Long Days And Pleasant Nights (Entry #4)

8–10–16 8:38 pm

When we last left off Roland and Jake were well stocked with supplies and heading into the desert away from the way station. That did not last long. Next we see of them they are pretty much at the edge of the desert and really closing in on the man in black. Unfortunately, they are also almost out of both food and water.

Our duo is traveling through the desert when all of a sudden Jake collapses. He is exhausted. The gunslinger gets him to drink some of their remaining water, though Jake resists the urge at first because it isn’t time to drink yet. Roland decides that every day from then on they will take a quick break at this time. While on the break we get treated to another flashback.

This flashback is to Roland’s childhood. Roland is training to become a gunslinger with his friend Cuthbert. Their trainers name is Cort and he is a complete dick! Cuthbert has a hawk that is basically his weapon of choice. This hawk, named David, is leashed to Cuthbert via little thong of leather. At the beginning of this flashback Cort is testing Cuthbert and David’s skill by releasing a dove into the air so that Cuthbert has to release David in time for the hawk to be able to catch and kill the dove. When releasing the hawk from his leash Cuthbert is a little too slow and David stumbles a little bit in the air but corrects himself and gets to his target with plenty time. Cort is not happy about this and as soon as Cuthbert turns to face him he is punched on the side of the head by Cort, causing his ear to begin bleeding. Cort ends the day of training by telling Cuthbert that he may not have dinner that night or breakfast the next morning as a form of punishment.

Roland tells Cuthbert that Cook will give him some food even though Cuthbert is supposed to be starving himself. They go to Cook, named Hax, and get some food. As they are eating Hax is told that one of the guards needs to speak to him. Hax tells the boys to leave him and eat in secret somewhere else. Roland and Cuthbert find some stairs to hide under while they finish their meals. While under the stairs they overhear Hax and a guard talking about a man named Farson. Farson, also known as The Good Man is planning something terrible and evidently Hax is in on it.

This next part was really confusing reading it. I’m not sure why but I had to read it twice to understand exactly what was happening. Evidently this “good man” wants to kill all the children in a neighboring town called Taunton. This is weird too because of what Stephen King said in the intro to this edition of the book. Evidently this version had been edited after the next few had been published to fit more with the story. Speaking of these edits, King said that the town was originally called Farson and he went through and changed that to the name of the good man. I’m not sure how it really played out originally but I’d like to read the unedited first edition of this book to see what kind of changes were made.

Anyway, Farson wants to kill everyone in Taunton, not just the children, but it is mentioned that the children are a big target for him. The way he plans on killing this town is having Hax deliver poisoned meat. The guard tells Hax that the meat will kill the victims by just making them fall into a deep sleep that they never awaken from, but Roland doesn’t seem to believe that to be the truth.

That night Roland tells his father, Stephen Deschain (now we finally have a last name for our protagonist!!) about the conversation he and Cuthbert overheard. Stephen is a gunslinger so basically he is the law of the town. Stephen asks his son how hearing this made him feel and Roland tells him that he almost killed Hax and the guard right then and there, but knew better than to take the law into his own hands. Stephen told Roland that the cook would hang for his treason the next morning.

Roland and Cuthbert had to go to Cort the next morning with notes from both of their fathers excusing them from Morning Exercises. Cort read these notes and then took a loaf of bread, broke it in half, and hand a half to each of the boys. Cort told them that once the cook was hanged they needed to sprinkle to bread beneath his feet.

Roland and Cuthbert made their way to the gallows where Hax would be hanged. They were the first to arrive, hours before anyone else showed up. There were already lots of crows in the area and Roland then realized what the bread was for.

After waiting for two hours people began to show up. This was like a whole town event where everyone came and observed the latest hanging. People showed up with their whole families and brought food and basically had picnics all the while waiting to see someone killed.

Hax is finally led in with a bag over his head by another gunslinger of the town. It is explained that all the gunslingers draw stones and whoever draws the black stone gets to be the executioner. Roland is very thankful that his father didn’t draw the black stone.

The executioner gets the noose around the cook’s neck and asks if he’d like to confess, but Hax says he has done nothing wrong and says he has nothing to confess. Hax begins talking about the good man when the executioner pulls the lever releasing the bottom of the gallows and the cook hangs.

Roland and Cuthbert wait for the crowd of people to finally leave and then they go beneath the gallows where the cook is still hanging. Crows and rooks have already began to gather and pick at the body but after the boys spread their bread thousands of birds show up and begin devouring what remains of the cook.

Before this flashback is completed it is mentioned that it was five more years before Farson (also known as Marten, the good man, and the man in black) took over the town. It is said that by that time Roland had become a gunslinger his father had died and Roland had become a matricide, which I had to look up and found out that a matricide is someone who killed their own mother. If I remember correctly all this is explained in full detail in the fourth book of this series, which is the longest instance of foreshadowing I’ve ever read.

When we cut back to the present, Roland and Jake are in the foothills on the outside of the mountains that are at the edge of the desert. Jake tells the gunslinger to look into the mountains and they see the man in black far off, but much closer than the gunslinger has ever been to him since he has began his quest.

That’s gonna do it for this entry, so, Constant Reader, we’ll see you next time. May you have long days and pleasant nights.