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Hands�Ddark brown hands�Dentered what Roland saw as a doorway and what Eddie was already starting to think of as soic ht circuuy had just walked out of the screen and into the real world in The Purple Rose of Cairo Bitchin movie

Eddie hadn&039;t realized how bitchin until just now

Except that movie hadn&039;t been h It was New York, okay�Dsomehow the very sound of the taxi-cab horns, as mute and faint as they were�Dproclaimed that�Dand it was some New York department store he had been in at one time or another, but it waswas

"It&039;s older," he er asked

Eddie looked at hihed shortly "Yeah If you want to put it that way, yeah"

"Hello, Miss Walker ," a tentative voice said The view in the doorway rose so suddenly that even Eddie was a bit dizzied and he saw a saleswoman who obviously knew the owner of the black hands�Dknew her and either didn&039;t like her or feared her Or both "Help you today?"

"This one" The owner of the black hands held up a white scarf with a bright blue edge "Don&039;t bother to wrap it up, babe, just stick it in a bag"

"Cash or ch�D"

"Cash, it&039;s always cash, isn&039;t it?"

"Yes, that&039;s fine, Miss Walker"

"I&039;lad you approve, dear"

There was a little griht it as she turned away Maybe it was so talked to that way by a woain it was e of history or even life on the streets as he had lived it that caused this thought, because this was like watching alike that one with Sidney Steiger and Rod Poitier, In the Heat of the Night ), but it could also be so even simpler: Roland&039;s Lady of the Shadoas, black or white, one rude bitch

And it didn&039;t really matter, did it? None of itand one thing only and that was getting the fuck out

That was New York , he could almost smell New York

And New York meant smack

He could almost smell that, too

Except there was a hitch, wasn&039;t there?

One big motherfucker of a hitch

8

Roland watched Eddie carefully, and although he could have killed him six times over at almost any time he wanted, he had elected to remain still and silent and let Eddie work the situation out for his, and a lot of them were not nice (as a felloho had consciously let a child drop to his death, the gunslinger knew the difference between nice and not quite well), but one thing Eddie wasn&039;t was stupid

He was a sure it out

So he did

He looked back at Roland, ser&039;s revolver once on his finger, clu a show-shooter&039;s fancy coda, and then he held it out to Roland, butt first

"This thing ood it can do ht when you want to, Roland thought Why do you so often choose to talk stupid, Eddie? Is it because you think that&039;s the way they talked in the place where your brother ith his guns?

"Isn&039;t that right?" Eddie repeated

Roland nodded

"If I had plugged you, ould have happened to that door?"

"I don&039;t know I suppose the only way to find out would be to try it and see"

"Well, what do you think would happen?"

"I think it would disappear"

Eddie nodded That hat he thought, too Poof! Gone like ic! Now ya see it, my friends, now ya don&039;t It was really no different than ould happen if the projectionist in athe projector, was it?

If you shot the projector, the movie stopped

Eddie didn&039;t want the picture to stop

Eddie wanted his h by yourself," Eddie said slowly

"Yes"

"Sort of"

"Yes"

"You wind up in her head Like you wound up in mine&039;&039;

"Yes"

"So you can hitchhike into my world, but that&039;s all"

Roland said nothing Hitchhike was one of the words Eddie sometimes used that he didn&039;t exactly understandbut he caught the drift

"But you could go through in your body Like at Balazar&039;s" He was talking out loud but really talking to himself "Except you&039;d need me for that, wouldn&039;t you?"

"Yes"

"Then take er opened hison

"Not now, I don&039;t oddahed rather wildly "Like arabbits out of a hat, except without any hat, sure I did We&039;ll wait until she&039;s alone, and�D"

"No"

"I&039;ll come back with you," Eddie said "I swear it, Roland I ot a job to do, and I know I&039;m a part of it I know you saved my ass at Customs, but I think I saved yours at Balazar&039;s�Dnohat do you think?"

"I think you did," Roland said He reardless of the risk, and felt an instant of doubt

But only an instant

"So? Peter pays Paul One hand washes the other All I want to do is go back for a few hours Grab some take-out chicken, maybe a box of Dunkin Donuts" Eddie nodded toward the doorhere things had begun to unslinger said, but for aabout Eddie That movement up the aisle�Dthe Lady, whoever she asn&039;t , for instance, the way Eddie had h his eyes, or (now that he stopped to think of it, which he never had before, any more than he had ever stopped and really noticed the constant presence of his own nose in the lower range of his peripheral vision) the way he moved himself When one walked, vision beca, the world rocking back and forth so an to walk, he supposed�Dyou sinored it There was none of that pendulum movement in the Lady&039;s walk�Dshe si tracks Ironically, Eddie had had this same perceptiononly to Eddie it had looked like a SteadiCa because it was familiar

To Roland it was alienbut then Eddie was breaking in, his voice shrill

"Well why not? Just why the fuck not?"

