The Drawing of the Three

Eddie nodded. 'That was an act, and she knew it was an act. But she's a pretty good actress and she fooled both of us for a few seconds. The way she's talking is an act, too. But it's not as good. It's so stupid, so goddam hokey!'

'You believe she pretends well only when she knows she's doing it?'

'Yes. She sounds like a cross between the darkies in this book called Mandingo I read once and Butterfly McQueen in Gone with the Wind. I know you don't know those names, but what I mean is she talks like a cliche. Do you know that word?'

'It means what is always said or believed by people who think only a little or not at all.'

'Yeah. I couldn't have said it half so good.'

''Ain't you boys done jerkin on dem candles a yours yet? ' Detta's voice was growing hoarse and cracked. 'Or maybe it's just you can't fine em. Dat it?'

'Come on.' The gunslinger got slowly to his feet. He swayed for a moment, saw Eddie looking at him, and smiled. 'I'll be all right.'

'For how long?'

'As long as I have to be,' the gunslinger answered, and the serenity in his voice chilled Eddie's heart.

12

That night the gunslinger used his last sure live cartridge to make their kill. He would start systematically testing the ones he believed to be duds tomorrow night, but he believed it was pretty much as Eddie had said: They were down to beating the damned things to death.

It was like the other nights: the fire, the cooking, the shelling, the eating—eating which was now slow and unenthusiastic. We're just gassing up, Eddie thought. They offered food to Detta, who screamed and laughed and cursed and asked how long they was goan take her for a fool, and then she began throwing her body wildly from one side to the other, never minding how her bonds grew steadily tighter, only trying to upset the chair to one side or the other so they would have to pick her up again before they could eat.

Just before she could manage the trick, Eddie grabbed her and Roland braced the wheels on either sides with rocks.

'I'll loosen the ropes a bit if you'll be still,' Roland told her.

'Suck shit out my ass, mahfah!'

'I don't understand if that means yes or no.'

She looked at him, eyes narrowed, suspecting some buried barb of satire in that calm voice (Eddie also wondered, but couldn't tell if there was or not), and after a moment she said sulkily, 'I be still. Too damn hungry to kick up much dickens. You boys goan give me some real food or you jes goan starve me to death? Dat yo plan? You too chickenshit to choke me and I ain't nev' goan eat no poison, so dat must be you plan. Starve me out. Well, we see, sho. We goan see. Sho we are.'

She offered them her bone-chilling sickle of a grin again.

Not long after she fell asleep.

Eddie touched the side of Roland's face. Roland glanced at him but did not pull away from the touch.

'I'm all right.'

'Yeah, you're Jim-dandy. Well, I tell you what, Jim, we didn't get along very far today.'

'I know.' There was also the matter of having used the last live shell, but that was knowledge Eddie could do without, at least tonight. Eddie wasn't sick, but he was exhausted. Too exhausted for more bad news.

No, he's not sick, not yet, but if he goes too long without rest, gets tired enough, he'll get sick.

In a way, Eddie already was; both of them were. Cold-sores had developed at the corners of Eddie's mouth, and there was scaly patches on his skin. The gunslinger could feel his teeth loosening up in their sockets, and the flesh between his toes had begun to crack open and bleed, as had that between his remaining fingers. They were eating, but they were eating the same thing, day in and day out. They could go on that way for a time, but in the end they would die as surely as if they had starved.

What we have is Shipmate's Disease on dry land, Roland thought. Simple as that. How funny. We need fruit. We need greens.

Eddie nodded toward the Lady. 'She's going to go right on making it tough.'

'Unless the other one inside her comes back.'

'That would be nice, but we can't count on it,' Eddie said. He took a piece of blackened claw and began to scrawl aimless patterns in the dirt. 'Any idea how far the next door might be?'

Roland shook his head.

'I only ask because if the distance between Number Two and Number Three is the same as the distance between Number One and Number Two, we could be in deep shit.'

'We're in deep shit right now.'

'Neck deep,' Eddie agreed moodily. 'I just keep wondering how long I can tread water.'

Roland clapped him on the shoulder, a gesture of affection so rare it made Eddie blink.

'There's one thing that Lady doesn't know,' he said.

'Oh? What's that?'

'We Honk Mahfahs can tread water a long time.'

Eddie laughed at that, laughed hard, smothering his laughter against his arm so he wouldn't wake Detta up. He'd had enough of her for one day, please and thank you.

The gunslinger looked at him, smiling. 'I'm going to turn in,' he said. 'Be—'

'—on my guard. Yeah. I will.'

13

Screaming was next.

Eddie fell asleep the moment his head touched the bunched bundle of his shirt, and it seemed only five minutes later when Detta began screaming.

He was awake at once, ready for anything, some King Lobster arisen from the deep to take revenge for its slain children or a horror down from the hills. It seemed he was awake at once, anyway, but the gunslinger was already on his feet, a gun in his left hand.

When she saw they were both awake, Detta promptly quit screaming.

'Jes thought I'd see if you boys on yo toes,' she said. 'Might be woofs. Looks likely enough country for 'em. Wanted to make sho if I saw me a woof creepin up, I could get you on yo feet in time.' But there was no fear in her eyes; they glinted with mean amusement.

'Christ,' Eddie said groggily. The moon was up but barely risen; they had been asleep less than two hours.

The gunslinger holstered his gun.

'Don't do it again,' he said to the Lady in the wheelchair.

'What you goan do if I do? Rape me?'

'If we were going to rape you, you would be one well-raped woman by now,' the gunslinger said evenly. 'Don't do it again.'