The Dark Tower (Page 122)

All that afternoon they took turns skinning the eight other deer they had killed. It was important to do it as quickly as possible, for when the underlying layer of fat and muscle dried up, the work would become slower and harder. The gunslinger kept the fire burning high and hot, every now and then leaving her to rake ashes out onto the ground. When they had cooled enough so they would not burn holes in their bowl-liner, he pushed them into the hole they’d made. Susannah’s back and arms were aching fiercely by five o’clock, but she kept at it.

Roland’s face, neck, and hands were comically smeared with ash.

"You look like a fella in a minstrel show," she said at one point. "Rastus Coon."

"Who’s that?"

"Nobody but the white folks’ fool," she said. "Do you suppose Mordred’s out there, watching us work?" All day she’d kept an eye peeled for him.

"No," he said, pausing to rest. He brushed his hair back from his forehead, leaving a fresh smear and now making her think of penitents on Ash Wednesday. "I think he’s gone off to make his own kill."

"Mordred’s a-hungry," she said. And then: ‘You can touch him a little, can’t you? At least enough to know if he’s here or if he’s gone."

Roland considered this, then said simply: "I’m his father."

EIGHT

By dark, they had a large heap of deerskins and a pile of skinned, headless carcasses that surely would have been black with flies in warmer weather. They ate another huge meal of sizzling venison steaks, utterly delicious, and Susannah spared another thought for Mordred, somewhere out in the dark, probably eating his own supper raw. He might have matches, but he wasn’t stupid; if they saw another fire in all this darkness, they would rush down upon it. And him. Then, bang-bang-bang, goodbye Spider-Boy. She felt a surprising amount of sympathy for him and told herself to beware of it. Certainly he would have felt none for either her or Roland, had the shoe been on the other foot.

When they were done eating, Roland wiped his greasy fingers on his shirt and said, "That tasted fine."

"You got that right."

"Now let’s get the brains out. Then we’ll sleep."

"One at a time?" Susannah asked.

"Yes-so far as I know, brains only come one to a customer."

For a moment she was too surprised at hearing Eddie’s phrase

(one to a customer)

coming from Roland’s mouth to realize he’d made a joke.

Lame, yes, but a bona fide joke. Then she managed a token laugh. "Very funny, Roland. You know what I meant."

Roland nodded. "We’ll sleep one at a time and stand a watch, yes. I think that would be best."

Time and repetition had done its work; she’d now seen too many tumbling guts to feel squeamish about a few brains. They cracked heads, used Roland’s knife (its edge now dull) to pry open skulls, and removed the brains of their kill. These they put carefully aside, like a clutch of large gray eggs. By the time the last deer was debrained, Susannah’s fingers were so sore and swollen she could hardly bend them.

"Lie over," Roland said. "Sleep. I’ll take the first watch."

She didn’t argue. Given her full belly and the heat of the fire, she knew sleep would come quickly. She also knew that when she woke up tomorrow, she was going to be so stiff that even sitting up would be difficult and painful. Now, though, she didn’t care. A feeling of vast contentment filled her. Some of it was having eaten hot food, but by no means all. The greater part of her well-being stemmed from a day of hard work, no more or less than that. The sense that they were not just floating along but doing for themselves.

fesus, she thought, / think I’m becoming a Republican in my old age.

Something else occurred to her then: how quiet it was. No sounds but the sough of the wind, the whispering sleet (now starting to abate), and the crackle of the blessed fire.

"Roland?"

He looked at her from his place by the fire, eyebrows raised.

"You’ve stopped coughing."

He smiled and nodded. She took his smile down into sleep, but it was Eddie she dreamed of.

NINE

They stayed three days in the camp by the stream, and during that time Susannah learned more about making hide garments than she would ever have believed (and much more than she really wanted to know).

By casting a mile or so in either direction along the stream they found a couple of logs, one for each of them. While they looked, they used their makeshift pot to soak their hides in a dark soup of ash and water. They set their logs at an angle against the trunks of two willow trees (close, so they could work side by side) and used chert scrapers to dehair the hides.

