The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy (44 page)

T
he Dark Tower series features some universes that are similar to our own. There is Keystone Earth, where Stephen King lives, but there is also the reality of Eddie Dean, which has Co-Op City in Brooklyn instead of the Bronx.

Manhattan is the
ka-tet
's most frequent Earth-side destination. Eddie Dean, Odetta Holmes and Jake Chambers all come from New York. After leaving 'Salem's Lot, Father Callahan went to New York, and Irene Tassenbaum lives there. Even John Cullum went there once, when he was in the army.

The
ka-tet
's primary focus in Manhattan is a neighborhood called Turtle Bay, the area between 41st and 54th streets from Lexington Avenue to the East River. Though many of the businesses mentioned in the series are fictitious, there really is a black office tower at the corner of Second Avenue and 46th and, nearby, a pocket park with a turtle statue. For a while there was even a construction barricade upon which someone had written “Roland Deschain was here.”

If you find yourself in Manhattan with some time on your hands, here are the main sites of interest.

1)   
Second Avenue and 46th
: The last piece of property Calvin Tower owns in Manhattan: Lot #298, Block #19. Originally the location of Tom and Gerry's Artistic Deli. Later a vacant lot containing the pink rose that represents the Dark Tower in Keystone Earth and the proposed site of Turtle Bay Luxury Condominiums. Finally, 2 Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, an office tower built by Tet Corporation to protect the rose. In
The Dark Tower
, it is described as being at least ninety-nine stories tall, whereas in reality it has only sixteen stories. The Paper Patch stationery store is also located at this intersection.

2)   
844 Second Avenue (at the 45th Street intersection)
: Blimpie's. A fast-food restaurant.

3)   
Second Avenue and 47th Street
: Roland Deschain walked into the middle of this busy intersection and stopped traffic by saying, “Hile! Stop in the name of Gilead!”

4)   
Second Avenue between 49th and 48th
: Reflections of You. Both Eddie (in a dream) and Jake walk past this mirror store.

5)   
Second Avenue and 51st
: Tower of Power Records.

6)   
Second Avenue near 51st Street
: Station Shoes & Boots. Between Tower of Power Records and Manhattan Restaurant of the Mind.

7)   
Second Avenue and 52nd
: House of Cards Magic Shop and Chew Chew Mama's restaurant. Father Callahan and Lupe Delgado used to have lunch there. After 1994, Chew Chew Mama's became Dennis's
Waffles and Pancakes, frequented by Trudy Damascus. In the real world, the Turtle Bay Tavern is here.

8)   
Second Avenue, between 52nd and 54th
: The Manhattan Restaurant of the Mind bookstore is on the east side of Second Avenue.

9)   
Second Avenue and 54th
: Barcelona Luggage store. Arrival location for todash trips.

10)   
54th Street just off Second Avenue
: Kansas City Blues, a midtown saloon.

11)   
47th Street between First and Second avenues
: Turtle Bay Washateria, where Calvin Tower and Aaron Deepneau scared off the Hitler Brothers, who were about to kill Father Callahan. There is a doorway between different versions of New York here.

12)   
First Avenue and 47th
: Home, the “wet” shelter where Father Callahan worked.

13)   
First Avenue and 45th
: United Nations headquarters. Jake sees this building while he is in the vacant lot.

14)   
First Avenue and 46th
: United Nations Plaza Hotel. Later the New York Plaza-Park Hyatt and destined to become the Regal U.N. Plaza Hotel owned by Sombra/North Central in July 1999. This is where Mia and Susannah wait for Richard Sayre's call.

15)   
Third Avenue between 47th and 48th
: Marine Midland Bank. Home did its banking here.

16)   
Fifth Avenue between 38th and 39th
: Jake's apartment. Its exact location isn't specified, but he crosses 39th after leaving his apartment to walk to school. Jack Mort passes the apartment after crossing 40th heading south.

17)   
Fifth Avenue and 43rd
: “The pushing place,” where Jack Mort pushes Jake in front of Enrico Balazar's car.

18)   
? Avenue and 33rd
: Mid-Town Lanes, where Jake used to bowl.

19)   
56th Street between Park and Madison
: The Piper School, which Jake attends.

20)   
Fifth Avenue and 41st
: New York Public Library. Father Callahan looks up the zip code Aaron Deepneau left for him here and steals the book
Yankee Highways
. Bango Skank wrote his name in a men's room bathroom stall.

21)   
Lexington and 59th
: The intersection where Jake and Father Callahan got out of the cab on the way to the Dixie Pig.

22)   
Lexington Avenue and 60th
: The Blackstrap Molasses Café. Susannah paid a busker to sing “Man of Constant Sorrow” at this intersection.

23)   
Lexington Avenue and 61st
: The Dixie Pig. Irene Tassenbaum has an apartment nearby.

24)   
63rd between Fifth and Madison
: Sir Speedy-Park, where the Tassenbaums park their cars.

25)   
Central Park
: Where Susannah meets Eddie and Jake Toren in 1987.

26)   
Fifth Avenue and Central Park South
: The Greymarl Apartments. Odetta Holmes lived in the penthouse. Also the Plaza Hotel, where Lupe Delgado worked on the maintenance crew.

