The Dark Tower

Look at how brilliant it is here!

When we came before, Fedic was shadowlessand dull, but there was a reason for that: it wasn’t the real Fedic but only akind of todash substitute; a place Mia knew well and remembered well (just asshe remembered the castle allure, where she went often beforecircumstances—in the person of Walter o’ Dim—gave her a physicalbody) and could thus re-create. Today, however, the deserted village is almosttoo bright to look at (although we’ll no doubt see better once our eyes haveadjusted from the murk of Thunderclap and the passage beneath the Dixie Pig).Every shadow is crisp; they might have been cut from black felt and laid uponthe oggan. The sky is a sharp and cloudless blue. The air is chill. The windwhining around the eaves of the empty buildings and through the battlements ofCastle Discordia is autumnal and somehow introspective. Sitting in FedicStation is an atomic locomotive—what was called a hot-enj by the oldpeople—with the words SPIRIT OF TOPEKA written on both sides ofthe bullet nose. The slim pilot-house windows have been rendered almostcompletely opaque by centuries of desert grit flung against the glass, butlittle does that matter; the Spirit of Topeka has made her last trip,and even when she did run regularly, no mere hume ever guided hercourse. Behind the engine are only three cars. There were a dozen when she setout from Thunderclap Station on her last run, and there were a dozen when shearrived in sight of this ghost town, but…

Ah, well, that’s Susa

Beside the rusty Quonset hut up the street(the Arc 16 Experimental Station, do ya not recall it) are the gray cyborghorses. A few more have fallen over since the last time we visited; a few moreclick their heads restlessly back and forth, as if trying to see the riders whowill come and untether them. But that will never happen, for the Breakers havebeen set free to wander and there’s no more need of children to feed theirtalented heads.

And now, look you! At last comes what thelady has waited for all this long day, and the day before, and the day beforethat, when Ted Brautigan, Dinky Earnshaw, and a few others (not Sheemie, he’sgone into the clearing at the end of the path, say sorry) bade her goodbye. Thedoor of the Dogan opens, and a man comes out. The first thing she sees is thathis limp is gone. Next she notices his new bluejeans and shirt. Nifty duds, buthe’s otherwise as ill-prepared for this cold weather as she is. In his arms thenewcomer holds a furry animal with its ears cocked. That much is well, but theboy who should be holding the animal is absent. No boy, and her heart fillswith sorrow. Not surprise, however, because she has known, just as yonder man(yonder chary man) would have known had she been the one to pass from the path.

She slips down from her seat on her handsand the stumps of her legs; she hoists herself off the boardwalk and into thestreet. There she raises a hand and waves it over her head. “Roland!” shecries. “Hey, gunslinger! I’m over here!”

He sees her and waves back. Then he bendsand puts down the animal. Oy races toward her hellbent for election, head down,ears flat against his skull, ru

“Let up on it!” she cries. “Let up on it,honey, ‘fore you kill me!”

She hears this, so lightly meant, and herlaughter stops. Oy steps off her, sits, tilts his snout at the empty bluesocket of the sky, and lets loose a single long howl that tells her everythingshe would need to know, had she not known already. For Oy has more eloquentways of speaking than his few words.

She sits up, slapping puffs of dust out ofher shirt, and a shadow falls over her. She looks up but at first ca

But he’s holding out his hands.

Part of her doesn’t want to take them, anddo ya not ke

Part of her would turn him away, not to endhis quest or break his spirit (only death will do those things), but to takesuch light as remains out of his eyes and punish him for his relentlessunmeaning cruelty. But ka is the wheel to which we all are bound, and when thewheel turns we must perforce turn with it, first with our heads up to heavenand then revolving hell-ward again, where the brains inside them seem to burn.And so, instead of turning away—

Two

Instead of turning away, as part of herwanted to do, Susa

Three

There were clothes in the Fedic Millinery& Ladies’ Wear, but they fell apart at the touch of their hands—themoths and the years had left nothing usable. In the Fedic Hotel (QUIET ROOMS,GUD BEDS) Roland found a cabinet with some blankets that would do them at leastagainst the afternoon chill. They wrapped up in them—the afternoon breezewas just enough to make their musty smell bearable—and Susa

“The writer again,” she said bitterly whenhe had finished, wiping away her tears. “God damn the man.”

“My hip let go and the… and Jake neverhesitated.” Roland had almost called him the boy, as he had taught himselfto think of Elmer’s son as they closed in on Walter. Given a second chance, hehad promised himself he would never do that again.