This took one day. When it was done, they bailed out the "pot,"

turned the hide liner over and filled it up again, this time with a mixture of water and mashed brains. This "cold-weather hiding"

was new to her. They put the hides in this slurry to soak overnight and, while Susannah began to make thread from strings of gristle and sinew, Roland re-sharpened his knife, then used it to whittle half a dozen bone needles. When he was done, all of his fingers were bleeding from dozens of shallow cuts. He coated them with wood-ash soak and slept with them that way, his hands looking as if they were covered with large and clumsy gray-black gloves. When he washed them off in a stream the following day, Susannah was amazed to see the cuts already well on their way to healing. She tried dabbing some of the wood-ash stuff on the persistent sore beside her mouth, but it stung horribly and she washed it away in a hurry.

"I want you to whop this goddam thing off," she said.

Roland shook his head. "We’ll give it a little longer to heal on its own."

"Why?"

"Cutting on a sore’s a bad idea unless you absolutely have to do it. Especially out here, in what Jake would have called ‘the boondogs.’"

She agreed (without bothering to correct his pronunciation), but unpleasant images crept into her head when she lay down: visions of the pimple beginning to spread, erasing her face inch by inch, turning her entire head into a black, crusted, bleeding tumor. In the dark, such visions had a horrible persuasiveness, but luckily she was too tired for them to keep her awake long.

On dieir second day in what Susannah was coming to think of as the Hide Camp, Roland built a large and rickety frame over a new fire, one that was low and slow. They smoked the hides two by two and then laid them aside. The smell of the finished product was surprisingly pleasant. It smells like leather, she thought, holding one to her face, and then had to laugh. That was, after all, exactly what it was.

The third day they spent "making," and here Susannah finally outdid the gunslinger. Roland sewed a wide and barely serviceable stitch. She thought that the vests and leggings he made would hold together for a month, two at the most, then begin to pull apart. She was far more adept. Sewing was a skill she’d learned from her mother and both grandmothers. At first she found Roland’s bone needles maddeningly clumsy, and she paused long enough to cover both the thumb and forefinger of her right hand with litde deerskin caps which she tied in place.

After that it went faster, and by mid-afternoon of making-day she was taking garments from Roland’s pile and oversewing his stitches with her own, which were finer and closer. She thought he might object to this-men were proud-but he didn’t, which was probably wise. It quite likely would have been Detta who replied to any whines and queasies.

By the time their third night in Hide Camp had come, they each had a vest, a pair of leggings, and a coat. They also had a pair of mittens each. These were large and laughable, but would keep their hands warm. And, speaking of hands, Susannah was once more barely able to bend hers. She looked doubtfully at the remaining hides and asked Roland if they would spend another making-day here.

He considered the idea, then shook his head. "We’ll load the ones that are left into the Ho Fat Tack-see, I think, along with some of the meat and chunks of ice from the stream to keep it cool and good."

"The Taxi won’t be any good when we come to the snow, will it?"

"No," he admitted, "but by then the rest of the hides will be clothing and the meat will be eaten."

"You just can’t stay here any longer, that’s what it comes down to, isn’t it? You hear it calling. The Tower."

Roland looked into the snapping fire and said nothing.

Nor had to.

"What’ll we do about hauling our gunna when we come to the white lands?"

"Make a travois. And there’ll be plenty of game."

She nodded and started to lie down. He took her shoulders and turned her toward the fire, instead. His face came close to hers, and for a moment Susannah thought he meant to kiss her goodnight. He looked long and hard at die crusted sore beside her mouth, instead.

"Well?" she finally asked. She could have said more, but he would have heard die tremor in her voice.

"I think it’s a little smaller. Once we leave the Badlands behind, it may heal on its own."

"Do you really say so?"

The gunslinger shook his head at once. "I say may. Now lie over, Susannah. Take your rest."

"All right, but don’t you let me sleep late this time. I want to watch my share."

"Yes. Now lie over."

She did as he said, and was asleep even before her eyes closed.

TEN

She’s in Central Park and it’s cold enough to see her breath. The sky overhead is white from side to side, a snow-sky, but she’s not cold. No, not in her new deerskin coat, leggings, vest, and funny deerskin mittens.