“That may be true, probably is true, but how would we prove it?
Do you know what I think the cops will find at wherever Charlie Pickering’s been banging his hat? A note saying it was all his idea.
A note exonerating Ed completely, probably in the guise of an accusation… how Ed deserted them in their time of greatest need.
And if they don’t find a note like that in Charlie’s rented rooi-n, they’ll find it in Frank Felton’s. Or Sandra McKay’s.”
“But that… that’s…” Lois stopped, biting at her lower lip.
Then she looked at Wyzer with hopeful eyes. “What about Susan Day? Where is she? Does anybody know? Do you? Ralph and I will call her on the telephone and-”
“She’s already in Derry,” Wyzer said, although I doubt if even the police know for sure where she is. But what I heard on the news while the old fella and I were driving out here is that the rally is going to happen tonight… and that’s supposedly straight from the woman herself.”
Sure, Ralph thought. Sure it is. The show’s going on, the show has to go on, and she knows it. Someone who’s ridden the crest of the women’s movement all these years-hell, since the Chicago convention in ’68-knows a genuine watershed moment when she sees it.
She’s evaluated the risks and found them acceptable. Either that or she’s evaluated the situation and decided that the credibility-loss involved in walking away would be unacceptable. Maybe both. In any case, she’s as much a prisoner of events-of ka-tet-as the rest of us.
They were on the outskirts of Derry again. Ralph could see the Civic Center on the horizon.
Now it was Old Dor Lois turned to. “Where is she? Do you know?
It doesn’t matter how many security people she’s got around her; Ralph and I can be invisible when we want to be… and we’re very good at changing people’s minds.”
“Oh, changing Susan Day’s mind wouldn’t change anything,” Dor said. He still wore that broad, maddening smile. “They’ll come to the Civic Center tonight no matter what. If they come and find the doors locked, they’ll break them open and go inside and have their rally just the same. To show they’re not afraid.”
“Done-bun-can’the-undone,” Ralph said dully.
“Right, Ralph!” Dor said cheerily, and patted Ralph’s arm.
Five minutes later, Joe drove his Ford past the hideous plastic statue of Paul Bunyan which stood in front of the Civic Center and turned in at a sign which read THERE’s ALWAYS FREE PARKING AT YOUR CIVIC CENTER!
The acre of parking lot lay between the Civic Center building itself and the Bassey Park racetrack. If the event that evening had been a rock concert or a boat-show or a wrestling card, they would have had the parking lot entirely to themselves this early, but tonight’s event was clearly going to be light-years from an exhibition basketball game or a monster truck-pull. There were already sixty or seventy cars in the lot, and little groups of people standing around, looking at the building. Most of them were women. Some had picnic hampers, several were crying, and almost all wore black armbands.
Ralph saw a middle-aged woman with a weary, intelligent face and a great mass of gray hair passing these out from a carrybag. She was wearing a tee- shirt with Susan Day’s face on it and the words \!I”
The drive-through area in front of the Civic Center’s bank of entrance doors was even busier than the parking lot. No fewer than six TV newsvans were parked there, and various tech crews stood under the triangular cement canopy in little clusters, discussing how they were going to handle tonight’s event. And according to the bedsheet banner which hung down from the canopy, flapping lazily in the breeze, there was going to be an event. RALLY IS oN, it read in large, blurry spray-paint letters. 8 P.M. COME SHOW YOUR
SOLIDARITY EXPRESS YOUR OUTRAGE COMFORT YOUR SISTERS.
Joe put the Ford in Park, then turned to Old Dor, eyebrows raised.
Dor nodded, and Joe looked at Ralph. “I guess this is where you and Lois get out, Ralph. Good luck. I’d come with you if I could-I even asked him-but he says I’m not equipped.”
“That’s all right,” Ralph said. “We appreciate everything you’ve done, don’t we, Lois?”
“We certainly do,” Lois said.
Ralph reached for the doorhandle, then let it go again. He turned to face Dorrance. “What’s this about? Really, I mean. It’s not about saving the two thousand or so people Clotho and Lachesis said are going to be here tonight, that’s for sure. To the kind of All-Time forces they talked about, two thousand lives are probably Just a little more grease on the bearings. So what’s it all about, Alfie? Why are we here?”
Dorrance’s grin had faded at last; with it gone he looked younger and strangely formidable. ’Job asked God the same question,” he said, “and got no answer. You’re not going to get one either, but I’ll tell you this much: you’ve become the pivot-point of great events and vast forces. The work of the higher universe has almost completely come to a stop as those of both the Random and the Purpose turn to mark your progress.”
“That’s great, but I don’t get it,” Ralph said, more in resignation than in anger.
“Neither do I, but those two thousand lives are enough for me,” Lois said quietly. “I could never live with myself if I didn’t at least try to stop what’s going to happen. I’d dream of the deathbag around that building for the rest of my life. Even if I only got an hour’s sleep a night I’d dream of it.”
