The Drawing of the Three

Eddie looked back at the squirming hump of clawed creatures on the beach. He had never liked Jack Andolini, but he felt his stomach roll over just the same.

'Come here,' Roland said impatiently. 'We've little time, and I have little liking for what I must do now. It's something I've never done before. Never thought I would do.' His lips twisted bitterly. 'I'm getting used to doing things like that.'

Eddie approached the scrawny figure slowly, on legs that felt more and more like rubber. His bare skin was white and glimmering in the alien dark. Just who are you, Roland? he thought. What are you? And that heat I feel baking off you?is it just fever? Or some kind of madness? I think it might be both.

God, he needed a fix. More: he deserved a fix.

'Never done what before?' he asked. 'What are you talking about?'

'Take this,' Roland said, and gestured at the ancient revolver slung low on his right hip. Did not point; there was no finger to point with, only a bulky, rag-wrapped bundle. 'It's no good to me. Not now, perhaps never again.'

'I …' Eddie swallowed. 'I don't want to touch it.'

'I don't want you to either,' the gunslinger said with curious gentleness, 'but I'm afraid neither of us has a choice. There's going to be shooting.'

'There is?'

'Yes.' The gunslinger looked serenely at Eddie. 'Quite a lot of it, I think.'

18

Balazar had become more and more uneasy. Too long. They had been in there too long and it was too quiet. Distantly, maybe on the next block, he could hear people shouting at each other and then a couple of rattling reports that were probably firecrackers … but when you were in the sort of business Balazar was in, firecrackers weren't the first thing you thought of.

A scream. Was that a scream?

Never mind. Whatever's happening on the next block has nothing to do with you. You're turning into an old woman.

All the same, the signs were bad. Very bad.

'Jack?' he yelled at the closed bathroom door.

There was no answer.

Balazar opened the left front drawer of his desk and took out the gun. This was no Colt Cobra, cozy enough to fit in a clamshell holster; it was a .357 Magnum.

' 'Cimi!' he shouted. 'I want you!'

He slammed the drawer. The tower of cards fell with a soft, sighing thump. Balazar didn't even notice.

'Cimi Dretto, all two hundred and fifty pounds of him, filled the doorway. He saw that Da Boss had pulled his gun out of the drawer, and 'Cimi immediately pulled his own from beneath a plaid jacket so loud it could have caused flash-burns on anyone who made the mistake of looking at it too long.

'I want Claudio and Tricks,' he said. 'Get them quick. The kid is up to something.'

'We got a problem,' 'Cimi said.

Balazar's eyes flicked from the bathroom door to 'Cimi. 'Oh, I got plenty of those already,' he said. 'What's this new one, 'Cimi?'

'Cimi licked his lips. He didn't like telling Da Boss bad news even under the best of circumstances; when he looked like this …

'Well,' he said, and licked his lips. 'You see?'

'Will you hurry the fuck up?' Balazar yelled.

19

The sandalwood grips of the revolver were so smooth that Eddie's first act upon receiving it was to nearly drop it on his toes. The thing was so big it looked prehistoric, so heavy he knew he would have to lift it two- handed. The recoil, he thought, is apt to drive me right through the nearest wall. That's if it fires at all. Yet there was some part of him that wanted to hold it, that responded to its perfectly expressed purpose, that sensed its dim and bloody history and wanted to be part of it.

No one but the best ever held this baby in his hand, Eddie thought. Until now, at least.

'Are you ready?' Roland asked.

'No, but let's do it,' Eddie said.

He gripped Roland's left wrist with his left hand. Roland slid his hot right arm around Eddie's bare shoulders.

Together they stepped back through the doorway, from the windy darkness of the beach in Roland's dying world to the cool fluorescent glare of Balazar's private bathroom in The Leaning Tower.

Eddie blinked, adjusting his eyes to the light, and heard 'Cimi Dretto in the other room. 'We got a problem,' 'Cimi was saying. Don't we all, Eddie thought, and then his eyes riveted on Balazar's medicine chest. It was standing open. In his mind he heard Balazar telling Jack to search the bathroom, and heard Andolini asking if there was any place in there he wouldn't know about. Balazar had paused before replying. There is a small panel on the back wall of the medicine cabinet, he had said. Ikeep a few personal things in there.

Andolini had slid the metal panel open but had neglected to close it. 'Roland!' he hissed.

Roland raised his own gun and pressed the barrel against his lips in a shushing gesture. Eddie crossed silently to the medicine chest.

A few personal things— there was a bottle of suppositories, a copy of a blearily printed magazine called Child's Play (the cover depicting two naked girls of about eight engaged in a soul-kiss) … and eight or ten sample packages of Keflex. Eddie knew what Keflex was. Junkies, prone as they were to infections both general and local, usually knew.

Keflex was an antibiotic.

'Oh, I got plenty of those already,' Balazar was saying. He sounded harried. 'What's this new one, 'Cimi?'

If this doesn't knock out whatever's wrong with him nothing will, Eddie thought. He began to grab the packages and went to stuff them into his pockets. He realized he had no pockets and uttered a harsh bark that wasn't even close to laughter.

He began to dump them into the sink. He would have to pick them up later … if there was a later.

'Well,' 'Cimi was saying, 'you see?'

'Will you hurry the fuck up?' Balazar yelled.