by Robin Furth
LARGE REWARD OFFERED
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DIAL 764, WAIT FOR BEEP, GIVE YOUR NUMBER
GOD BLESS YOU FOR HELPING
Callahan doesn’t know who Ruta is, but he’s fairly certain that she isn’t a cat, and that she won’t be much fun once the low men get hold of her. V:303, V:445, V:446
SACRAMENTO BEE: This newspaper carried an article about the HITLER BROTHERS and the injury they caused to Callahan’s old friend ROWAN MAGRUDER. V:296, V:307–9
SLEEPY JOHN’S: See CALIFORNIA (STATE OF): SACRAMENTO: SLEEPY JOHN’S, in OUR WORLD PLACES
TEENAGE VICTIM: See VAMPIRES: TYPE THREE: INDIVIDUAL TYPE THREE VAMPIRES AND THEIR VICTIMS
CALLAHAN’S HOME SHELTER ASSOCIATES:
CHASE, FRANKIE: Frankie Chase worked at HOME. VI:332
DANCING WOMAN: V:272
DELGADO, LUPE: Although ROWAN MAGRUDER founded HOME, it was Lupe Delgado—a thirty-two-year-old former alcoholic—who invested the place with life and purpose. When Callahan first met Lupe, the younger man hadn’t had drink or taken drugs for five years. Although he’d been spending evenings at Home since 1974, he still kept his day job, which was working as part of the maintenance crew at the PLAZA HOTEL on FIFTH AVENUE (not to be confused with the PLAZA–PARK HYATT on FIRST AVENUE, where SUSANNAH-MIO takes refuge during Song of Susannah). Like Roland’s love, SUSAN DELGADO, Lupe was both honest and attractive. Callahan grew to love him, and it was a love threaded with sexual attraction, though nothing physical (besides one brotherly kiss on the cheek) ever came of it.
In March of 1976, after Callahan had been working at Home for about five and a half months, he saw the telltale dark blue glow (a little bit like electric blueberry juice) around Lupe’s neck and smelled the revolting scent of burning onions mixed with hot metal. Horrified, Callahan realized that his friend had been preyed upon by a TYPE THREE VAMPIRE. By April, Lupe had become a regular hit for the vampires, and finding one actually drinking Lupe’s blood made Callahan begin killing the bloodsuckers.
Although it is doubtful whether Type Three vampires can develop AIDS (they are as phantasmal as they are physical), they can carry HIV, and one such infected monster fed upon Lupe. By mid-May, Lupe was so ill that he couldn’t bear the smells of the Home kitchen. By the end of June, he was dead. Lupe’s death plunged Callahan into deep despair and sent him reeling along the HIDDEN HIGHWAYS of America, bottle in hand. V:267–68, V:271–83, V:285, V:293, V:304, V:423, V:424, V:428, V:429, V:445, V:456, V:464, V:591
MARK CROSS BRIEFCASE BUSINESSMAN: See VAMPIRES: TYPE THREE: INDIVIDUAL TYPE THREE VAMPIRES AND THEIR VICTIMS
GUY WITH D.T.’S: This man was shaking so badly that ROWAN MAGRUDER had to feed him coffee laced with whiskey. V:272
ILLITERATE (OR SEMILITERATE) MAN: V:272
JEFFY: Jeffy was one of the more psychotic residents of the HOME shelter. He used a switchblade to slit the throat of a fellow resident who was disgusted by his nose-picking habit. V:428–29
JEFFY’S VICTIM: V:428–29
LISA: Lisa was one of HOME’s residents. She was attending AA. V:272
MAGRUDER, ROWAN (THE STREET ANGEL, also called GEORGE MAGRUDER): Rowan Magruder founded the HOME shelter. Along with LUPE DELGADO, he crafted its “wet” policy, which basically meant that men and women were allowed in through Home’s doors whether they were drunk or sober. As a young man, Rowan had been an aspiring writer and academic, but he gave up both potential professions for his true calling, which was to help the down-and-out. Although the nature of his work earned him the nickname The Street Angel, and though he was visited by Mother Teresa and was praised by magazines such as Newsweek, his sister, ROWENA MAGRUDER RAWLINGS, never forgave him for abandoning his more respectable (not to mention more potentially lucrative) interests.
