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1

Eddie Dean was sitting in a chair The chair was in a small white room It was the only chair in the small white room The small white room was crowded The small white rooarette The other six�Dno, seven�Dmen in the s around hiarettes

Eddie wanted to jitter and jive Eddie wanted to hop and bop

Eddie sat still, relaxed, looking at the oing crazy for a fix, as if he wasn&039;t going crazy from simple claustrophobia

The other in his mind was the reason why He had been terrified of the other at first Now he thanked God the other was there

The other h steel left in his spine for him to have some left to loan this scared twenty-one-year-old junkie

"That is a very interesting red arette hung from the corner of his mouth There was a pack in his shirt pocket Eddie felt as if he could take about five of the cigarettes in that pack, line his ht them all, inhale deeply, and be easier in histaped there, Eddie, and all at once decided it would be a good idea to rip it off and get rid of it"

"I picked up an allergy in the Bahamas ," Eddie said "I told you that I h all of this several ti to keepharder all the time"

"Fuck your sense of hunized that tone It was the way he hiht in the cold waiting for the uys were junkies, too The only difference was guys like him and Henry were their junk

"What about that hole in your gut? Where&039;d that coent was pointing at the spot where Eddie had poked hi but there was still a dark purple bubble there which looked

Eddie indicated the red band where the tape had been "It itches," he said This was no lie "I fell asleep on the plane�Dcheck the stew if you don&039;t believe me�D"

"Why wouldn&039;t we believe you, Eddie?"

"I don&039;t know," Eddie said "Do you usually get big drug save them a second to think about it, then held out his hands Soed When you went cool turkey, he had discovered, your nails suddenly becaood about not scratching, but I "

"Or while you were on the nod That could be a needle-mark" Eddie could see they both knew better You shot yourself up that close to the solar plexus, which was the nervous syste to shoot yourself up again

"Give me a break," Eddie said "You were into soul-kiss me You knoasn&039;t on the nod"

The third Custousted "For an innocent lambikins, you know an awful lot about dope, Eddie"

"What I didn&039;t pick up on Miaest Now tell h this?"

A fourth agent held up a sie In it were several fibers

"These are filaet lab confirmation, but we knohat sort they are They&039;re fila tape"

"I didn&039;t take a shower before I left the hotel," Eddie said for the fourth tiet rid of the rash The allergy rash I fell asleep I was damned lucky to make the plane at all I had to run like hell The as blowing I don&039;t knohat stuck to my skin and what didn&039;t"

Another reached out and ran a finger up the three inches of flesh from the inner bend of Eddie&039;s left elbow

"And these aren&039;t needle tracks"

Eddie shoved the hand away "Mosquito bites I told you Almost healed Jesus Christ, you can see that for yourself!"

They could This deal hadn&039;t coo Henry couldn&039;t have done that, and that was one of the reasons it had been Eddie, had to be Eddie When he absolutely had to fix, he had taken it very high on his upper left thigh, where his left testicle lay against the skin of the legas he had the other night, when the sallow thing had finally brought him so hich Henry could no longer content his Eddie couldn&039;t exactly definea mixture of pride and shame If they looked there, if they pushed his testicles aside, he could have some serious problems A blood-test could cause him problems even o without so they just didn&039;t have They knew everything but could prove nothing All the difference betorld and want, his dear old mother would have said

"Mosquito bites"

"Yes"

"And the red ic reaction"

"Yes I had it when I went to the Bahamas ; it just wasn&039;t that bad"

"He had it when he went down there," one of the men said to another

"Uh-huh," the second said "You believe it?"

"Sure"

"You believe in Santa Claus?"

"Sure When I was a kid I even had ot a picture of this famous red mark from before you took your little trip, Eddie?"

