Song of Susannah - Stephen King [0]
Copyright Page
Dedication Page
Contents
Illustrations
1st Stanza: Beamquake
Also by Stephen King
NOVELS
Carrie
’Salem’s Lot
The Shining
The Stand
The Dead Zone
Firestarter
Cujo
THE DARK TOWER I: The Gunslinger
Christine
Pet Sematary
Cycle of the Werewolf
The Talisman (with Peter Straub)
It
The Eyes of the Dragon
Misery
The Tommyknockers
THE DARK TOWER II: The Drawing of the Three
THE DARK TOWER III: The Waste Lands
The Dark Half
Needful Things
Gerald’s Game
Dolores Claiborne
Insomnia
Rose Madder
Desperation
The Green Mile
THE DARK TOWER IV: Wizard and Glass
Bag of Bones
The Girl Who Loved
Tom Gordon
Dreamcatcher
Black House (with Peter Straub)
From a Buick 8
THE DARK TOWER V: Wolves of the Calla
AS RICHARD BACHMAN
Rage
The Long Walk Roadwork
The Running Man
Thinner
The Regulators
COLLECTIONS
Night Shift
Different Seasons
Skeleton Crew
Four Past Midnight
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
Hearts in Atlantis
Everything’s Eventual
SCREENPLAYS
Creepshow
Cat’s Eye
Silver Bullet
Maximum Overdrive
Pet Sematary
Golden Years
Sleepwalkers
The Stand
The Shining
Rose Red
Storm of the Century
NONFICTION
Danse Macabre
On Writing
Dark Tower—related in bold
THE DARK TOWER VI: SONG OF SUSANNAH
Copyright © 2004 by Stephen King
http://www.stephenking.com
Illustrations © 2004 by Darrel Anderson
http://www.braid.com
Book design by Darrel Anderson and Robert K. Wiener
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Excerpt from Peace Like a River by Leif Enger used by permission.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2004103870
ISBN 0-7432-6637-4
FIRST TRADE EDITION
Distributed by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
SCRIBNER
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
DONALD M. GRANT, PUBLISHER, INC.
Post Office Box 187, Hampton Falls, NH 03844
http://www.grantbooks.com
Visit us on the World Wide Web:
http://www.SimonSays.com
For Tabby, who knew when it was done
“Go, then. There are other worlds than these.”
John “Jake” Chambers
“I am a maid of constant sorrow
I’ve seen trouble all my days
All through the world I’m bound to ramble
I have no friends to show my way…”
Traditional
“Fair is whatever God wants to do.”
Leif Enger
Peace Like a River
Contents
1st Stanza: Beamquake
2nd Stanza: The Persistence of Magic
3rd Stanza: Trudy and Mia
4th Stanza: Susannah’s Dogan
5th Stanza: The Turtle
6th Stanza: The Castle Allure
7th Stanza: The Ambush
8th Stanza: A Game of Toss
9th Stanza: Eddie Bites His Tongue
10th Stanza: Susannah-Mio, Divided Girl of Mine
11th Stanza: The Writer
12th Stanza: Jake and Callahan
13th Stanza: “Hile, Mia, Hile, Mother”
Coda: Pages from a Writer’s Journal
Wordslinger’s Note
Illustrations
…BURSTS OF GREEN LIGHTNING HE SAW DOORS, AT LEAST A THOUSAND OF THEM. HUGE ROCK FORMATIONS SAWED AT THE SKY. “DOWN!” ROLAND BELLOWED. …SIGNED HIS NAME IN A QUICK SCRAWL SUSANNAH CLOSES HER EYES…. INTO A FOREST OF WATCHING FACES …KA COMES TO ME. TWO HAMMARSKJÖLD PLAZA EMERGING FROM THE SHIRT’S COLLAR WAS THE HEAD OF A BIRD.
Beamquake
1st Stanza
One
“How long will the magic stay?”
At first no one answered Roland’s question, and so he asked it again, this time looking across the living room of the rectory to where Henchick of the Manni sat with Cantab, who had married one of Henchick’s numerous granddaughters. The two men were holding hands, as was the Manni way. The older man had lost a granddaughter that day, but if he grieved, the emotion did not show on his stony, composed face.
Next to Roland, holding no one’s hand, silent and dreadfully white, sat Eddie Dean. Beside him, cross-legged on the floor, was Jake Chambers. He had pulled Oy into his lap, a thing