Wizard and glass - Stephen King [351]
I will help you with that part, came the reply. I didn’t know who that voice belonged to on that day outside Thetford, Nebraska, but I do now, because I have looked into his eyes across a whore’s bed in a land that exists very clearly in my imagination. Roland’s love for Susan Delgado (and hers for him) is what was told to me by the boy who began this story. If it’s right, thank him. If it’s wrong, blame whatever got lost in the translation.
Also thank my friend Chuck Verrill, who edited the book and hung with me every step of the way. His encouragement and help were invaluable, as was the encouragement of Elaine Koster, who has published all of these cowboy romances in paperback.
Most thanks of all go to my wife, who supports me in this madness as best she can and helped me on this book in a way she doesn’t even know. Once, in a dark time, she gave me a funny little rubber figure that made me smile. It’s Rocket J. Squirrel, wearing his blue aviator’s hat and with his arms bravely outstretched. I put that figure on my manuscript as it grew (and grew . . . and grew), hoping some of the love that came with it would kind of fertilize the work. It must have worked, at least to a degree; the book is here, after all. I don’t know if it’s good or bad—I lost all sense of perspective around page four hundred—but it’s here. That alone seems like a miracle. And I have started to believe I might actually live to complete this cycle of stories. (Knock on wood.)
There are three more to be told, I think, two set chiefly in Mid-World and one almost entirely in our world—that’s the one dealing with the vacant lot on the corner of Second and Forty-sixth, and the rose that grows there. That rose, I must tell you, is in terrible danger.
In the end, Roland’s ka-tet will come to the nightscape which is Thunderclap . . . and to what lies beyond it. All may not live to reach the Tower, but I believe that those who do reach it will stand and be true.
—Stephen King
Lovell, Maine, October 27, 1996
Contents
INTRODUCTION ON BEING NINETEEN (AND A FEW OTHER THINGS)
ARGUMENT
PROLOGUE BLAINE
PART ONE RIDDLES
CHAPTER I BENEATH THE DEMON MOON (I)
CHAPTER II THE FALLS OF THE HOUNDS
CHAPTER III THE FAIR-DAY GOOSE
CHAPTER IV TOPEKA
CHAPTER V TURNPIKIN’
PART TWO SUSAN
CHAPTER I BENEATH THE KISSING MOON
CHAPTER II PROVING HONESTY
CHAPTER III A MEETING ON THE ROAD
CHAPTER IV LONG AFTER MOONSET
CHAPTER V WELCOME TO TOWN
CHAPTER VI SHEEMIE
CHAPTER VII ON THE DROP
CHAPTER VIII BENEATH THE PEDDLER’S MOON
CHAPTER IX CITGO
CHAPTER X BIRD AND BEAR AND HARE AND FISH
INTERLUDE KANSAS, SOMEWHERE, SOMEWHEN
PART THREE COME, REAP
CHAPTER I BENEATH THE HUNTRESS MOON
CHAPTER II THE GIRL AT THE WINDOW
CHAPTER III PLAYING CASTLES
CHAPTER IV ROLAND AND CUTHBERT
CHAPTER V WIZARD’S RAINBOW
CHAPTER VI CLOSING THE YEAR
CHAPTER VII TAKING THE BALL
CHAPTER VIII THE ASHES
CHAPTER IX REAPING
CHAPTER X BENEATH THE DEMON MOON (II)
PART FOUR ALL GOD’S CHILLUN GOT SHOES
CHAPTER I KANSAS IN THE MORNING
CHAPTER II SHOES IN THE ROAD
CHAPTER III THE WIZARD
CHAPTER IV THE GLASS
CHAPTER V THE PATH OF THE BEAM
AFTERWORD