Callahan worked at Home for nine months, and during that time he and Magruder became friends. In 1981, after five years on the road, Callahan hurried back to NEW YORK to see Magruder, who was critically ill in RIVERSIDE HOSPITAL. He had been attacked by the HITLER BROTHERS, whose intended prey had been Callahan himself. Not long after Callahan’s visit, Magruder died. However, the orderlies barely had time to change the sheets before Callahan landed in the same bed as yet another victim of the disgusting duo. V:267–68, V:271, V:272, V:279, V:280, V:281, V:282–83, V:288, V:292, V:293, V:308–9 (“Man of the Year”), V:422–27, V:430, V:436, V:441, V:442, V:445, V:449, V:591 (says George should read Rowan. Left over from earlier version of manuscript), VI:332, VI:338, VII:281 (George)
RAWLINGS, ROWENA MAGRUDER: Rowena Magruder Rawlings was Rowan Magruder’s twin sister. She flew to NEW YORK from CHICAGO once she found out that her brother had been attacked by the HITLER BROTHERS. Rowena thought that her brother had given up a literary career to help bums, and when she met Callahan, she slapped him across the face out of sheer spite. Rowan, who was conscious though silent during this interchange, was less than impressed by his sister’s behavior. V:422–26, V:436 (indirect), V:442, V:445, V:465
SPINELLI, FRANK: Frank Spinelli was one of HOME’s residents. He wanted Callahan to write him a letter of recommendation. V:272
CALLAHAN AND THE HITLER BROTHERS:
HITLER BROTHERS (NORTON RANDOLPH AND WILLIAM GARTON): The Hitler Brothers were a couple of racist thugs who attacked Jewish people and black people. Sometimes they did it for money, but most of the time they did it for fun. Their calling card was a swastika carved upon the forehead. While Callahan was traveling through the MULTIPLE AMERICAS, the Hitler Brothers attacked his former boss ROWAN MAGRUDER.
The Hitler Brothers’ real names were Norton (Nort) Randolph and William (Bill) Garton. Because of the discrepancy in their sizes, Callahan secretly renamed them George and Lennie, after the odd-sized traveling companions in Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men. However, unlike the characters in Steinbeck’s tale, it was the big Hitler Brother (six-foot-six Nort) who had all the brains. Five-foot-two Bill didn’t have any brains worth mentioning. In fact, he couldn’t even tell the difference between a crucifix and a swastika. Even more unpleasant, he became sexually aroused whenever he contemplated cutting someone up.
The Hitler Brothers were hired by the LOW MEN to find and kill Callahan. When they failed (thwarted by “MR. EX LIBRIS” CALVIN TOWER and his pal “MR. GAI COCKNIF EN YOM” AARON DEEPNEAU), they were assassinated. For once, the servants of the CRIMSON KING did the world a favor. V:265–66, V:308–9, V:424 (indirect), V:426, V:427, V:430–42, V:443, V:447–48, V:450, VI:202, VI:269
MEDICAL AND LEGAL PERSONNEL: These people had to deal with the Hitler Brothers’ victims—first ROWAN MAGRUDER and then Callahan.
