Chapter 02 – Roland's Journey
Sharon escorts the gunslingers to her modest two-bedroom apartment. Decorations here are minimal. In the living room there are two cedar bookshelves against the back wall. Every shelf is lined with books, most of the dog-eared paperbacks were authored by a man named Stephen King. There is a plain looking couch and matching loveseat against the adjacent wall. Eddie picks Susannah up out of her wheelchair and puts her on the couch next to him. Roland joins them while, Jake and Oy take the loveseat. Sharon sits on the coffee table across from the group. She slides back and crossed her legs, nearly knocking over the only decorative item in the room. Sharon easily caches the petite clear glass vase with the single wild rose in it and pushes it to the left side of the table absentmindedly. She is still stunned over their abrupt meeting, Sharon would never invite strangers to her home under normal circumstances. "I feel like I've met you somewhere before." Sharon said, now once again looking at Roland.
"Aye miss. I'd set my watch and warrant on it. You are clearly a warrior of the White. Ka has brought us here for a reason." Roland stated.
"Ka? Where have I heard that before?" Sharon wondered. The tet was unusually quiet as Sharon walked over to one of her bookshelves and picked up a book entitled Roland's Journey. It was a thick hardcover written by Richard Ivan Freeburg. Nineteen. The jacket of the book was a dark menacing shade of red with a silhouette of a gunslinger on the front cover. The silhouette looked remarkably like Roland. Sharon silently handed Roland the book and his hand trembled slightly as he reached for it. Roland couldn't explain what he was feeling at that moment, but it was difficult for him touch the book. He hesitated, the dry twist in his legs and hip ached more than ever. The ka-tet watched him intently, not sure what was happening. Then Roland focused all his energy on grabbing the book. As Roland reached out and touched it the book flew across the room and opened. Oy barked and Jake walked tentatively toward the book. To his dismay he saw a picture of Roland leaning over the cliffs of the Cyclopean Mountains holding his hand. As Jake approached the book the pages flipped on their own. Jake saw Roland let go and was paralyzed, helpless as he watched himself fall to his death in the book. Oy kept barking. Eddie got to Jake just in time to see the Jake in the book hit the bottom of the deep river chasm. Eddie knew the story, but seeing it first hand took his breath away. Eddie caught Jake by the shoulders just as his knees gave out. Roland didn't have to see the book to know what it was showing. He looked away. He loved Jake and seeing him in pain like this was almost too much to bear. When the book began to flip pages again Roland did look. A message in red (blood) ink appeared squalled on two of the books middle pages. "Abandon your quest gunslinger, the tower will fall." Roland stood up and examined the message. Sure enough the sigul of the crimson king, a bleeding eye, was stamped at the bottom of the right-hand page. The book slammed shut and that same menacing eye replaced the silhouette of the gunslinger on the cover.
The group had had enough and decided to move into the kitchen, leaving the book undisturbed on the floor. "Coffee anyone?" As Sharon started coffee and dinner no one knew where to start. Jake had gone completely pale. He was holding Oy in his lap stroking his fur. Even Eddie was inexplicably quiet. Roland looked agitated, edgy. He was pacing the floor in the small kitchen. Sharon opened the drawer beneath the coffee pot and looked at Roland. Roland walked over and peered in. The drawer was empty save for some rolling papers and fresh tobacco. "I don't even smoke, but something told me to buy them." Sharon smiled shyly as she said this and the slightest blush warmed her cheeks. "Say thankya." Though no smile touched his lips, his eyes lit up and they spoke plenty.
By the time the coffee was ready Jake had gotten some of his color back and Roland had smoked two cigarettes. Sharon passed around cups of coffee and put a dish on the floor for Oy. Dinner was ready shortly thereafter. Everyone made small talk over the coffee and food. Eddie cracked his stupid jokes, and Roland did not object. After what had happened in the living room the group needed something to lighten the mood. Regardless, Roland was lost in his thoughts. He had felt the evil energy from the book before he touched it. But how did it make its way into the presence of the White?
After dinner the real palaver began and continued on for several hours. Susannah started with the question that was burning on everyone's mind. "Shug, where did you get that book?" Sharon began recounting the story of how she acquired the unusual tome. According to Sharon the book was the only thing in the apartment when she moved in. "It was laying smack dab in the middle of the living room." Since she loves reading (as evidenced by the numerous books in the living room) Sharon just added the book to her collection and put it on one the bookshelves. "One day when I came home from work the book lay open on my coffee table. I walked over to it and felt as though I was being sucked in. I saw what happened in Gilead, Mejis, Lud, and the Cyclopean Mountains, to name a few. It was like I was there but no one could see me."
"You went todash." Eddie added. "That's right isn't Roland?" "I wot." Roland replied without much interest. Eddie began to get worked up. "But how can a book send you todash Roland? I thought only muffin-balls and wizard's glass could do that." Roland gave Eddie an irritated look. "Perhaps they have wizard's books in this world Eddie. Now for your father's sake let her talk." Roland was much more interested in the rest of Sharon's tale than whether or not she went todash. Eddie opened his mouth to tell Roland that his world indeed does have wizard and witches books, but thought better of it and kept quiet.
Sharon was completely confused. "Muffin-balls? Todash? What are you talking about?" Roland, annoyed by the tangent Eddie had set them on is the one who replied. "Todash is what I believe happened to you when the book 'sucked you in' as you described it. The rest is unimportant." Then he made a twirling gesture with his right hand, which seemed to indicate 'go on' or 'hurry up', and Sharon could see that Roland was missing some fingers.
