The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy (14 page)

He's on the verge of losing control of the meeting when an old man steps up to support his proposal—Father Callahan, the exiled priest from 'Salem's Lot, Maine. Callahan ended up on the borders of Thunderclap after he left the vampire-ridden town and has been in Calla Bryn Sturgis long enough to build a church and convert half the folken to his religion. He plays the part of the wise old man who lives outside town in
The Magnificent Seven
. He has an ulterior motive for contacting the gunslingers, though. He has a terrible object hidden beneath the floorboards of his church and he hopes they will take it off his hands.

Several people ride out to meet the travelers to see if they can offer any help. No one believes they're gunslingers, for the line of Eld had all been dead for a thousand years.

Roland is forced to take his eyes away from his quest for the Tower, compelled by the code of the gunslingers. If people ask for his help and he deems them to be on the side of the White, he must assist. He has other problems to worry about, too. He's suffering from arthritis that hasn't yet afflicted his hands but might soon. Also, he knows that Susannah is pregnant and that her child is probably the product of the demon from the Speaking Circle where Jake reentered Mid-World from Dutch Hill. At night, Susannah is venturing naked into swamps and eating frogs and bugs. Roland believes a new personality has emerged, one who calls herself Mia, which is the word for “mother” in High Speech. She shares some of Detta's memories, but Susannah has no awareness of her presence.

The
ka-tet
is distracted by the mystery number nineteen. They see it in everything, though Roland isn't impressed. They have also started traveling to New York in 1977 in their dreams, a process called going todash. Some of
their essence is left behind in Mid-World, and people step around them in New York as if they can sense their presence without actually seeing them. Eddie and Jake go to the Manhattan Restaurant of the Mind in time to see Jake leave with
Charlie the Choo-Choo
and the riddle book. Then they observe what happened afterward: Enrico Balazar and two bodyguards—all familiar to Eddie Dean—show up to remind Tower that he has a signed agreement with them to keep the vacant lot at the corner of Second Avenue and 42nd Street until July 15, at which point they expect him to sell it to Sombra Corporation.

There are enough differences between this day and the one Jake remembers to indicate that this is a different version of reality.
Charlie the Choo-Choo
has a different author (whose name has nineteen characters) and Stephen King's name shows up on the deli board in the bookstore window. Eddie knows that if Balazar is coming to a meeting, he means business.

Eddie tells the
ka-tet
that they have to protect the rose in the vacant lot, which is the Dark Tower's representation in that universe. He wants to buy the property from Calvin Tower, but they have no money. Also, they would need to find targeted doorways to take them to Manhattan at the right times because they can't transact business while todash. Susannah figures she has enough money from Odetta's inheritance to buy the lot, but they'd have to go back to 1964 to acquire the funds since she's probably been declared dead by 1977. Roland says they are taking magic doors for granted. Until the Western Sea, he'd never seen one in all his years of travel.

This is where Father Callahan steps in, believing he might have the solution to their problem. Roland guesses correctly that Father Callahan has Black Thirteen, the most dangerous of the glass balls from the Wizard's Rainbow. Some of these glasses have the power to send people todash—Black Thirteen has done this to Callahan twice—and they may be able to wrest its power and bend it to their will.

Roland and his
ka-tet
do an impromptu demonstration of their abilities, sufficient to convince even the most reluctant among the group that it is worthwhile to explore the possibility of hiring the gunslingers. Roland displays his skills as a diplomat when discussing the matter with Overholser, the Calla's biggest farmer.

Another todash trip that night takes the entire
ka-tet
to the vacant lot. Susannah's new personality, Mia, is afraid to go near the rose, so she makes excuses to stay on the sidewalk. Whenever Mia asserts her presence during these todash trips, Susannah has legs—white legs—and when she steps back,
Susannah loses her legs. As they are about to leave, Jake picks up a bowling bag provided by
ka
to contain Black Thirteen and shield the
ka-tet
from the worst of its powers. When they return to Mid-World, the bag goes todash with them.