DOCTORS: V:308 (Magruder), V:424, V:427
NURSES: V:427, V:442
POLICE OFFICERS: V:424, V:432, V:439, V:445
MR. EX LIBRIS (VOICE NUMBER ONE): See TOWER, CALVIN, listed separately
MR. GAI COCKNIF EN YOM (VOICE NUMBER TWO): See TET CORPORATION: FOUNDING FATHERS: DEEPNEAU, AARON
TWO YOUNG COUPLES: These two couples witnessed the Hitler Brothers dragging a vomit-covered Callahan up SECOND AVENUE. However, they didn’t realize what was really going on. V:432
CALLAHAN’S LIGHTHOUSE SHELTER ASSOCIATES:
HUCKMAN, WARD: Ward Huckman and AL McCOWAN ran the LIGHTHOUSE SHELTER in DETROIT, MICHIGAN. It was while Callahan worked for them that the LOW MEN (working for the CRIMSON KING’s company, the SOMBRA CORPORATION) finally tracked him down.
Under the pretense of awarding a million-dollar grant to Lighthouse, Sombra’s executive vice president (the evil RICHARD P. SAYRE) invited Callahan and his friends to his headquarters. Instead of awarding the money, Sayre’s cohorts knocked out Huckman and McCowan. Sayre then tried to sic his HIV-infected VAMPIRES on Callahan. Pere jumped out of the window to avoid the terrible death that had claimed his friend LUPE DELGADO. He awoke in the company of Roland’s nemesis, WALTER. V:450–55
LIGHTHOUSE CLIENTS: V:450–51
McCOWAN, AL: Al McCowan and WARD HUCKMAN ran the LIGHTHOUSE
SHELTER in DETROIT, MICHIGAN, which was Callahan’s final place of employment before the servants of the CRIMSON KING tracked him down. RICHARD P. SAYRE and his fellow LOW MEN tricked Callahan and his friends into visiting SOMBRA’s Detroit offices. The three unsuspecting men thought that they were going to receive a million-dollar grant for Lighthouse. Instead, they were greeted by the nasty servants of the Red King. McCowan and Huckman were knocked unconscious, and Callahan jumped out of the window to escape the clutches of Sayre’s VAMPIRES. Callahan didn’t exactly die; instead, he got a one-way ticket to visit WALTER in the WAY STATION, and then a transfer to CALLA BRYN STURGIS. V:450–55
AL’S MOTHER: Al’s mother always maintained that one should arrive five minutes early for an important appointment—no more, no less. Her son and his friends followed her advice for their meeting with SOMBRA, but it didn’t do them any good. V:453
SAYRE, RICHARD P.: See CAN-TOI, listed separately
CALLAHAN’S OTHER PAST ASSOCIATES:
BISHOP DUGAN: Bishop Dugan approved Father Callahan’s transfer from his LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, parish. Little did he know it, but Callahan’s restlessness was not due to urban malaise but to the malaise of the bottle. V:254
CALLAHAN, GRANDFATHER FRANK: Pere Callahan’s middle name came from this grandfather. V:108
CALLAHAN, MR.: When Callahan was a boy, his father (Mr. Callahan) discovered some of his son’s hidden Playboy magazines. He made Pere burn them in the incinerator, then pray by the foot of his bed. One can’t help but wonder whether this influenced Callahan’s decision to join the priesthood. V:254 (indirect), V:599
CALLAHAN, MRS.: Callahan’s mother bought the crucifix whose arms were broken by the VAMPIRE BARLOW. One of the reasons that Callahan finds the CAVE OF VOICES so distressing is that his mother calls to him from the pit’s deep throat, asking why he let that nasty bloodsucker break her cross. V:28, V:254 (indirect), V:259, V:264, V:280, V:465, V:591, V:599, V:619, V:624, V:708
CROWD THAT GATHERS UPON ENTRY TO 1999 NEW YORK: See HARRIGAN, REVEREND EARL, listed separately
’SALEM’S LOT CHARACTERS:
BARLOW, KURT: See VAMPIRES: TYPE ONE
BURKE, MATTHEW: On a level of the DARK TOWER not far from ours, Matthew Burke taught high school English in the town of JERUSALEM’S LOT, MAINE, a town which (as we learned in the novel ’Salem’s Lot) became infested with VAMPIRES.