"Because you don&039;t want chicken," the gunslinger said "I knohat you call the things you want, Eddie You want to &039;fix&039; You want to &039;score&039; "

"So what?" Eddie cried�Dalmost shrieked "So what if I do? I said I&039;d coot my fuckin PROMISE! What else do you want? You want me to swear on my mother&039;s name? Okay, I swear on my mother&039;s name! You want ht, I swear! I swear! I SWEAR!"

Enrico Balazar would have told hier didn&039;t need the likes of Balazar to tell him this one fact of life: Never trust a junkie

Roland nodded toward the door "Until after the Tower, at least, that part of your life is done After that I don&039;t care After that you&039;re free to go to hell in your oay Until then I need you"

&039;&039;Oh you fuckin shitass liar,&039;&039; Eddie said softly There was no audible elisten of tears in his eyes Roland said nothing "You know there ain&039;t gonna be no after, not for uy is Probably not for you, either�Dyou look as fuckin wasted as Henry did at his worst If we don&039;t die on the way to your Toe&039;ll sure as shit die e get there so why are you lying to er felt a dull species of shame but only repeated: "At least for now, that part of your life is done"

"Yeah?" Eddie said "Well, I got soonna happen to your real body when you go through there and inside of her I know because I saw it before I don&039;t need your guns I got you by that fabled place where the short hairs grow, my friend You can even turn her head the way you turned mine and watch what I do to the rest of you while you&039;re nothing but your godda you down by the water Then you could watch the lobsters chow up on the rest of you But you ht be in too raty breaking of the waves and the steady hollow conch of the wind both seemed very loud

"So I think I&039;ll just use your knife to cut your throat"

"And close that door forever?"

"You say that part of my life is done You don&039;t just mean smack, either YouIf that&039;s how it is, I want this part done, too The scenery sucks and the company stinks There are tiart look alreat wonders ahead," Roland said "Great adventures More than that, there is a quest to course upon, and a chance to redee else, too You could be a gunslinger I needn&039;t be the last after all It&039;s in you, Eddie I see it I feel it"

Eddie laughed, although now the tears were coursing down his cheeks "Oh, wonderful Wonderful! Just what I need! My brother Henry He was a gunslinger In a place called Viet Nareat for him You should have seen him when he was on a serious nod, Roland He couldn&039;t find his way to the fuckin bathroom without help If there wasn&039;t any help handy, he just sat there and watched Big Tireat to be a gunslinger I can see that My brother was a doper and you&039;re out of your fucking gourd"

"Perhaps your brother was a man with no clear idea of honor"

"Maybe not We didn&039;t always get a real clear picture of what that was in the Projects It was just a word you used after Your if you happened to get caught suy&039;s T-Bird and got ho&039;ed up in court for it"

Eddie was crying harder now, but he was laughing, too

"Your friends, now This guy you talk about in your sleep, for instance, this dude Cuthbert�D"

The gunslinger started in spite of hi could stay that start

"Did they get this stuff you&039;re talking about like a goddaeant? Adventure, quests, honor?"

"They understood honor, yes," Roland said slowly, thinking of all the vanished others

"Did it get theot

"I know you," Eddie said "I seen lots of guys like you "You&039;re just another kook singing &039;Onward Christian Soldiers&039; with a flag in one hand and a gun in the other I don&039;t want no honor I just want a chicken dinner and fix In that order So I&039;h You can But the onna kill the rest of you"

The gunslinger said nothing

Eddie smiled crookedly and brushed the tears from his cheeks with the backs of his hands "You want to knoe call this back home?"

"What?"

"A Mexican stand-off"

For a moment they only looked at each other, and then Roland looked sharply into the doorway They had both been partially aware�DRoland rather more than Eddie�Dthat there had been another of those swerves, this ti jewelry Solass but because er supposed it was trumpery stuffwhat Eddie would have called costus in what seeirl appeared There had been some conversation which neither of theht) asked to see soirl went away, and that hen Roland&039;s eyes swung sharply back

The brown hands reappeared, only now they held a purse It opened And suddenly the hands were scooping things�Dseely, almost certainly, at rando quite a crew, Roland," Eddie said, bitterly aot your basic black shoplif�D"

But Roland was alreadyswiftly, not looking at Eddie at all

"I h and I&039;ll cut your throat, I&039;ll cut your fucking thr�D"

Before he could finish, the gunslinger was gone All that was left of hi upon the beach

For a moment Eddie only stood there, unable to believe that Roland had done it, had really gone ahead and done this idiotic thing in spite of his prouarantee, as far as that went�Dof what the consequences would be

He stood for a htened horse at the onset of a thunderstormexcept of course there was no thunderstorht All right, goddaht only be a ive hilanced at the door and saw the black hands freeze with a gold necklace half in and half out of a purse that already glittered like a pirate&039;s cache of treasure Although he could not hear it, Eddie sensed that Roland was speaking to the owner of the black hands

He pulled the knife froer&039;s purse and then rolled over the li body which lay before the doorway The eyes were open but blank, rolled up to the whites

"Watch, Roland!" Eddie screa wind blew in his ears Christ, it was enough to drive anyone bugshit "Watch very closely! I want to co education! I want to show you what happens when you fuck over the Dean brothers!"

He brought the knife down to the gunslinger&039;s throat