"For the time being, nothing. We have too many other things to do."
"Don't we just," Eddie said. "Over here, the Wolves come in twenty-four days, if I've got it figured right. Over there in New York, who knows what day it is? The sixth of June? The tenth? Closer to July fifteenth than it was yesterday, that's for sure. But Roland - if what she's got inside her isn't human, we can't be sure her pregnancy will go nine months. She might pop it in six. Hell, she might pop it tomorrow."
Roland nodded and waited. Eddie had gotten this far; surely he would make it the rest of the way.
And he did. "We're stuck, aren't we?"
"Yes. We can watch her, but there's not much else we can do. We can't even keep her still in hopes of slowing things down, because she'd very likely guess why we were doing it. And we need her. To shoot when the time comes, but before that, we'll have to train some of these people with whatever weapons they feel comfortable with. It'll probably turn out to be bows." Roland grimaced. In the end he had hit the target in the North Field with enough arrows to satisfy Cort, but he had never cared for bow and arrow or bah and bolt. Those had been Jamie DeCurry's choice of weapons, not his own.
"We're really gonna go for it, aren't we?"
"Oh yes."
And Eddie smiled. Smiled in spite of himself. He was what he was. Roland saw it and was glad.
SIX
As they walked back to Callahan's rectory-house, Eddie asked: "You came clean with me, Roland, why not come clean widi her?"
"I'm not sure I understand you."
"Oh, I think you do," Eddie said.
"All right, but you won't like the answer."
"I've heard all sorts of answers from you, and I couldn't say I've cared for much more than one in five." Eddie considered. "Nah, that's too generous. Make it one in fifty."
"The one who calls herself Mia - which means mother in the High Speech - kens she's carrying a child, although I doubt she kens what kind of a child."
Eddie considered this in silence.
"Whatever it is, Mia thinks of it as her baby, and she'll protect it to the limit of her strength and life. If that means taking over Susannah's body - the way Detta Walker sometimes took over Odetta Holmes - she'll do it if she can."
"And probably she could," Eddie said gloomily. Then he turned directly to Roland. "So what I think you're saying - correct me if I've got it wrong - is that you don't want to tell Suze she might be growing a monster in her belly because it might impair her efficiency."
Roland could have quibbled about the harshness of this judgment, but chose not to. Essentially, Eddie was right.
As always when he was angry, Eddie's street accent became more pronounced. It was almost as though he were speaking through his nose instead of his mouth. "And if anything changes over the next month or so - if she goes into labor and pops out the Creature from the Black Lagoon, for instance - she's gonna be completely unprepared. Won't have a clue."
Roland stopped about twenty feet from the rectory-house. Inside the window, he could see Callahan talking to a couple of young people, a boy and a girl. Even from here he could see they were twins.
"Roland?"
"You say true, Eddie. Is there a point? If so, I hope you'll get to it. Time is no longer just a face on the water, as you yourself pointed out. It's become a precious commodity."
Again he expected a patented Eddie Dean outburst complete with phrases such as kiss my ass or eat shit and die . Again, no such outburst came. Eddie was looking at him, that was all. Steadily and a little sorrowfully. Sorry for Susannah, of course, but also for the two of them. The two of them standing here and conspiring against one of the tet.
"I'm going to go along with you," Eddie said, "but not because you're the dinh, and not because one of those two is apt to come back brainless from Thunderclap." He pointed to the pair of kids the Old Fella was talking to in his living room. "I'd trade every kid in this town for the one Suze is carrying. If it was a kid. My kid."
"I know you would," Roland said.
"It's the rose I care about," Eddie said. "That's the only thing worth risking her for. But even so, you've got to promise me that if things go wrong - if she goes into labor, or if this Mia chick starts taking over - we'll try to save her."
"I would always try to save her," Roland said, and then had a brief, nightmare image - brief but very clear - of Jake dangling over die drop under the mountains.
"You swear that?" Eddie asked.
"Yes," Roland said. His eyes met those of the younger man. In his mind, however, he saw Jake falling into the abyss.