The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy (46 page)

C
HAMBERS
, J
OHN
“J
AKE
” (T
HROUGHOUT
)

A boy of eleven-turning-twelve from Manhattan who is drawn into the Mohaine Desert after Jack Mort pushes him in front of a Cadillac driven by Enrico Balazar. At the time of his first death, he's an all-A student attending the exclusive and expensive Piper School. He has sun-bleached blond hair and blue-gray eyes. He's small for his age, well mannered and sensitive, but he has a hard time making friends and is mildly claustrophobic. His career aspirations include bowling on the pro tour. His parents, a cutthroat network executive and a woman with too much free time on her hands, pay little attention to him. Housekeeper Greta Shaw is the closest thing he has to a friend or a parent. If he had stayed in New York, he probably would have ended up in therapy.

Though Roland loves him like a son soon after they meet, he becomes a pawn in the game between the gunslinger and the man in black. Jake knows what it's like to be held at a distance, so when Roland realizes that Jake might have to be sacrificed, the boy knows it, too, abetted by the fact that in Mid-World he acquires a stronger sense of the touch than that displayed by Alain
Johns. There's not much Jake can do, though. Left alone in the desert or the mountains, he's sure to die anyway. He falls to his death from a railway trestle.

His circumstances are complicated when Roland kills Jack Mort, thereby preventing him from pushing Jake. Jake knows he's supposed to die on May 9, 1977, but he doesn't, which sets up paradoxical memories in his head. He remembers being with Roland, but he couldn't have been there if he didn't die and end up in the Way Station. He keeps looking for doors, convinced he'll find one that will take him back. After he sees the rose in the vacant lot, his power of the touch increases and he starts communicating with Eddie Dean, whom he's never met. Together they negotiated his return to Mid-World, which rectifies his (and Roland's) memory problems.
Ka
wants him so badly that it found a way around death to put him back at Roland's side.

Despite what happened in the past, Jake trusts Roland after his return. He understands Roland because their parents were somewhat alike. His father is a gunslinger for a TV network and his mother has a history of sleeping around.

Oy the billy-bumbler becomes his constant companion and they are rarely apart. They even switch minds to get past the mind-trap beneath the Dixie Pig. Though he regards Roland as his father—and eventually calls him father—he's also the adopted son of Eddie and Susannah. Still, he's jealous of Mordred for being Roland's blood son.

He's three years younger than Roland was when he went up against Cort, but he has no shortage of steel in his character. Being part of Roland's
ka-tet
means that he has to shoulder adult responsibility, though he isn't yet a teenager—and never gets to be one. He doesn't always like the person he becomes when he wears his father's gun, stolen the day he returned to Mid-World as if he knew he was destined to become a gunslinger. His childish aspect comes out on occasion, such as when he and Benny Slightman become friends in Calla Bryn Sturgis. When he is forced to betray Benny by reporting his friend's father as a traitor, he understands Roland better than before.

The mission to save the Dark Tower is as much his own as it is Roland's. When they have to save Stephen King's life and Roland's leg fails, Jake doesn't hesitate to throw himself between the author and the van heading his way, sacrificing his life to save all of creation. Father Callahan's last rites, performed before they entered the Dixie Pig, were only slightly premature.

Three deaths do not spell the end for Jake, though. Susannah joins him in another New York, where he is Jake Toren, younger brother to Eddie.

C
HAMBERS
, L
AURIE
[M
EGAN
] (3, 4, M)

Jake Chambers's mother. A Vassar graduate who is a firm believer in better living through chemistry, especially in the form of Valium. She is a distant mother, unaware of her son's likes and dislikes. Her idea of a lullaby is “Tyger, tyger, burning bright.” She calls Jake sugarlove. She has a long history of sleeping with sick friends.

C
LEMENTS
, J
USTIN
[A
RNOLD
] (2)

Owner and operator of Clements Guns and Sporting Goods. The police have been trying to catch him selling guns illegally for years.

