Callahan’s face was now so pale he might have been a vampire’s victim himself. “I never told anyone about Mr. Flip, not even my mother. That can’t be in that book. It just can’t be.”

“It is,” Jake said simply.

“Let’s get this straight,” Eddie said. “When you were a kid, there was a Mr. Flip, and you did think of him when you faced this particular Type One vampire, Barlow. Correct?”

“Yes, but—”

Eddie turned to the gunslinger. “Is this getting us any closer to Susannah, do you think?”

“Yes. We’ve reached the heart of a great mystery. Perhaps the great mystery. I believe the Dark Tower is almost close enough to touch. And if the Tower is close, Susannah is, too.”

Ignoring him, Callahan was flipping through the book. Jake was looking over his shoulder.

“And you know how to open that door?” Eddie pointed at it.

“Yes,” Roland said. “I’d need help, but I think the people of Calla Bryn Sturgis owe us a little help, don’t you?”

Eddie nodded. “All right, then, let me tell you this much: I’m pretty sure I have seen the name Stephen King before, at least once.”

“On the Specials board,” Jake said without looking up from the book. “Yeah, I remember. It was on the Specials board the first time we went todash.”

“Specials board?” Roland asked, frowning.

“ Tower’sSpecials board,” Eddie said. “It was in the window, remember? Part of his whole Restaurant-of-the-Mind thing.”

Roland nodded.

“But I’ll tell you guys something,” Jake said, and now he did look up from the book. “The name was there when Eddie and I went todash, but it wasn’t on the board the first time I went in there. The time Mr. Deepneau told me the river riddle, it was someone else’s name. It changed, just like the name of the writer on Charlie the Choo-Choo .”

“I can’t be in a book,” Callahan was saying. “I am not a fiction…am I?”

“Roland.” It was Eddie. The gunslinger turned to him. “I need to find her. I don’t care who’s real and who’s not. I don’t care about Calvin Tower, Stephen King, or the Pope of Rome. As far as reality goes, she’s all of it I want. I need to find my wife .” His voice dropped. “Help me, Roland.”

Roland reached out and took the book in his left hand. With his right he touched the door. If she’s still alive, he thought. If we can find her, and if she’s come back to herself. If and if and if.

Eddie took Roland’s arm. “Please,” he said. “Please don’t make me try to do it on my own. I love her so much. Help me find her.”