Ralph considered this, then nodded. He opened his door and swung one foot out. “That’s a good point. And Helen’ll be there.
She might even bring Nat. Maybe, for little Short-Time farts like us, that’s enough.”
And maybe, he thought, I want a rematch with Doc #3.
Oh, Ralph, Carolyn mourned. Clint Eastwood? Again?
No, not Clint Eastwood. Not Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger, either. Not even John Wayne. He was no big action-hero or movie-star; he was just plain old Ralph Roberts from Harris Avenue. That didn’t make the grudge he bore the doc with the rusty scalpel any less real, however. And now that grudge was a lot bigger than just a stray dog and the retired history teacher who had lived downstairs for the last ten years or so. Ralph kept thinking of the parlor at High Ridge, and the women propped against the wall below the poster of Susan Day. It wasn’t upon Merrilee’s pregnant belly which the eye in his mind kept focusing but Gretchen Tillbury’s hair-her beautiful blonde hair that had been mostly burned off by the close-range rifle-shot that had taken her life. Charlie Pickering had pulled the trigger, and maybe Ed Deepneau had put the gun in his hands, but it was Atropos Ralph blamed, Atropos the jumprope-thief, Atropos the hat-thief, Atropos the comb-thief.
Atropos the earring-thief.
“Come on, Lois,” he said. “Let’s-” But she put her hand on his arm and shook her head. “Not just yet-get back in here and shut the door.”
He looked at her carefully, then did what she said. She paused, gathering her thoughts, and when she spoke, she looked directly at Old Dor.
“I still don’t understand why we were sent out to High Ridge,”
she said. “They never even came right out and said that was what we were supposed to do, but we know-don’t we, Ralph?-that that was what they wanted from us. And I want to understand. if we’re supposed to be here, why did we have to go out there? I mean, we saved some lives, and I’m glad, but I think Ralph’s right-a few lives don’t mean much to the people running this show.”
Silence for a moment, and then Dorrance said, “Did Clotho and Lachesis really strike you as all-wise and all-knowing, Lois?”
“Well… they were smart, but I guess they weren’t exactly geniuses,” she said after a moment’s thought. “At one point they called themselves working joes who were a long way down the ladder from the boardroom executives who actually made the decisions.”
Old Dor was nodding and smiling. “Clotho and Lachesis are almost Short-Timers themselves, in the big scheme of things. they have their own fears and mental blindspots. They are also capable of making bad decisions… but in the end, that doesn’t matter, because they also serve the Purpose. And ka-tet.”
“They thought we’d lose if we went head-to-head with Atropos, didn’t they?” Ralph asked. “That’s why they talked themselves into believing we could accomplish what they wanted by using the buck door… the back door being High Ridge.”
“Yes,” Dor said. “That’s it.”
“Great,” Ralph said. “I love a vote of confidence. Especiillo when-”
“No,” Dor said. “That’s not it.” Ralph and Lois exchanged a bewildered glance. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s both things at the same time. That’s very often the way things are within the Purpose. You see… well…” He sighed.
“I hate all these questions. I hardly ever answer questions, did I tell you that?”
“Yes,” Lois said. “You did.”
“Yes. And now, bingo! All these questions. Nasty! And useless!” Ralph looked at Lois, and she looked back at him. Neither of them made any move to get out. Dor heaved a sigh. “All right… but this is the last thing I’m going to say, so pay attention. Clotho and Lachesis may have sent you to High Ridge for the wrong reasons, but the Purpose sent you there for the right ones. You fulfilled your task there.”
“By saving the women,” Lois said. But Dorrance was shaking his head. “Then what did we do?” she nearly shouted. “What? Don’t we have a right to know what part of the goshdamned Purpose we fulfilled?”
“No,” Dorrance said. “At least not yet. Because you have to do it again.”
“This is crazy,” Ralph said. “It isn’t, though,” Dorrance replied. ’He was holding for Love tightly against his chest now, bending it back and forth and looking at Ralph earnestly. “Random is crazy. Purpose is sane.” All right, Ralph thought, what did we do at High Ridge besides save the people in the cellar? And John Leydecker, Of course-I think Pickering might have killed him as well as Chris Nell if I hadn’t intervened. Could it be something to do with Leydecker?
He supposed it could, but it didn’t feel right.
“Dorrance,” he said, “can’t you please give us a little more information? I mean-”
“No,” Old Dor said, not unkindly. “No more questions, no more time.
We’ll have a good meal together after this is over… if we’re still around, that is.”
“You really know how to cheer a fellow up, Dor.” Ralph opened his door. Lois did the same, and they both stepped out into the parking lot. He bent down and looked at Joe Wyzer. “Is there anything else?
Anything you can think of?”
“No, I don’t think-” Dor leaned forward and whispered in his ear.
Joe listened, frowning.
“Well?” Ralph asked when Dorrance sat back. “What did he say?”
