And it might slip.
One minute Stephen King could be sitting in front of his typewriter in his office on the morning of June 19th, fine as paint, and the next... boom! Lying in a nearby funeral parlor that evening, eight or twelve hours gone by in a flash, his grieving family sitting in their own circle of lamplight and trying to decide what kind of service King would've wanted, always assuming that information wasn't in his will; maybe even trying to decide where he'd be buried. And die Dark Tower? Stephen King's version of the Dark Tower? Or Gan's version, or the Prims version? Lost forever, all of them. And that sound you hear? Why, that must be the Crimson King, laughing and laughing and laughing from somewhere deep in the Discordia. And maybe Mordred the Spider-Boy, laughing along with him.
For the first time since Eddie's death, something besides grief came to the forefront of Jake's mind. It was a faint ticking sound, like the one the Sneetches had made when Roland and Eddie programmed them. Just before giving them to Haylis to plant, this had been. It was the sound of time, and time was not their friend.
"He's right," Jake said. "We have to go while we can still do something."
Ted: "Will Susannah-"
"No," Roland said. "Susannah will stay here, and you'll help her bury Eddie. Do you agree?"
"Yes," Ted said. "Of course, if that's how you'd have it."
"If we're not back in..." Roland calculated, one eye squinted shut, the other looking off into the darkness. "If we're not back by this time on the night after next, assume that we've come back to End-World at Fedic." Yes, assumeFedic, Jake thought. Of course. Because what good would it do to make the other, even more logical assumption, that we're either dead or lost between the worlds, todashforever'?
"Do'ee ken Fedic?" Roland was asking.
"South of here, isn't it?" asked Worthington. He had wandered over with Dani, the pre-teen girl. "Or what was south?
Trampas and a few of the other can-toi used to talk of it as though it were haunted."
"It's haunted, all right," Roland said grimly. "Can you put Susannah on a train to Fedic in the event that we're not able to come back here? I know that at least some trains must still run, because of-"
"The Greencloaks?" Dinky said, nodding. "Or the Wolves, as you think of them. All the D-line trains still run. They're automated."
"Are they monos? Do they talk?" Jake asked. He was thinking of Blaine.
Dinky and Ted exchanged a doubtful look, then Dinky returned his attention to Jake and shrugged. "How would we know? I probably know more about D-cups than D-lines, and I think that's true of everyone here. The Breakers, at least. I suppose some of the guards might know something more. Or that guy." He jerked a thumb at Tassa, who was still sitting on the stoop of Warden's House, head in hands.
"In any case, we'll tell Susannah to be careful," Roland murmured to Jake. Jake nodded. He supposed that was the best they could do, but he had another question. He made a mental note to ask either Ted or Dinky, if he got a chance to do so without being overheard by Roland. He didn't like the idea of leaving Susannah behind-every instinct of his heart cried out against it-but he knew she would refuse to leave Eddie unburied, and Roland knew it, too. They could make her come, but only by binding and gagging her, and that would only make things worse than they were already.
"It might be," Ted said, "that a few Breakers would be interested in taking the train-trip south with Susannah."
Dani nodded. "We're not exactly loved around here for helping you out," she said. "Ted and Dinky are getting it the worst, but somebody spit at me half an hour ago, while I was in my room, getting this." She held up a battered-looking and clearly much-loved Pooh Bear. "I don't think diey'll do anything while you guys are around, but after you go... "She shrugged.
"Man, I don't get that," Jake said. "They're free.'"
"Free to do what?" Dinky asked. "Think about it. Most of them were misfits on America-side. Fifth wheels. Over here we were VIPs, and we got the best of everything. Now all that's gone. When you think about it that way, is it so hard to understand?"
"Yes," Jake said bluntly. He supposed he didn't want to understand.
"They lost something else, too," Ted told them quietly.
"There's a novel by Ray Bradbury called Fahrenheit 451. 'It was a pleasure to burn' is that novel's first line. Well, it was a pleasure to Break, as well."
Dinky was nodding. So were Worthington and Dani Rostov.
Even Sheemie was nodding his head.