Eddie didn&039;t reply

"If you&039;re clean, on&039;t you take a blood-test?" This was the first guy again, the guy with the cigarette in the corner of his mouth It had almost burned down to the filter

Eddie was suddenly angry�Dwhite-hot angry He listened inside

Okay, the voice responded at once, and Eddie felt o-to-the-wall approval It ed him, tousled his hair, punched hiood, kid�Ddon&039;t let it go to your head, but you done good

"You know I&039;m clean" He stood up suddenly�Dso suddenly they moved back He looked at the smoker as closest to hi, babe, if you don&039;t get that coffin-nail out uy recoiled

"You guys have emptied the crap-tank on that plane already God, you&039;ve had enough tih it three tih my stuff I bent over and let one of you stick the world&039;s longest finger up my ass If a prostate check is an exa safari I was scared to look down I thought I&039;d see that guy&039;s fingernail sticking out of lared around at them

"You&039;ve been up hhere in a pair of Jockies with you guys blowing s in someone to do it"

They murmured, looked at each other Surprised Uneasy

"But if you want to do it without a court order," Eddie said, "whoever does it better bring a lot of extra hypos and vials, because I&039;ll be daonna piss alone I want a Federal oddam test, and I want your nao into that Federal marshal&039;s custody And whatever you test mine for�Dcocaine, heroin, bennies, pot, whatever�DI want those sauys And then I want the results turned over to my lawyer"

"Oh boy, YOUR LAWYER," one of them cried "That&039;s what it always cos, doesn&039;t it, Eddie? You&039;ll hear from MY LAWYER I&039;ll sic MY LAWYER on you That crap makes me want to puke!"

"As a matter of fact I don&039;t currently have one," Eddie said, and this was the truth "I didn&039;t think I needed one You guys changed , but the rock and roll just doesn&039;t stop, does it? So you want onna do it alone You guys&039;ll have to dance, too"

There was a thick, difficult silence

"I&039;d like you to take down your shorts again, please, Mr Dean," one of theuy looked like he was in charge of things Eddie thought that uy had finally realized where the fresh tracks ht be Until now they hadn&039;t checked His arsbut not there They had been too sure they had a bust

"I&039; this shit," Eddie said "You get someone in here and we&039;ll do a bunch of blood-tests or I&039; out Nohich do you want?"

That silence again And when they started looking at each other, Eddie knew he had won

WE won, he amended What&039;s your name, fella?

Roland Yours is Eddie Eddie Dean

You listen good

Listen and watch

"Give hiustedly He looked at Eddie "I don&039;t knohat you had or how you got rid of it, but I want you to know that we&039;re going to find out"

The old dude surveyed hirinning What you say doesn&039;t make me want to puke What you are does"

"I make you want to puke"

"That&039;s affirmative"

"Oh boy," Eddie said "I love it I&039; on but uns on their hips and ot a probleuy held his ground for ain Eddie&039;s eyes�Da crazy color that seeainst his will

"I&039;M NOT CARRYING!" Eddie roared "QUIT NOW! JUST QUIT! LET ME ALONE!"

The silence again Then the older man turned around and yelled at someone, "Didn&039;t you hear me? Get his clothes!"

And that was that

2

"You think we&039;re being tailed?" the cabbie asked He sounded amused

Eddie turned forward "Why do you say that?"

"You keep looking out the back "

"I never thought about being tailed," Eddie said This was the absolute truth He had seen the tails the first time he looked around Tails, not tail He didn&039;t have to keep looking around to confirm their presence Outpatients from a sanitariu Eddie&039;s cab on this late May afternoon; traffic on the LIE was sparse "I&039;m a student of traffic patterns, that&039;s all"

"Oh," the cabbie said In some circles such an odd statement would have prompted questions, but New York cab drivers rarely question; instead they assert, usually in a grand in with the phrase This city! as if the words were a religious invocation preceding a sermonwhich they usually were Instead, this one said: "Because if you did think ere being tailed, we&039;re not I&039;d know This city! Jesus! I&039;ve tailed plenty of people in my time You&039;d be surprised how many people jump into my cab and say &039;Follow that car&039; I know, sounds like soht But like they say, art imitates life and life i a tail, it&039;s easy if you kno to set the guy up You "

Eddie tuned the cabbie down to a background drone, listening just enough so he could nod in the right places When you thought about it, the cabbie&039;s rap was actually quite auessed that one belonged to Customs The other was a panel truck with GINELLI&039;S PIZZA written on the sides There was also a picture of a pizza, only the pizza was a s his lips, and written under the picture was the slogan "UMMMMM! It&039;s-a GOOOOD Pizza!" Only so urban artist with a spray-can and a rudih PIZZA and had printed PUSSY above it