"Did you hear the chimes?' Jake wanted to know. Roland gave him the same irritated look he had given Eddie, but said nothing.
Sharon thought for a minute. "Now that you mention it, I did hear something. Bells or chimes? I'm not really sure. They were beautiful, and somehow terrible at the same time."
Sharon looked at her guests and continued her story, sensing Roland's impatience. "I saw you, all of you. I didn't know if any of it was true, but judging by the look on Jake's face when he saw the book, I'd say it was." Jake's face worked into a brief grimace but he said nothing. Sharon persisted, "Honestly I had forgotten all about the book and what it showed me until I saw all of you on the street. That's when the memories of the book slowly started coming back to me." Sharon looked around slowly at each and every one of them before she went on.
"When I came out of the book that day it was like waking from a dream. One minute I was in your world and the next minute I'm on my couch and the book is back on the bookshelf completely undisturbed. I thought it really was a dream, either that or I was going crazy. I opted to believe the former. Anyway, everything that I had seen was fading just as quickly as it had come. My eyes were drawn to the book. I wanted to go to and pluck it off the shelf but for some reason I couldn't make myself touch it. By this time the events from the book had completely faded from memory. I was in a cloud of confusion and I was completely exhausted. All I wanted to do was get into bed and sleep for the rest of the day. As I got up to go to my room the author of that book, somehow caught my eye. I remember thinking that there was something unusual about his name. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I'm sure that I had never heard of Richard Ivan Freeburg until that very moment."
"Nineteen." Jake added in a forlorn voice.
"What?"
"Nineteen," Jake repeated, "the number of letters in his name. It's something that's been showing up a lot lately."
"Nineteen." Sharon tasted the word in her mouth and did not know what to make of it, but it felt right.
"Sharon what do you know about the author, this Richard Ivan Freeburg?" Roland asked.
"I looked him up after, well, after my visit to your world. I could only find out two pieces of information about this guy."
"Let me guess he's a psychic headliner in Vegas!" Eddie interrupted. Roland shot him a piercing glance that shut him up immediately. Then he looked back at Sharon and made that twirling gesture with his hand.
"First, this guy is thirty-five years old. Second, he's holding a book signing upstate tomorrow."
Silence, as everyone looked at each other astonished. "That's why we're here! We have to go to that book signing!" Eddie cried as he stood up. "I agree Eddie, sit down. Our palaver is not done." As Eddie sat down, Roland calmly turned to Sharon. "Where is this signing, can you take us there?"
"It's at a bookstore called The Magic Crimson Café in Fresno. That's about a three or four hour drive from here. Of course I can take you guys, I had planed on going myself anyway, just to get a look at this guy. Although, my car is a compact so it might be crowded in the back." Sharon smiled uneasily at the gunslingers around her table who looked more on edge than ever. "If we're going to make it on time I think we'd all better get some rest. Let me show you to your rooms."
Sharon showed Eddie and Susannah to the guest room and showed them where they could wash up. "Roland, you and Jake can stay in my room. I'll sleep on the couch." "Oy too?" Jake wondered. "Of course, Oy too." As Sharon turned to leave Roland gently grabbed her arm. "Nay lady, I cannot displace a woman from her own bed." Roland's touch was warm, though his hands were heavily calloused. "I told you, call me Sharon and it's really no trouble." Sharon protested, but Roland's chivalry was stronger. His grip tightened slightly around Sharon's muscular forearm, he met her eyes with his. "Nay Sharon. I will not hear it. Jake and I will sleep on the couch and the loveseat." Jake looked up at Roland and said nothing. Sharon realized that arguing was futile and got out blankets and pillows for the two. Then she came back with a large pillow for Oy who licked her face in thanks. Sharon went into her bedroom and decided to take a shower. Her brain was on overload. Sharon hadn't even begun to process the events that just took place. The entire evening seemed like a dream in progress. Had she really been assaulted on the street before the gunslingers showed up? Was Roland really in her living room right now? Were any of them really here? What a night! So many emotions came to the surface at once. Sharon sat down at the bottom of the shower and hugged her knees. She was partially in shock; her brain was overwhelmed. There was another part of her however; one that knew her life would never be the same again. Sharon knew that she was destined to fight with these gunslingers, for good or for ill. It was destiny (Ka). All things serve the beam.
Roland heard the shower running and once again tried to figure out how he knew Sharon Delvian. Who did she remind him of? Sharon Delvian. Sharon Delvian. Her name swirled around and around in his head. Roland closed his eyes and for a split second he saw what Sharon must look like in the shower. Who is she? Who was she? Sharon Delvian. S.D. S.D… Roland drifted off to sleep with these thoughts still in his head. Roland dreamt of his youth, the good times in Mejis. Good times with Susan. Susan Delgado. Roland and Susan were in the Willow Grove, they were making love. Roland was full of bliss, he loved her. Susan's warm body together with his, it felt right. He had never been happier, more alive, than he was at that moment in time. He looked into her face, but the face he saw was Sharon's. Sharon. Susan. They looked remarkably similar. Her eyes. There was something in Sharon's eyes that told a deeper story. One of innocence, pain, death, and love. But there was another element. Rebirth. Roland was sure of it. Ka is a wheel. Sharon and Susan are one and the same, they just reside on different parts of the wheel. Roland awoke in a cold sweat with the assurance of this truth. Sharon's gray eyes still burned into his memory. He wasn't ready for this.