The Dark Tower

“That’s a smart little beastie!” JoeCollins said admiringly.

“He’s been a good trailmate,” Susa

He took her hand and shook it. His own handwas ungloved, and although the fingers were gnarled with arthritis, his gripwas strong. “New York, is it! Why, I once hailed from there, myself. AlsoAkron, Omaha, and San Francisco. Son of Henry and Flora, if it matters to you.”

“You’re from America-side?” Susa

“Oh God yes, but long ago and long,” hesaid. “What’chee might call delah.” His good eye sparkled; his bad eye went onregarding the snowy wastes with that same dead lack of interest. He turned toRoland. “And who might you be, my friend? For I’ll call you my friend same as Iwould anyone, unless they prove different, in which case I’d belt em withBessie, which is what I call my stick.”

Roland was gri

“Gilead! Gilead!” Collins’s good eyewent round with amazement. “There’s a name out of the past, ain’t it? One forthe books! Holy Pete, you must be older’n God!”

“Some would say so,” Roland agreed, nowonly smiling… but warmly.

“And the little fella?” he asked, bendingforward. From his pocket, Collins produced two more gumdrops, one red and onegreen. Christmas colors, and Susa

“He doesn’t—”

—talk anymore, although he didonce was how Susa

“Good fella!” Collins said, and tumbled thegumdrops into Oy’s mouth. Then he reached out with that same gnarled hand, andOy raised his paw to meet it. They shook, well-met near the intersection ofOdd’s Lane and Tower Road.

“I’ll be damned,” Roland said mildly.

“So won’t we all in the end, I reckon, Beamor no Beam,” Joe Collins remarked, letting go of Oy’s paw. “But not today. Nowwhat I say is that we ort to get in where it’s warm and we can palaver over acup of coffee—for I have some, so I do—or a pot of ale. I even havesumpin I call eggnog, if it does ya. It does me pretty fine, especially with ateensy piss o’ rum in it, but who knows? I ain’t really tasted nuffinkin five years or more. Air outta the Discordia’s done for my taste-buds and formy nose, too. Anyro’, what do you say?” He regarded them brightly.

“I’d say that sounds pretty damned fine,”Susa

He slapped her companionably on theshoulder. “A good woman is a pearl beyond price! Don’t know if that’sShakespeare, the Bible, or a combination of the t—

“Arrr, Lippy, goddam what used to be yereyes, where do you think you’re going? Did yer want to meet these folks,was that it?”

His voice had fallen into the outrageouscroon that seems the exclusive property of people who live alone except for apet or two. His horse had blundered its way to them and Collins grabbed heraround the neck, petting her with rough affection, but Susa

Collins might have seen some of this on herface, for when he spoke again he sounded almost defensive. “Her an ugly oldthing, I know, but when you get as old as she is, I don’t reckon you’ll bewi

“Come on, Lippy, y’old ki’-box andgammer-gurt, ye sway-back nag and lost four-legged leper! Can’t ye smell thesnow in the air? Because I can, and my nose went south years ago!”

He turned back to Roland and Susa

I should hope not, Susa

As if hearing her thoughts, the old naglooked back and bared her few remaining teeth at Susa

Five

The outbuilding consisted of a chicken-coopon one side, Lippy’s stall on the other, and a little loft stuffed with hay. “Ican get up there and fork it down,” Collins said, “but I take my life in myhands ever time I do, thanks to this bust hip of mine. Now, I can’t make youhelp an old man, sai Deschain, but if you would…?”

Roland climbed the ladder resting a-tiltagainst the edge of the loft floor and tossed down hay until Collins told himit was good, plenty enough to last Lippy through even four days’ worth of blow.(“For she don’t eat worth what’chee might call a Polish fuck, as you can seelookin at her,” he said.) Then the gunslinger came back down and Collins ledthem along the short back walk to his cottage. The snow piled on either sidewas as high as Roland’s head.

“Be it ever so humble, et cet’ra,” Joesaid, and ushered them into his kitchen. It was paneled in knotty pine whichwas actually plastic, Susa

“Well, no, not exactly,” Joe said. “It’sthe freezer that makes em, beauty; that thing on the front just drops eminto your drink.”

This struck her fu

Roland was looking up at the fluorescentlights and Collins nodded. “Yar, yar, I got all the ‘lectric,” he said.“Hot-air furnace, too, ain’t it nice? And nobody ever sends me a bill! Thege