Not long after becoming friends with the writer BEN MEARS, Burke invited a former student (who seemed ill) to stay overnight at his house. This student died in Matt’s spare bedroom and his body was hauled away. However, not long after this, he returned for another visit, this time as a vampire. Not surprisingly, Burke suffered a massive heart attack. Until his second heart attack (which happened in his hospital bed), Matthew Burke acted as a stable contact for Ben Mears’s (and Callahan’s) posse of vampire hunters. V:256
BUS DRIVER: After Callahan’s horrific confrontation with the VAMPIRE BARLOW, Pere boarded a bus for NEW YORK. Although it was officially against the rules to let passengers drink alcoholic beverages while riding on Greyhound, this Big Apple–bound driver bought Callahan a bottle of cheap booze. However, his motives were anything but altruistic—he earned himself a twenty-eight-dollar tip. Callahan didn’t mind the driver’s mercenary motives. He was desperate to get the taste of Barlow’s blood out of his mouth. V:262–64
CODY, DR. JAMES (JIMMY): Jimmy Cody was the doctor who helped BEN MEARS, Donald Callahan, and MARK PETRIE stand up to the VAMPIRES of ’SALEM’S LOT, MAINE. In the end, Cody didn’t succumb to the VAMPIRE BARLOW’s teeth but to his treachery. He died while trying to descend stairs that led to the cellar where Barlow was hiding. Unbeknownst to him, the stairs had been sawed away by Barlow’s vampire-servants, and Jimmy Cody was impaled upon knives inserted in the floor below.
On the flap of the original printing of ’Salem’s Lot, Callahan was accidentally called FATHER CODY. V:257, VI:208 (Father Cody)
CODY, FATHER: See CODY, DR. JAMES, listed above
COOGAN, LORETTA: Loretta Coogan worked in SPENCER’S, which was the drugstore and soda fountain of ’SALEM’S LOT. Spencer’s also doubled as the town’s bus station. V:262
FLIP, MR.: Mr. Flip was the name of the bogeyman that lived in Callahan’s childhood closet. In the novel ’Salem’s Lot, we find out that the VAMPIRE BARLOW resembled him. V:708
FOYLE, FRANKIE: When Callahan was in the seminary, Frankie Foyle gave him a blasphemous crewelwork sampler which read, “God grant me the SERENITY to accept what I cannot change, the TENACITY to change what I may, and the GOOD LUCK not to fuck up too often.” Although we learn about this gift in ’Salem’s Lot, we don’t learn Frankie Foyle’s name until Wolves of the Calla. V:708
GLICK, DANNY: Twelve-year-old Danny Glick was one of the first victims of vampirism in the town of JERUSALEM’S LOT, MAINE. (See the novel ’Salem’s Lot by STEPHEN KING.) He was also one of the Lot’s first new VAMPIRES. Danny’s initial victim was the young grave digger Mike Ryerson. On a midnight adventure several evenings later, he visited the bedroom window of his friend MARK PETRIE. Mark (well versed in horror stories) invited Danny in but then burned his cheek with a plastic crucifix from his toy graveyard. Danny’s undead flesh turned to smoke. V:257, V:265, V:299
MEARS, BEN: On another level of the DARK TOWER, Ben Mears was the author of the book Air Dance. Along with Father Callahan, JIM CODY, MARK PETRIE, and MATTHEW BURKE, Ben fought the VAMPIRES of ’SALEM’S LOT, MAINE. (See STEPHEN KING’s novel ’Salem’s Lot.) When BARLOW (a TYPE ONE VAMPIRE) turned Ben’s lover, SUSAN NORTON, into one of his own, Ben hammered a stake through her heart. (Love has many manifestations.) With the help of Mark Petrie, Ben eventually destroyed Barlow and the two of them fled to MEXICO. Later, they returned to the still-infested Lot to burn it to the ground. V:256, V:257–58, V:291, V:469–70
