The Dark Tower

“Wow,” Dinky said. His voice was soft andrespectful.

“Roland,” Ted said. “What they did wasn’tentirely their fault. I thought I had explained that, but I guess I didn’t do avery good job.”

Roland holstered his revolver. “You did anexcellent job,” he said. “That’s why they’re still alive.”

Now they had the Damli House end of theMall to themselves again, and Sheemie limped up to Roland. His eyes were roundand solemn. “Will you show me where you’d go, dear?” he asked. “Can you show methe place?”

The place. Roland had been so fixed on the whenthat he’d scarcely thought of the where. And his memories of the roadthey had traveled in Lovell were pretty skimpy. Eddie had been driving JohnCullum’s car, and Roland had been deep in his own thoughts, concentrating onthe things he would say to convince the caretaker to help them.

“Did Ted show you a place before you senthim on?” he asked Sheemie.

“Aye, so he did. Only he didn’t know he wasshowing me. It was a baby-picture… I don’t know how to tell you, exactly…stupid head! Full of cobwebbies!” Sheemie made a fist and clouted himselfbetween the eyes.

Roland took the hand before Sheemie couldhit himself again and unrolled the fingers. He did this with surprising gentleness.“No, Sheemie. I think I understand. You found a thought… a memory from when hewas a little boy.”

Ted had come over to them. “Of course thatmust be it,” he said. “I don’t know why I didn’t see it before now. Too simple,maybe. I grew up in Milford, and the place where I came out in 1960 was barelya spit from there in geographical terms. Sheemie must have found a memory of acarriage-ride, or maybe a trip on the Hartford Trolley to see my Uncle Jim andAunt Molly in Bridgeport. Something in my subconscious.” He shook his head. “I knewthe place where I came out looked familiar, but of course it was years later.The Merritt Parkway wasn’t there when I was a boy.”

“Can you show me a picture like that?”Sheemie asked Roland hopefully.

Roland thought once more of the place inLovell where they’d parked on Route 7, the place where he’d called Chevin ofChayven out of the woods, but it simply wasn’t sure enough; there was nolandmark that made the place only itself and no other. Not one that heremembered, anyway.

Then another idea came. One that had to dowith Eddie.

“Sheemie!”

“Aye, Roland of Gilead, Will Dearborn thatwas!”

Roland reached out and placed his hands onthe sides of Sheemie’s head. “Close your eyes, Sheemie, son of Stanley.”

Sheemie did as he was told, then reachedout his own hands and grasped the sides of Roland’s head. Roland closed his owneyes.

“See what I see, Sheemie,” he said. “Seewhere we would go. See it very well.”

And Sheemie did.

Eighteen

While they stood there, Roland projectingand Sheemie seeing, Dani Rostov softly called to Jake.

Once he was before her she hesitated, as ifunsure what she would say or do. He began to ask her, but before he could, shestopped his mouth with a kiss. Her lips were amazingly soft.

“That’s for good luck,” she said, and whenshe saw his look of amazement and understood the power of what she had done,her timidity lessened. She put her arms around his neck (still holding herscuffed Pooh Bear in one hand; he felt it soft against his back) and did it again.He felt the push of her tiny, hard breasts and would remember the sensation forthe rest of his life. Would remember her for the rest of his life.

“And that’s for me.” She retreated to TedBrautigan’s side, eyes downcast and cheeks burning red, before he could speak.Not that he could have, even if his life had depended upon it. His throat waslocked shut.

Ted looked at him and smiled. “You judgethe rest of them by the first one,” he said. “Take it from me. I know.”

Jake could still say nothing. She mighthave punched him in the head instead of kissing him on the lips. He was thatdazed.

Nineteen

Fifteen minutes later, four men, one girl,a billy-bumbler, and one dazed, amazed (and very tired) boy stood on the Mall.They seemed to have the grassy quad to themselves; the rest of the Breakers haddisappeared completely. From where he stood, Jake could see the lighted windowon the first floor of Corbett Hall where Susa

Jake started to reach for Dani Rostov’shand, but Dinky shook his head, smiling a little. “Maybe you can hold handswith her another day, hero, but right now you’re the monkey in the middle. Andyour dinh’s another one.”

“You hold hands with each other,” Sheemiesaid. There was a quiet authority in his voice that Jake hadn’t heard before.“That’ll help.”

Jake tucked Oy into his shirt. “Roland,were you able to show Sheemie—”

“Look,” Roland said, taking his hands. Theothers now made a tight circle around them. “Look. I think you’ll see.”

A brilliant seam opened in the darkness,obliterating Sheemie and Ted from Jake’s view. For a moment it trembled anddarkened, and Jake thought it would disappear. Then it grew bright again andspread wider. He heard, very faintly (the way you heard things when you wereunderwater), the sound of a car or truck passing in that other world. And saw abuilding with a small asphalt lot in front of it. Three cars and a pickup truckwere parked there.

Daylight! he thought, dismayed.Because if time never ran backward in the Keystone World, that meant that time hadslipped. If that was Keystone World, then it was Saturday, the nineteenth ofJune, in the year—

“Quick!” Ted shouted from the other side ofthat brilliant hole in reality. “If you’re going, go now! He’s going to faint!If you’re going—”

Roland yanked Jake forward, his pursebouncing on his back as he did so.

Wait! Jake wanted to shout. Wait,I forgot my stuff!

But it was too late. There was thesensation of big hands squeezing his chest, and he felt all the air whoosh outof his lungs. He thought, Pressure change. There was a sensation offalling up and then he was reeling onto the pavement of the parking lotwith his shadow tacked to his heels, squinting and grimacing, wondering in somedistant part of his mind how long it had been since his eyes had been exposedto plain old natural daylight. Not since entering the Doorway Cave in pursuitof Susa

Very faintly he heard someone—hethought it was the girl who had kissed him—call Good luck, andthen it was gone. Thunderclap was gone, and the Devar-Toi, and the darkness.They were America-side, in the parking lot of the place to which Roland’smemory and Sheemie’s power—boosted by the other four Breakers—hadtaken them. It was the East Stoneham General Store, where Roland and Eddie hadbeen ambushed by Jack Andolini. Only unless there had been some horrible error,that had been twenty-two years earlier. This was June 19th of 1999, and theclock in the window (IT’S ALWAYS TIME FOR BOAR’S HEAD MEATS! was writtenin a circle around the face) said it was nineteen minutes of four in theafternoon.

Time was almost up.

PART THREE

IN THIS HAZE OF GREEN AND GOLD

VES’-KA GAN

Chapter I:

Mrs. TassenbaumDrives South

One