27)   
11 West 53rd Street (between Fifth and Sixth avenues)
: The Museum of Modern Art (though perhaps confused by King with Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is on Fifth and 82nd, well out of Jake's path). Jake joined a tour to kill time before going to Dutch Hill.

28)   
Broadway and 42nd
: The hotdog stand Jake visits after leaving the museum.

29)   
Broadway and 48th
: News ticker that Ted Brautigan uses to keep track of the passage of time in Keystone Earth from Mid-World.

30)   
Times Square
: Denby's Discount Drug. Jake tells a policeman that his name is Tom Denby when he sees the sign. Odetta Holmes and Father Callahan saw movies in Times Square.

31)   
70 Rockefeller Plaza (51st between Fifth and Sixth)
: Jake's father's office at “The Network.”

32)   
Sixth Avenue between 50th and 51st streets
: Radio City Music Hall. John Cullum went here when he was in the army.

33)   
Fifth Avenue between 33rd and 34th streets
: The Empire State Building. John Cullum went here when he was in the army. The other New York entertainment Cullum sampled isn't part of the tour.

34)   
Sixth Avenue and 34th Street
: Macy's, where Roland first encounters Detta Walker.

35)   
Seventh Avenue and 49th
: Clements Guns and Sporting Goods, where Roland “bought” ammo while inhabiting Jack Mort's body.

36)   
395 West 49th (near Ninth Avenue)
: Katz's Drug Store, site of the world's first antibiotic robbery.

37)   
409 Park Ave South (between 28th and 29th streets)
: Jack Mort's apartment.

38)   
Ninth Avenue at Christopher
: Christopher Street Station, where Jack Mort pushed Odetta Holmes in front of the A train.

39)   
Second Avenue and 19th
: Americano Bar where Father Callahan got drunk after seeing the vagrant dead for the first time.

40)   
Washington Square Park
(
near Fifth Avenue and 4th Street
): Father Callahan spent his first night in New York here. It became one of his favorite haunts. He sees the first signs of the low men looking for him there.

41)   
World Trade Center
: Father Callahan and Jake left Black Thirteen in a locker in the basement in 1999.

T
his section of the glossary includes all significant people, places and things from America. Characters mentioned only in passing or not by name are omitted. The numbers and letters after each entry indicate the books in which the person, place or thing is mentioned. The numbers 1–7 represent the seven main Dark Tower books. L stands for “The Little Sisters of Eluria,” 4.5 represents
The Wind Through the Keyhole
, and M means the Marvel graphic novels. Names in square brackets indicate situations where a subject's name changes because of a continuity error.

P
EOPLE

A
BIGAIL
(4, 6)

A note found in the parking lot outside the train station in Topeka says that the old woman from the dreams lives in Nebraska and that her name is Abagail [sic].

Crossover to Other Works:
The forces for good rally around Mother Abigail Freemantle in Nebraska in
The Stand
.

A
LEXANDER
, T
RUMAN
(2)

Former henchman of Enrico Balazar. Dies from a heart attack.

A
NDERSON
, J
USTINE
(7)

A woman from Maybrook, New York, who sees Stephen King shortly before Bryan Smith hits him in Lovell, Maine. She is picking raspberries with her friend Elvira Toothaker, whom she met at Vassar College in the 1940s.

A
NDOLINI
, C
LAUDIO
(2, 5)

Jack Andolini's brother and one of Enrico Balazar's personal bodyguards. Killed by Roland in the shoot-out at the Leaning Tower.

A
NDOLINI
, J
ACK
(2, 3, 5, 6, 7)

Enrico Balazar's number one lieutenant and field marshal. He is related to Balazar by marriage, but he rose to his position because he isn't dumb and has a bit of imagination, although he's stupid in some fundamental way that has nothing to do with IQ scores. He looks like an ax-wielding psycho in a horror movie. He has muddy brown eyes under a bulging forehead, and a jutting jaw. His hairy hands are so large they look like caricatures. Known to others (such as Henry Dean) behind his back as Old Double Ugly. He is killed by lobstrosities on the beach after his gun blows up in his hand in one version of reality. In Keystone Earth he ends up in jail in Bridgton, Maine, after the failed ambush on Roland and Eddie.

A
NTASSI
, P
AUL
(6)

The police officer who responds to Trudy Damascus's call after Mia robs her.

A
RMITAGE
, F
RANK
(7)

The man who questions Ted Brautigan about his job application in San Francisco and hires him to become a Breaker. A broad-shouldered, hard-faced man. He takes Ted and a number of others through a doorway in Santa Mira to Thunderclap Station.

A
TWOOD
, T
IMOTHY
(7)

Ted Brautigan's uncle. He attended Harvard and pays for Ted's higher education.

A
VERY
, B
ONITA
“B
ONNIE
” (3, 5)

Jake Chambers's English comp teacher. A big fan of
le mot juste
. She gives Jake an A+ for his essay “My Understanding of Truth” and provides a well-intentioned but misguided interpretation of its symbolism.

B
ACHMAN
, C
LAUDIA
(Y) I
NEZ
(5, 6)