NORTON, SUSAN: Pretty Susan Norton was a literary fan of BEN MEARS’s before she became his girlfriend. Although lovely and wholesome, Susan did not achieve true beauty until the VAMPIRE BARLOW turned her into a vampire. At Callahan’s insistence, Ben drove a stake through her heart. V:257–58
PETRIE, MARK: Twelve-year-old Mark Petrie was one of the fearless VAMPIRE hunters of ’Salem’s Lot. Although he managed to evade the toothy hunger of his friend DANNY GLICK, Mark couldn’t save his parents from the TYPE ONE VAMPIRE BARLOW. While saving Mark from Barlow, Callahan was forced to take the vampire’s communion. Although Callahan was devastated by this, Mark escaped. He and BEN MEARS destroyed Barlow and then, after fleeing to MEXICO, returned to the LOT (’SALEM’S LOT, not the magic LOT!) to burn its remaining vampires. Years later, Callahan traveled via TODASH to LOS ZAPATOS, Mexico. There he witnessed Ben Mears’s funeral and heard Mark’s eulogy for his dear friend. V:257 (indirect), V:258–59, V:261 (boy), V:280 (family kitchen), V:469–70, VI:329, VII:11
PARENTS: V:258, V:259, V:280 (family kitchen), VI:329
STRAKER: See VAMPIRES: TYPE ONE: BARLOW, KURT
CALLAHAN, GRANDFATHER FRANK
See CALLAHAN, FATHER DONALD FRANK: CALLAHAN’S OTHER PAST ASSOCIATES
CALVINS
See TET CORPORATION
CAM TAM
See ELURIA CHARACTERS
CAMERON
See CAN-TOI
CAN CALAH
GAN speaks through the voices of the can calah, who (in our world at least) are called angels.
VI:318
CANARYMAN
See TAHEEN: BIRDMEN TAHEEN
CANDOR THE TALL
See DESCHAIN, GABRIELLE
CANFIELD, BILL
See DEBARIA CHARACTERS: JEFFERSON RANCH
CANFIELD’S TRAILMATES
See DEBARIA CHARACTERS: JEFFERSON RANCH CHARACTERS
CANNIBAL FISH OF THE FAGONARD
See FAGONARD CHARACTERS
CANTAB OF THE MANNI
See MANNI
CAN-TAH
CONSTANT READERS will recognize the can-tah (or little gods) from STEPHEN KING’s novel Desperation
. In that book, the can-tah (spelled without the hyphen) are ugly composite animals carved from stone. One is a coyote with a snake-tongue; yet another is a pitted gray spider with a coyote-head poking out just above its mandibles. In both novels, the can-tah can mesmerize, but there the similarity between the two types of carved creatures ends. In Desperation, the can-tah depict little demons, but the one SUSANNAH-MIO finds in Song of Susannah serves the WHITE and is in the form of the TURTLE GUARDIAN.
For page references, see GUARDIANS OF THE BEAM: TURTLE
CAN-TOI (LOW MEN)
The can-toi are none other than the LOW MEN who stalked TED BRAUTIGAN in “Low Men in Yellow Coats,” the opening story of Hearts in Atlantis. Although they look more or less like men (despite their outrageously loud clothes), these particular WARRIORS OF THE SCARLET EYE are actually human/TAHEEN hybrids. Like the taheen, the can-toi have hume bodies but the heads of beasts. However, while the nature of taheen heads varies (some look like birds, others like mammals), in the case of the low men, the heads are almost invariably those of louse-infested, red-haired rats with multiple rows of teeth.
The can-toi hide their rat-heads behind humanoid masks (can you blame them?), but up close, their faces are rarely that convincing. Can-toi masks are formed from a kind of living latex which cannot be manufactured but must be grown. As living things in their own right, the masks have to breathe. They do this through a red hole (which looks like a bleeding red eye) located on the forehead. These red holes usually dry up when their masters cross over to our world, which is probably a good thing. Otherwise, they’d never even begin to pass for human.