C
OOPER
, G
ARY
(4, 4.5)

Film actor whom both Eddie and Susannah associate with Roland, though after the gunslinger tells his story during the starkblast, Susannah decides he really isn't the strong and silent type.

C
ORCORAN
, J
OHN
(2)

A journalist for the
Topeka Capital-Journal
who writes an article about the superflu.

C
ORNWELL
, A
USTIN
(7)

A man from upstate New York who ran the Niagara Mall and had a successful career in advertising, including accounts for Nozz-A-La and the Takuro Spirit, before becoming the Crimson King's minister of state. His father is Andrew John Cornwell of Tioga Springs. See Rando Thoughtful.

C
ULLUM
, J
OHN
(6, 7)

Caretaker, camp-checker and carpenter from East Stoneham, Maine. His house is on Keywadin Pond. He's in the general store when Jack Andolini ambushes Roland and Eddie in 1977 and demonstrates his instinct for survival. Roland calls him
dan-tete
: little savior. He's going on elderly and has brilliant blue eyes. He collects signed baseballs and spent ten years as a guard at the Maine State Prison. He may seem like a country bumpkin, but he's smart. Roland and Eddie convince him to enlist the cooperation of Aaron Deepneau and Moses Carver to form Tet Corporation using the financial support of Holmes Dental. Roland gives him Aunt Talitha's cross, which bears a message that will convince Moses Carver to believe Cullum. He wears the
cross around his neck until his death. He rues some of the filthy tricks he is forced to play as part of Tet Corporation, some of which cost people their lives. One of his biggest regrets, though, is that he never got to visit Mid-World. He was shot in 1989 in New York, the first of the Founding Fathers to die. Tet believes a
can toi
acting on behalf of Sombra or North Central Positronics killed him. There had been previous attempts on his life.

D
AMASCUS
, T
RUDY
(6)

An accountant with the firm of Guttenberg, Furth and Patel. She's determined to see Damascus added to the end of the company name. She is a staunch nonbeliever in anything supernatural until the day Susannah/Mia appears in front of her out of thin air on the steps of the Black Tower and robs her of her shoes. In the aftermath, she tries to get people to believe her, then comes to recognize their incredulity.

D
ANVILLE
, P
ATRICK
(7)

Son of Sonia. Roland first hears his name in the offices of Tet Corporation. The Calvins believe he is a real person whom Roland will encounter during his quest. Shortly thereafter, Roland and Susannah find two paintings in Richard Sayre's office in Fedic signed by him. One features the Dark Tower. Since Patrick hasn't yet been there, these paintings must come from later in his life, or from another time line.

Susannah and Roland find Patrick imprisoned in Dandelo's basement. He reminds Susannah of a concentration camp prisoner. No one knows how long he's been there. He has long hair but only a faint beard. He looks seventeen; Roland thinks he might be as old as thirty. His mind has been terribly damaged by Dandelo's constant feeding on his emotions. The vampire also pulled out his tongue.

Roland and Susannah discover his impressive artistic skill. He's a pencil-slinger and a graphite addict. However, he knows nothing about erasers. If he makes any mistakes with his pencil, he incorporates them into his drawings. When Susannah realizes that his work affects reality, she gives him an eraser and gets him to remove the cancerous blemish on her face. This talent may exist only in Mid-World, where he also has slight ability with the touch.

He draws a doorway so Susannah can return to New York, but he chooses to stay with Roland. Though he fails Roland by falling asleep the night Mordred attacks, he serves Roland at the Tower by drawing and then erasing the
Crimson King after creating red paint for his eyes out of saliva, the petals of a rose and Roland's blood. Roland sends him back to the Federal Outpost, where Stuttering Bill might show him a way to get back home.

Crossover to Other Works:
Patrick was introduced in
Insomnia
as a four-year old boy with a rose-pink aura.

D
ARIO
(2)

One of Enrico Balazar's henchmen. Killed in crossfire by Tricks Postino at the Leaning Tower.