The
ka-tet
accompanies Callahan, Overholser and the others back to Calla Bryn Sturgis, where they are treated like celebrities. The town throws a huge party to welcome them. This gives the
ka-tet
time to get to know some people. Jake makes friends with Benny Slightman, the son of Overholser's foreman, and accepts an invitation to stay at their ranch. Eddie is forced to speak before the assembled audience, Susannah sings and Roland surprises his friends by dancing the commala during “The Rice Song.” In doing so, he wins over the hearts of the Calla-folken, and the outcome of the pending decision seems like a foregone conclusion.

Roland leaves nothing to chance, though. They have the better part of a month to gather intelligence about the Wolves and to see what local resources they might rely upon. He's counting things again, like he did in Mejis. They talk to anyone who will spare the time, and the effort proves worthwhile. They learn that the Wolves are vulnerable. One of them was killed in the past, and when Eddie finally gets Jamie Jaffords—Tian's grandfather—to recount that story, they discover a crucial detail that may turn the tide of the battle in their favor.

Though there are few usable guns in the Calla, there is another weapon that intrigues Roland. A number of the women throw sharpened titanium dishes called Orizas. They're like lethal Frisbees and some of the best throwers are deadly. He sends Susannah to train with them and to identify the best markswomen among the Sisters of Oriza.

It's not all work, though. Roland finds time to befriend Rosalita Muñoz, Father Callahan's assistant. She has a balm that soothes his aching joints, and she takes him to bed—his first lover since Allie in Tull.

Father Callahan tells the story of how he got from Maine to Calla Bryn Sturgis. After being tainted by Barlow's blood, he took a bus to New York, went to work at a homeless shelter and discovered that he could detect vampires. When one infects his friend Lupe Delgado with AIDS, he makes it his mission to kill the ones he encounters, which brings him to the attention of the low men, who begin to hunt him. He travels across the country to evade them and, to his surprise, travels between different versions of America where certain details are different. The name of a city, for example, or who appears on the twenty-dollar bill.

His alcoholism worsens, and he hits bottom in Topeka. He dries out and continues to travel. In California, he sees an article about another friend, Rowan Magruder, who was attacked by the Hitler Brothers in New York. The assault was meant to lure him back to Manhattan, and it works. After he visits Magruder in the hospital, the Hitler Brothers attack him, too. Though they usually only maim their victims with swastikas carved into their foreheads, they mean to kill Callahan on behalf of the low men. However, two men interrupt the attack—Calvin Tower and Aaron Deepneau from the Manhattan Restaurant of the Mind. Callahan is left with a cross-shaped scar on his forehead, but he survives.

He ends up working at another shelter in Detroit, thinking that he's fallen off the low men's radar. However, they lure him to a meeting at Sombra Corporation's local offices with promises of a grant. It's another trap, set by Richard Sayre, the name Eddie saw on the memorandum of agreement Balazar was showing to Calvin Tower. Callahan commits suicide rather than fall victim to the vampires.

Like Jake Chambers, though, for Callahan death isn't the end. He wakes up in the same Way Station where Jake arrived, greeted by Walter o'Dim, who circled back from leading Roland into the mountains. Walter doesn't think Roland will survive their encounter, but in case he does, he plans to use Callahan as a trap. He gives the priest Black Thirteen and sends him through the Unfound Door. This magic door goes with him, ending up in the former Cave of Voices north of Calla Bryn Sturgis. The Manni find Callahan and nurse him back to health.

After Roland finishes sharing
khef
with his
ka-tet
, he thinks Callahan will be joining them when they leave Calla Bryn Sturgis. Callahan takes Roland to his church to see Black Thirteen, which sleeps beneath the floorboards except when it sent him todash to see Ben Mears's funeral and, another time, to the Castle of the Crimson King.

Because the
ka-tet
splits up for maximum efficiency, they need to meet often to share information. Roland finally tells Eddie about Susannah's pregnancy. His main concern is to make sure she isn't distracted during the battle. Jake learns the secret on his own because of his strong sense of touch. Roland broaches the possibility of abortion to Father Callahan, who promptly threatens to raise the town against the
ka-tet
if Roland moves forward with that idea and if he doesn't do everything in his power to prevent Susannah from doing it on her own.