Ginelli There was only one Ginelli Eddie knew; he ran a restaurant called Four Fathers The pizza business was a sideline, a guaranteed stiff, an accountant&039;s angel Ginelli and Balazar They went together like hot dogs and inal plan, there was to have been a li outside the terminal with a driver ready to whisk him away to Balazar&039;s place of business, which was a inal plan hadn&039;t included two hours in a little white roo froents while another bunch first drained and then raked the contents of Flight 901&039;s waste-tanks, looking for the big carry they also suspected, the big carry that would be unflushable, undissolvable

When he came out, there was no limo, of course The driver would have had his instructions: if the mule isn&039;t out of the terers have come out, drive away fast The limo driver would know better than to use the car&039;s telephone, which was actually a radio that could easily be monitored Balazar would call people, find out Eddie had struck trouble, and get ready for trouble of his own Balazar nized Eddie&039;s steel, but that didn&039;t change the fact that Eddie was a junkie A junkie could not be relied upon to be a stand-up guy

This ht pull up in the lane next to the taxi, soht stick an automatic weapon out of the pizza truck&039;s , and then the back of the cab would becorater Eddie would have been more worried about that if they had held him for four hours instead of two, and seriously worried if it had been six hours instead of four But only twohe thought Balazar would trust hi He would want to know about his goods

The real reason Eddie kept looking back was the door

It fascinated hients had half-carried, half-dragged him down the stairs to Kennedy&039;s administration section, he had looked back over his shoulder and there it had been, i at a distance of about three feet He could see the waves rolling steadily in, crashing on the sand; he saw that the day over there was beginning to darken

The door was like one of those trick pictures with a hidden ie in them, it seemed; you couldn&039;t see that hidden part for the life of you at first, but once you had, you couldn&039;t unsee it, no matter how hard you tried

It had disappeared on the two occasions when the gunslinger went back without him, and that had been scary�DEddie had felt like a child whose nightlight has burned out The first tiation

Ihave to go, Roland&039;s voice had cut cleanly through whatever question they were currently throwing at him I&039;ll only be a few moments Don&039;t be afraid

Why? Eddie asked Why do you have to go?

"What&039;s wrong?" one of the Custouys had asked him "All of a sudden you look scared"

All of a sudden he had felt scared, but of nothing this yo-yo would understand

He looked over his shoulder, and the Custo but a blank white wall covered hite panels drilled with holes to damp sound; Eddie saw the door, its usual three feet away (noas embedded in the rooators could see) He saw s that looked like refugees from a horror movie where the effects are just a little h so everything looks real They looked like a hideous cross-breeding of prawn, lobster, and spider They werethe jis crawling down the wall, Eddie?"

That was so close to the truth that Eddie had alo back, though; Roland&039;s �Dbut the creatures weretoward his body, and Eddie had a suspicion that if Roland did not soon vacate it froht not be any body left to go back to

Suddenly in his head he heard David Lee Roth bawling: Oh lyyyyy ain&039;t got no bodyand this tih He couldn&039;t help it

"What&039;s so funny?" the Custos asked him

"This whole situation," Eddie had responded "Only in the sense of peculiar, not hilarious I mean, if it was a et what I ht? Roland asked

Yeah, fine TCB, man

I don&039;t understand

Go take care of business

Oh All right I&039;ll not be long

And suddenly that other had been gone Siary of wind could blow it away Eddie looked around again, saw nothing but drilled white panels, no door, no ocean, no weird hten There was no question of believing it had all been a hallucination after all; the dope was gone, and that was all the proof Eddie needed But Roland hadhelped, so a picture there?" one of the Custouys asked

"No," Eddie said, and blew out a sigh "I want you to let me out of here"

"Soon as you tell us what you did with the skag," another said, "or was it coke?" And so it started again: round and round she goes and where she stops nobody knows

