"West, Tom."
Tom moaned. It was a sound that made the hair on the nape of Stu's neck stand on end. What are we sending him into? And maybe he knew. Maybe he had been there himself, only in Vermont, in mazes of corridors where the echo made it seem as if footsteps were following him. And gaining.
"West," Tom said. "West, yes."
"We're sending you to look, Tom. To look and see. Then to come back."
"Come back and tell."
"Can you do that?"
"Yes. Unless they catch and kill me."
Stu winced; they all winced.
"You go by yourself, Tom. Always west. Can you find west?"
"Where the sun goes down."
"Yes. And if anyone asks why you're there, this is what you'll say: They drove you out of the Free Zone - "
"Drove me out. Drove Tom out. Put him on the road."
" - because you were feebleminded."
"They drove Tom out because Tom is feebleminded."
" - and because you might have a woman and the woman might have idiot children."
"Idiot children like Tom."
Stu's stomach was rolling back and forth helplessly. His head felt like iron that had learned how to sweat. It was as if he was suffering from a terrible, debilitating hangover.
"Now repeat what you'll say if someone asks why you're in the west."
"They drove Tom out because he was feebleminded. Laws, yes. They were afraid I night have a woman the way you have them with your prick in bed. Make her pregnant with idiots."
"That's right, Tom. That's - "
"Drove me out," he said in a soft, grieving voice. "Drove Tom out of his nice house and put his feet on the road."
Stu passed a shaking hand over his eyes. He looked at Nick. Nick seemed to double, then treble, in his vision. "Nick, I don't know as I can finish," he said helplessly.
Nick looked at Ralph. Ralph, pale as cheese, could only shake his head.
"Finish," Tom said unexpectedly. "Don't leave me out here in the dark."
Forcing himself, Stu went on.
"Tom, do you know what the full moon looks like?"
"Yes... big and round."
"Not the half-moon, or even most of the moon."
"No," Tom said.
"When you see that big round moon, you'll come back east. Back to us. Back to your house, Tom."
"Yes, when I see it, I'll come back," Tom agreed. "I'll come back home."
"And when you come back, you'll walk in the night and sleep in the day."
"Walk at night, sleep in the day."
"Right. And you won't let anybody see you if you can help it."
"No."
"But, Tom, someone might see you."
"Yes, someone might."
"If it's one person that sees you, Tom, kill him."
"Kill him," Tom said doubtfully.
"If it's more than one, run."
"Run," Tom said, with more certainty.
"But try not to be seen at all. Can you repeat all that back?"
"Yes. Come back when the moon is full. Not the halfmoon, not the fingernail moon. Walk at night, sleep in the day. Don't let anybody see me. If one person sees me, kill him. If more than one person sees me, run away. But try not to let anyone see me."
"That's very good. I want you to wake up in a few seconds. Okay?"
"Okay."
"When I ask about the elephant, you'll wake up, okay?"
"Okay."
Stu sat back with a long, shuddery sigh. "Thank God that's over."
Nick agreed with his eyes.
"Did you know that might happen, Nick?"
Nick shook his head.
"How could he know those things?" Stu muttered.
Nick was motioning for his pad. Stu gave it to him, glad to be rid of it. His fingers had sweated the page with Nick's script written on it almost to transparency. Nick wrote and handed it to Ralph. Ralph read it, lips moving slowly, and then handed it to Stu.
"Some people through history have considered the insane and the retarded to be close to divine. I don't think he told us anything that can be of practical use to us, but I know he scared the hell out of me. Magic, he said. How do you fight magic?"
"It's over my head, that's all," Ralph muttered. "Those things he said about Mother Abagail, I don't even want to think about them. Wake him up, Stu, and let's get out of here as quick as we can." Ralph was close to tears.
Stu leaned forward again. "Tom?"
"Yes."
"Would you like to see an elephant?"
Tom's eyes opened at once and he looked around at them. "I told you it wouldn't work," he said. "Laws, no. Tom doesn't get sleepy in the middle of the day."
Nick handed a sheet to Stu, who glanced at it and then spoke to Tom. "Nick says you did just fine."
"I did? Did I stand on my head like before?"
With a twinge of bitter shame, Nick thought: No, Tom, you did a bunch of even better tricks this time.
"No," Stu said. "Tom, we came to ask if you could help us."
"Me? Help? Sure! I love to help!"
"This is dangerous, Tom. We want you to go west, and then come back and tell us what you saw."