D
EAN
, E
DWARD
“E
DDIE
” C
ANTOR
(2, 3, 4, 4.5, 5, 6, 7)

Eddie Dean is a twenty-three-year-old heroin addict from Brooklyn when he meets Roland. A single mother and brother, Henry, who is eight years older, raised him. According to his mother, his father's name was Wendell. A drunk driver killed his six-year-old sister when Eddie was two, which made his mother overly protective of him. However, because she worked, most of the responsibility fell to Henry, whom Eddie idolizes.

Eddie is better than Henry at just about everything, which makes Henry torment him. He learns to hide his skills and interests in things like reading and whittling when around Henry to protect himself, but also to help preserve Henry's tattered self-esteem.

Eddie became a drug addict after Henry came back from Vietnam injured and hooked on morphine. Henry spiraled downward and took Eddie with him. Henry and his mother—who is dead by now—had successfully destroyed his self-esteem. Even at his worst, though, Eddie was always better able to cope than Henry and ended up looking after him.

When he arrives in Mid-World, he's a dull observer, mostly because of his prolonged drug use. He's a fast learner with flashes of intuition, though, feeling at times that he's done everything before. One of his skills is in whittling powerful talismanic objects. Still, whenever he sets out to do something, his late brother's voice nags him that he'll never be any good.

With Roland's help, he stands up to the customs agents who (correctly) suspect him of smuggling drugs, and again later to the mobsters who used him as a drug mule. He impresses Roland by taking part in a gunfight while naked. Though he's occasionally weak and self-centered, he has plenty of courage and heart. He's convinced that he will always love Susannah more than she loves him. She's someone he can look after, just as he was able to handle his withdrawal when he had to tend to Roland on the beach.

While he's fast and accurate with a gun, he's equally deadly with his mouth, a trait that reminds Roland of his old pal and
ka-mai
, Cuthbert. Even Henry acknowledged his brother's talented mouth, saying that Eddie could talk the devil into setting himself on fire. His sense of humor can be funny and stinging at the same time. Though this characteristic is often annoying, it proves useful in the riddle contest against Blaine the Mono, where he defeats the mad computer with illogic.

He regards Roland as his father, and a compliment from the gunslinger can make him feel like the king of the world. Roland gave him a second chance at life—left to his own devices he would probably have died from an overdose, like his brother. After a dream where he is shown the field of roses and the Dark Tower, he adopts Roland's quest as his own, declaring that he would continue to End-World even if Roland died.

Roland believes that Eddie is Cuthbert under a different name, convinced that Eddie will die the same way his old friend did: talking or arguing, which is as natural to him as breathing. He's near the age Cuthbert was at Jericho Hill (twenty-four or twenty-five) when he dies at the end of the battle of Algul Siento. His death is neither slow nor easy.

Susannah meets up with a version of Eddie in another New York, where he is Eddie Toren from White Plains. When she joins him in Central Park in 1987, he's already in love with her after dreaming about her for months. His younger brother is named Jake.

Physical description: He has hazel eyes, black hair and sharp, foxy features.

D
EAN
, H
ENRY
(2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

Eddie Dean's older brother by eight years. Great sage and eminent junkie. He blamed all of his failures in life on the fact that he had to look after Eddie. He teased Eddie mercilessly about anything his younger brother did better than him—which was just about everything. He always ragged him about the books he brought home, calling him a sissy and a bookworm. He was wounded in Vietnam after enlisting in the army and came back hooked on morphine.

He was the defining, shaping force in Eddie's life, and pulled his younger brother into his downward spiral of addiction. Their roles reversed—Eddie ended up having to look after him. His one piece of financial advice to Eddie, offered a month before he died, was to avoid investing in “all this computer shit.” He died from an overdose meant to keep him docile while Enrico
Balazar's thugs waited for Eddie to show up with the drugs he smuggled from the Bahamas. Eddie continues to hear his voice in his head, although he learns to banish it as time passes and he becomes more confident.

D
EAN
, M
RS
. (2)

Eddie Dean's mother. She often lectured Eddie about how much she (and Henry) had sacrificed for him. She died a few months after Henry got back from Vietnam.