval, and laughed nervously. “I really can’t wait to take a shower and change my clothes. I had a small accident. At lunch.”

“Yes, madam. Just let me check.” The woman went to what looked like a small TV screen with a typewriter attached. She tapped a few keys, looked at the screen, and then said: “Susa

You say true, I say thank yarose to her lips and she squelched it. “Yes, that’s right.”

“May I see some identification, please?”

For a moment Susa

“Will this do?” she asked pleasantly.

“What—” the beautiful desk clerk began, then fell silent as her eyes shifted from the plate to the turtle. They grew wide and slightly glassy. Her lips, coated with an interesting pink gloss (it looked more like candy than lipstick to Susa

“It’s my driver’s license,” Susa

“Driver’s license,” the desk clerk agreed in that same sighing, wondering voice.

“Good. Are you supposed to write anything down?”

“No…Mr. Van Wyck rented the room…all I need is to…to check your…may I hold the turtle, ma’am?”

“No,” Susa

“No, I may not hold it,” the desk clerk said, weeping freely. “No, no, I may not, may not hold it, ah, Discordia, I may not—”

“Hush up your snivel,” Susa

But instead of a key, the Eurasian woman handed her a plastic card in a folder. Written on the inside of the folder—so would-be thieves couldn’t easily see it, presumably—was the number 1919. Which didn’t surprise Susa