“Mawnin, whitebread,” Detta said, and grinned her sharklike grin at him. “Thought you was goan sleep till noon. You cain’t be doin nuthin like dat, kin you? We got to bus us some miles here, ain’t dat d’fac of d’matter? Sho! An I think you the one goan have to do most of de bustin, cause dat other fella, one with de voodoo eyes, he lookin mo peaky all de time, I declare he do! Yes! I doan think he goan be eatin anything much longer, not even dat fancy smoked meat you whitebread boys keep fo when you done joikin on each other one’s little bitty white candles. So let’s go, whitebread! Detta doan want to be d’one keepin you.”

Her lids and her voice both dropped a little; her eyes peeked at him slyly from their corners.

“Not f’um startin out, leastways.”

Dis goan be a day you ’member, whitebread, those sly eyes promised. Dis goan be a day you ’member for a long, long time.

Sho.

14

They made three miles that day, maybe a shade under. Detta’s chair upset twice. Once she did it herself, working her fingers slowly and unobtrusively over to that handbrake again and yanking it. The second time Eddie did with no help at all, shoving too hard in one of those goddamned sandtraps. That was near the end of the day, and he simply panicked, thinking he just wasn’t going to be able to get her out this time, just wasn’t. So he gave that one last titanic heave with his quivering arms, and of course it had been much too hard, and over she had gone, like Humpty Dumpty falling off his wall, and he and Roland had to labor to get her upright again. They finished the job just in time. The rope under her breasts was now pulled taut across her windpipe. The gunslinger’s efficient running slipknot was choking her to death. Her face had gone a funny blue color, she was on the verge of losing consciousness, but still she went on wheezing her nasty laughter.

Let her be, why don’t you? Eddie nearly said as Roland bent quickly forward to loosen the knot. Let her choke! I don’t know if she wants to do herself like you said, but I know she wants to do US . . . so let her go!

Then he remembered Odetta (although their encounter had been so brief and seemed so long ago that memory was growing dim) and moved forward to help.

The gunslinger pushed him impatiently away with one hand. “Only room for one.”

When the rope was loosened and the Lady gasping harshly for breath (which she expelled in gusts of her angry laughter), he turned and looked at Eddie critically. “I think we ought to stop for the night.”

“A little further.” He was almost pleading. “I can go a little further.”

“Sho! He be one strong buck He be good fo choppin one mo row cotton and he still have enough lef’ to give yo little bitty white candle one fine suckin-on t’night.”