Jake also suspects that his new friend's father is lying, suspicions that are
confirmed when he follows Ben Slightman and Andy on a late-night sojourn across the Whye to a North Central Positronics monitoring station (Dogan). Andy coerced Slightman into betraying his friends because Benny's twin sister is dead, which makes him uniquely vulnerable to the Wolves. Jake also learns that the Calla is bugged with cameras, which is why the Wolves are always a few steps ahead of any planned resistance. Slightman and Andy make their reports to someone named Finli o'Tego in Algul Siento.

Time is moving faster in New York, and each time they cross over it will be later, because the version of reality containing the rose is special. They can't afford to miss the July 15 deadline. Eddie comes up with a simplified version of their plan—rather than messing around with Susannah's money, he thinks they can convince Tower to sell them the lot for a dollar. That means they have to return only to 1977.

Henchick of the Manni takes Roland to the Doorway Cave, where anyone who enters is tormented by voices from the past. The doorway is exactly like the ones on the Western Sea except it is labeled
UNFOUND
. Using Black Thirteen, Roland is sure they can open the door to any place or time they want. Once again, Walter's trap fails—this time it actually proves helpful, perhaps further evidence that all things serve the Beam.

Roland and Eddie use the Unfound Door and Black Thirteen to send Eddie to New York. As long as the box containing Black Thirteen is open, the door remains open, so Roland stays behind to make sure it doesn't snap shut on its own. The cave's voices and the seductive voice of the ball are difficult to withstand.

Eddie shows up in time for another meeting at Tower's store. This time it's his old nemesis, Jack Andolini, and George Biondi, though it will be a decade before the two men know him. He catches them by surprise, disables Biondi and frightens Andolini sufficiently that he believes he will carry a message back to Balazar: Tower is off-limits. Once the men are gone, Eddie convinces Tower that he is representing the line of Eld and gets the man to agree to sell the lot to the ad hoc company, Tet Corporation, for a dollar.

Balazar's men have already threatened to burn Tower's books. Eddie knows Tower won't be safe in Manhattan, so he convinces him to take a trip out of town until the deadline passes. Deepneau will leave the zip code of their destination on the fence outside the vacant lot. Before Eddie leaves, Tower makes him move a shelf containing his most valuable books through the Unfound Door. Later, when Father Callahan goes to New York to retrieve the zip code, Roland discovers a copy of
'Salem's Lot
in Tower's collection.
He can't read much of the book, but he understands its importance. When Callahan goes to Stoneham, Maine, to deliver a message to Tower, the voices in the cave almost convince Eddie to jump off the mountain.

As the day of the Wolves approaches, Roland has Tian assemble the Calla-folken once more. He asks them the three prerequisite questions for hiring gunslingers and gets a resounding yes to each. He then lays out their plan, though much of what he says is a lie. It's part of a disinformation campaign meant to mislead the Wolves. The night before the battle, Eddie tricks Andy and convinces the robot to shut himself down. For generations, he has been coercing someone local into betraying his own people. Those days are done, at least.

Roland's first clue to Ben Slightman's complicity was his glasses. Like the pocket watch worn by the salt miner in Debaria, this example of Old People technology gave him away. Even before Andy's destruction, Slightman believed Jake knew what he was doing because the boy's attitude toward his son changed. Roland tells him he won't expose him to his son if he fights hard to save the children. Slightman reveals the reason behind the raids: the twins' brains contain a special chemical used to enhance the powers of the Breakers, who are working to destroy the Tower.

Susannah's water breaks moments before the Wolves arrive, but she makes a deal with Mia: allow her to take part in the battle and she will help Mia with the baby. Mia agrees.

The battle is brief. The children are hidden in the rice fields—not the caves, as Roland had led everyone to believe—and the best of the Sisters of Oriza join the
ka-tet
(forming a Magnificent Seven) in an ambush. From Jamie Jaffords's story, they know that the Wolves are robots like the ones they dealt with near Shardik's Portal of the Bear. The hoods cover their vulnerable satellite dishes. There is a momentary crisis when one of the children Roland sends out with Jake to leave a false trail breaks his ankle in a hole. Jake blames him for what happens after. The gunslingers and the Oriza flingers prevail, killing all the Wolves in short order, but Jake's friend Benny Slightman and one of the Sisters of Oriza are killed.