"Ayuh, stove-gas," John agreed. He stepped into his boat, grabbed the Evinrude's starter-cord, gave it a yank. The engine, a sturdy little twenty-horse sewing machine of a thing, started on the first pull. "Get in here, boys, and let's us vacate t' area," he grunted.
Eddie got in. Roland paused for a moment to tap his throat three times. Eddie had seen him perform this ritual before when about to cross open water, and reminded himself to ask about it. He never got the chance; before the question occurred to him again, death had slipped between them.
Five
The skiff moved as quietly and as gracefully over the water as any motor-powered thing can, skating on its own reflection beneath a sky of summer's most pellucid blue. Behind them the plume of dark smoke sullied that blue, rising higher and higher, spreading as it went. Dozens of folk, most of them in shorts or bathing costumes, stood upon the banks of this little lake, turned in the smoke's direction, hands raised to shade against the sun. Few if any marked the steady (and completely unshowy) passage of the motorboat.
"This is Keywadin Pond, just in case you were wonderin," John said. He pointed ahead of them, where another gray tongue of dock stuck out. Beside this one was a neat little boathouse, white with green trim, its overhead door open. As they neared it, Roland and Eddie could see both a canoe and a kayak bobbing inside, at tether.
"Boathouse is mine," the man in the flannel shirt added. Theboat inboathouse came out in a way impossible to reproduce with mere letters - bwutwould probably come closest - but which both men recognized. It was the way the word was spoken in the Calla.
"Looks well-kept," Eddie said. Mostly to be sayingsomething.
"Oh, ayuh," John said. "I do caretakin, camp-checkin, some rough carpenterin. Wouldn't look good f'business if I had a fallin-down boathouse, would it?"
Eddie smiled. "Suppose not."
"My place is about half a mile back from the water. Name's John Cullum." He held out his right hand to Roland, continuing to steer a straight course away from the rising pillar of smoke and toward the boathouse with the other.
Roland took the hand, which was pleasantly rough. "I'm Roland Deschain, of Gilead. Long days and pleasant nights, John."
Eddie put out his own hand in turn. "Eddie Dean, from Brooklyn. Nice to meet you."
John shook with him easily enough but his eyes studied Eddie closely. When their hands parted, he said: "Young fella, did somethin just happen? It did, didn't it?"
"I don't know," Eddie said. Not with complete honesty.
"You ain't been to Brooklyn for a long time, son, have you?"
"Ain't been to Morehouse or tono house," Eddie Dean said, and then quickly, before he could lose it: "Mia's locked Susannah away. Locked her away in the year of '99. Suze can get to the Dogan, but going there's no good. Mia's locked off the controls. There's nothing Suze can do. She's kidnapped. She...she..."
He stopped. For a moment everything had been soclear, like a dream upon the instant of waking. Then, as so often happens with dreams, it faded. He didn't even know if it had been a real message from Susannah, or pure imagination.
Young fella, did somethin just happen?
So Cullum had felt it, too. Not imagination, then. Some form of the touch seemed more likely.
John waited, and when there was no more from Eddie, turned to Roland. "Does your pal come over funny that way often?"
"Not often, no. Sai...Mister,I mean. Mister Cullum, I thank you for helping us when we needed help. I thank ya big-big. It would be monstrous impudent of us to ask for more, but - "
"But you're gonna. Ayuh, figgered." John made a minute course correction toward the little boathouse with its square open mouth. Roland estimated they'd be there in five minutes. That was fine by him. He had no objection to riding in this tight little motor-powered boat (even though it rode rather low in the water with the weight of three grown men inside), but Keywadin Pond was far too exposed for his taste. If Jack Andolini (or his successor, should Jack be replaced) asked enough of those shore-gawkers, he would eventually find a few who remembered the little skiff with the three men in it. And the boathouse with the neat green trim.John Cullum's bwut-huss, may it do ya fine, these witnesses would say. Best they should be farther along the Beam before that happened, with John Cullum packed off to somewhere safe. Roland judged "safe" in this case to be perhaps three looks to the horizon-line, or about a hundred wheels. He had no doubt that Cullum, a total stranger, had saved their lives by stepping in decisively at the right moment. The last thing he wanted was for the man to lose his own as a result.
"Well, I'll do what I can for ya, already made up m'mind to that, but I got to ask you somethin now, while I got the chance."
Eddie and Roland exchanged a brief look. Roland said, "We'll answer if we can. Which is to say, John of East Stoneham, if we judge that the answer won't cause you harm."