Tenone, next second there Eddie sensed he was deeply exhausted

Taken care of? he asked

Yes I&039; A pause Ihad to crawl

Eddie looked around again The doorway had returned, but now it offered a slightly different view of that world, and he realized that, as it httied to this other by soer&039;s body lay collapsed in front of it as before, but noas looking down a long stretch of beach to the braided high-tide line where theEach time a wave broke all of them raised their claws They looked like the audiences in those old docu and everyone is throwing that old seig heil! salute like their lives depended on it�Dwhich they probably did, when you thought about it Eddie could see the tortured ress in the sand

As Eddie watched, one of the horrors reached up, lightning quick, and snared a sea-bird which happened to swoop too close to the beach The thing fell to the sand in two bloody, spraying chunks The parts were covered by the shelled horrors even before they had stopped twitching A single white feather drifted up A claw snatched it down

Holy Christ, Eddie thought numbly Look at thosesnappers

"Why do you keep looking back there?" the guy in charge had asked

"From time to time I need an antidote," Eddie said

"From what?"

"Your face"

3

The cab driver dropped Eddie at the building in Co-Op City , thanked him for the dollar tip, and drove off Eddie just stood for a er of the other and slung back over his shoulder Here he shared a two-bedroo up at it, a monolith with all the style and taste of a brick Saltines box The many s made it look like a prison cellblock to Eddie, and he found the view as depressing as Roland�Dthe other�D did a

Never, even as a child, did I see a building so high, Roland said And there are so reed We live like a bunch of ants in a hill It ets old It gets old in a hurry

The blue car cruised by; the pizza truck turned in and approached Eddie stiffened and felt Roland stiffen inside him Maybe they intended to blow him away after all

The door? Roland asked Shall we go through? Do you wish it? Eddie sensed Roland was ready�Dfor anything�Dbut the voice was calm

Not yet, Eddie said Could be they only want to talk But be ready

He sensed that was an unnecessary thing to say; he sensed that Roland was readier to move and act in his deepest sleep than Eddie would ever be in his most wide-awakekid on the side closed in The passengerrolled down and Eddie waited outside the entrance to his building with his shadow trailing out long in front of hi to see which it would be�Da face or a gun

4

The second time Roland left him had been no iven up and let Eddie go

The gunslinger had eaten, but not enough; he needed to drink; most of all he needed medicine Eddie couldn&039;t yet help hih he suspected the gunslinger was right and Balazar couldif Balazar wanted to), but siht at least knock down the fever that Eddie had felt when the gunslinger stepped close to sever the top part of the tape girdle He paused in front of the newsstand in the main terminal

Do you have aspirin where you coic or uess

Eddie went into the newsstand and bought a tin of Extra-Strength Anacin He went over to the snack bar and bought a couple of foot-long dogs and an extra-large Pepsi He was putting s Godzilla-dogs) when he suddenly remembered this stuff wasn&039;t for hiht not like ie For all he knew, this crap ht kill Roland

Well, too late now, Eddie thought When Roland spoke�Dwhen Roland acted�D Eddie knew all this was really happening When he was quiet, that giddy feeling that itas he slept on Detta 901 inbound to Kennedy�Dinsisted on creeping back

Roland had told him he could carry the food into his oorld He had already done so similar once, he said, when Eddie was asleep Eddie found it all but impossible to believe, but Roland assured him it was true

Well, we still have to be dauys watching me Us Whatever the hell I am now

I knoe have to be careful, Roland returned There aren&039;t two; there are five Eddie suddenly felt one of the weirdest sensations of his entire life He did not move his eyes but felt theuy in ainto a telephone

A woh her purse

A young black guy ould have been spectacularly handsoery had only partially repaired, looking at the tee-shirts in the newsstand Eddie had co about any of thenized the those hidden ies in a child&039;s puzzle, which, once seen, could never be unseen He felt dull heat in his cheeks, because it had taken the other to point out what he should have seen at once He had spotted only two These three were a little better, but not thatthe person he was talking to but aware, actually looking, and the place where Eddie wasthat was the place to which the phone- The purse-woive up but si endlessly And the shopper had had a chance to look at every shirt on the spindle-rack at least a dozen tiain, afraid to cross the street without Henry to hold his hand

