"But... you told him to go away! And he agreed to go!"
"And how enthusiastic would you say he was about visiting his friend in Vermong?"
"Mont," Eddie said, unable to suppress a smile. Yet, smiling or not, what he felt most strongly was dismay. He thought that scraping sound he heard in his imagination was Roland's o-fingered right hand, prospecting around at the very bottom of the barrel.
Roland shrugged as if to say he didn't care if Cullum had noken of going to Vermont or Barony o' Garlan. "Answer my question."
"Well..."
Cullum actually hadn't expressed much enthusiasm for the idea at all. He had from the very first reacted more like one of them than one of the grass-eaters among whom he lived (Eddie recognized grass-eaters very easily, having been one himself until Roland first kidnapped him and then began his homicidal lessons). Cullum had been clearly intrigued by the gunslingers, and curious about their business in his little town. But Roland had been very emphatic abovit what he wanted, and folks had a way of following his orders.
Now he made a twirling motion with his right hand, his old impatient gesture. Hurry, for your father's sake. Shit or get off the commode.
"I guess he really didn't want to go," Eddie said. "But that doesn't mean he's still at his house in East Stoneham."
"He is, though. He didn't go."
Eddie managed to keep his mouth from dropping open only with some effort. "How can you know that? Can you touch him, is that it?"
Roland shook his head.
"Then how-"
"Ka."
"Ka? Ka?" Just what the f**k does iki mean?"
Roland's face was haggard and tired, the skin pale beneath his tan. "Who else do we know in this part of the world?"
"No one, but-"
Then it's him." Roland spoke flatly, as if stating some obvious fact of life for a child: up is over your head, down is where your feet stick to the earth.
Eddie got ready to tell him that was stupid, nothing more an rank superstition, then didn't. Putting aside Deepneau, and the hideous Jack Andolini, John Cullum was the only person tiiey knew in this part of the world
(or on diis level of the Tower, if you preferred to diink of it that way). And, after the things Eddie had seen in the last few months-hell, in the last week-who was he to sneer at superstition?
"All right," Eddie said. "I guess we better try it."
"How do we get in touch?"
"We can phone him from Bridgton. But in a story, Roland, a minor character like John Cullum would never come in off die bench to save the day. It wouldn't be considered realistic."
"In life," Roland said, "I'm sure it happens all the time."
And Eddie laughed. What the hell else could you do? It was just so perfecdy Roland.
FOUR
BRIDGTON HIGH STREET 1
HIGHLAND LAKE 2
HARRISON 3
WATERFORD6
SWEDEN 9
LOVELL18
FRYEBURG24
They had just passed this sign when Eddie said, "Root around in the glove-compartment a little, Roland. See if ka or the Beam or whatever left us a little spare change for the pay phone."
"Glove-? Do you mean this panel here?"
"Yeah."
Roland first tried to turn the chrome button on the front, then got with the program and pushed it. The inside was a mare's nest that hadn't been improved by the Galaxie's brief period of weighdessness. There were credit card receipts, a very old tube of what Eddie identified as "tooth-paste" (Roland could make out the words HOLMES DENTAL on it quite clearly), a fottergraff showing a smiling little girl-Cullum's niece, mayhap-on a pony, a stick of what he first took for explosive (Eddie said it was a road flare, for emergencies), a magazine that appeared to be called YANKME... and a cigar-box.
Roland couldn't quite make out the word on this, although he thought it might be trolls. He showed the box to Eddie, whose eyes lit up.
"That says TOLLS," he said. "Maybe you're right about Cullum and ka. Open it up, Roland, do it please ya."
The child who had given this box as a gift had crafted a loving
(and rather clumsy) catch on the front to hold it closed.
Roland slipped the catch, opened the box, and showed Eddie a great many silver coins. "Is it enough to call sai Cullum's house?"
"Yeah," Eddie said. "Looks like enough to call Fairbanks,
Alaska. It won't help us a bit, though, if Cullum's on the road to Vermont."
FIVE
The Bridgton town square was bounded by a drug store and a pizza-joint on one side; a movie theater (The Magic Lantern)
and a department store (Reny's) on the other. Between the theater and the department store was a little plaza equipped with benches and three pay phones.
Eddie swept through Cullum's box of toll-change and gave Roland six dollars in quarters. "I want you to go over there," he said, pointing at the drug store, "and get me a tin of aspirin. Will you know it when you see it?"