Never mind, Roland said And don&039;t worry about the food, either I&039;ve eaten bugs while they were still lively enough for so down my throat

Yeah, Eddie replied, but this isNew York

He took the dogs and the soda to the far end of the counter and stood with his back to the terlanced up in the left-hand corner A convex ed there like a hypertensive eye He could see all of his followers in it, but none was close enough to see the food and cup of soda, and that was good, because Eddie didn&039;t have the slightest idea as going to happen to it

Put the astin on thein your hands

Aspirin

Good Call It flutergork if you want, pr Eddie Just do it

He took the Anacin out of the stapled bag he had stuffed in his pocket, als, and suddenly realized that Roland would have proble�Doff the tin, let alone opening it

He did it himself, shook three of the pills onto one of the napkins, debated, then added three more

Three now, three later, he said Ifthere is a later

All right Thank you

Nohat?

Hold all of it

Eddie had glanced into the convexcasually toward the snack bar,the way Eddie&039;s back was turned, ress and wanting a closer look If so to happen, it better happen quick

He put his hands around everything, feeling the heat of the dogs in their soft white rolls, the chill of the Pepsi In thatready to carry a snack back to his kidsand then the stuff started to , until it felt to hile by their stalks

He could see the hotdogs through the rolls He could see the Pepsi through the cup, the ice-choked liquid curving to conforer be seen

Then he could see the red Forh the Pepsi His hands slid toward each other, the resistance between theainst each other, palm to palm The foodthe napkinsthe Pepsi Colathe six Anacinall the things which had been between his hands were gone

Jesus juht numbly He flicked his eyes up toward the convex onejust as Roland was gone frohtbut was this weird alien presence that called itself Roland his friend? That was far from proved, wasn&039;t it? He had saved Eddie&039;s bacon, true enough, but that didn&039;t mean he was a Boy Scout

All the same, he liked Roland Feared himbut liked him as well

Suspected that in time he could love hier, he thought Eat well, stay alive and come back

Close by were a few mustard-stained napkins left by a previous customer Eddie balled them up, tossed them in the trash-barrel by the door on his way out, and chewed air as if finishing a last bite of so He was even able to uy on his way toward the signs pointing the way to LUGGAGE and GROUND TRANSPORTATION

"Couldn&039;t find a shirt you liked?" Eddie asked

"I beg your pardon?" the black guy turned fro to study

"I thoughtfor one that said PLEASE FEED ME, I AM A US GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE," Eddie said, and walked on

As he headed down the stairs he saw the purse-rooter hurriedly snap her purse shut and get to her feet

Oh boy, this is gonna be like the Macy&039;s Thanksgiving Day parade

It had been one fuck of an interesting day, and Eddie didn&039;t think it was over yet

5

When Roland saw the lobster-things co to do with tide, then; it was the dark that brought them), he left Eddie Dean to move himself before the creatures could find and eat him

The pain he had expected and was prepared for He had lived with pain so long it was almost an old friend He was appalled, however, by the rapidity hich his fever had increased and his strength decreased If he had not been dying before, he h in the prisoner&039;s world to keep that froet soht it wouldn&039;t ic in that world or any other that wouldwas i ready to start when his eye fixed upon the twisted band of sticky stuff and the bags of devil-powder If he left the stuff here, the lobstrosities would als open The sea-breeze would scatter the powder to the four winds Which is where it belongs, the gunslinger thought grimly, but he couldn&039;t allow it When the ti tub of trouble if he couldn&039;t produce that powder It was rarely possible to bluff uessed this Balazar to be He would want to see what he had paid for, and until he saw it Eddie would have enough guns pointed at hier pulled the twisted rope of glue-string over to hian to work his way up the beach

He had crawled twenty yards�Daled�Dwhen the horrible (yet cos the doorway behind cah this for?

He turned his head and saw the doorway, not down on the beach, but three feet behind him For a moment Roland could only stare, and realize what he would have known already, if not for the fever and the sound of the Inquisitors, dru their ceaseless questions at Eddie, Where did you, how did you, why did you, when did you (questions that see horrors that ca out of the waves: Dad-a-chock? Dad-a-chum? Did-a-chick?), as mere deliriuo, he thought, just as he does It co like a curse you can never get rid of

All of this felt so true as to be unquestionableand so did one other thing

If the door between them should close, it would be closed forever

When that happens, Roland thought grimly, he on of virtue you are, gunslinger! the hed He seemed to have taken up permanent residence inside Roland&039;s head You have killed the boy; that was the sacrifice that enabled you to catch me and, I suppose, to create the door betorlds Now you intend to draw your three, one by one, and conde you would not have for yourself: a lifetime in an alien world, where they may die as easily as animals in a zoo set free in a wild place

The Tower, Roland thought wildly Once I&039;ve gotten to the Tower and done whatever it is I&039;m supposed to do there, accomplished whatever fundamental act of restoration or redemption for which I was hter of the unslinger&039;s stained conscience, would not let hiht

Neither, however, could the thought of the treachery he conteed another ten yards, looked back, and saw that even the largest of the crawling monsters would venture no further than twenty feet above the high-tide line He had already ed three times that distance

It&039;s well, then

Nothing is well, the man in black replied er thought, and for a wonder, the voice actually did

Roland pushed the bags of devil-dust into the cleft between two rocks and covered therass With that done he rested briefly, head thu of waters, skin alternately hot and cold, then rolled back through the doorway into that other world, that other body, leaving the increasing deadly infection behind for a little while

6

The second time he returned to hiht for a moment it had entered a comatose statea state of such lowered bodily function that inslide into darkness

Instead, he forced his body toakefulness, punched and pummelled it out of the dark cave into which it had crawled He made his heart speed up, h his skin and woke his flesh to groaning reality

It was night now The stars were out The popkin-things Eddie had bought him were small bits of war theh

He looked at the white pills in his hand Astin, Eddie called it No, that wasn&039;t quite right, but Roland couldn&039;t pronounce the word as the prisoner had said it Medicine hat it came down to Medicine fro frorimly, I think it&039;s more apt to be your potions than your popkins

Still, he would have to try it Not the stuff he really needed�Dor so Eddie believed�Dbut soht reduce his fever

Three now, three later If there is a later

He put three of the pills in his e white stuff that was neither paper nor glass but which seemed a bit like both�Doff the paper cup which held the drink, and washed them down

The first s amazed him so coainst a rock, his eyes so wide and still and full of reflected starlight that he would surely have been taken for dead already by anyone who happened to pass by Then he drank greedily, holding the cup in both hands, the rotted, pulsing hurt in the stuers barely noticed in his total absorption with the drink

Sweet! Gods, such sweetness! Such sweetness! Such�D

One of the shed, pounded his chest, and choked it out Now there was a new pain in his head: the silvery pain that co too cold too fast

He lay still, feeling his heart pue into his body so fast he felt as if he , he tore another piece fro around his neck�Dand laid it across one leg When the drink was gone he would pour the ice into the rag and make a pack for his wounded hand But his ain and again, trying to get the sense of it, or to convince itself there was sense in it, much as Eddie had tried to convince hi and not someto trick him Sweet! Sweet! Sweet!

The dark drink was laced with sugar, even rave ascetic&039;s exterior�Dhad put in his coffee in ar white powder

The gunslinger&039;s eyes wandered to the bags, barely visible under the grass he had tossed over them, and wondered briefly if the stuff in this drink and the stuff in the bags ht be one and the same He knew that Eddie had understood him perfectly over here, where they were two separate physical creatures; he suspected that if he had crossed bodily to Eddie&039;s world (and he understood instinctively it could be donealthough if the door should shut while he was there, he would be there forever, as Eddie would be here forever if their positions were reversed), he would have understood the language just as perfectly He knew froes of the torlds were siin with Similar, but not the sa so Eddie called cocaine was, in the gunslinger&039;s world, called sugar?

Reconsideration ht this drink openly, knowing that he was being watched by people who served the Priests of Customs Further, Roland sensed he had paid comparatively little for it Less, even, than for the popkins of ar was not cocaine, but Roland could not understand why anyone would want cocaine or any other illegal drug, for that ar was so plentiful and cheap