milliways_bar | (no subject)

Ted wanders up to the bar. "A salami sandwich on rye, with swiss and mayonnaise -- and a root beer."

He takes the stool next to Eddie.

The first thing Ted notices in his peripheral vision is the gun. He'd know that grip anywhere.

Ted pales, and turns his head slightly. He recognizes Eddie instantly. But...does Eddie recognize him?

"Hello," says Ted faintly, offering Eddie a smile.

Eddie's grin flashes out like lightning. "Sai Brautigan. Say goddam! How ya doing?" Eddie's not so good at the various times thing, really.

Well. That's rather a relief.

Ted mirrors Eddie's grin. "I'm well, Mr. Dean. Very well. How are you?"

Though -- if Eddie recognizes him -- and Jake's dead --

Ted has a terrible feeling that he just put his foot in his mouth.

"A whole fuck of a lot better than anyone who got shot in the head the same week has any right to be. Suzie's here, too." Eddie grins.

"Is she, now?" Ted is still smiling. "So all of you are here. I suppose Roland's pleased by that -- especially in light of what's happened the past few weeks."

Eddie shrugs. "Well, you know Roland, he ain't happy unless he's pissed off about something."

"So how're the rest of the Breakers taking the post-devar-toi life?"

"Wouldn't know about most of them," says Ted. "If you can believe it, I'm teaching school in Calla Bryn Sturgis. Dinky and Fred Worthington are currently traveling around the Callas to the north, and Dani Rostov is living with the Jaffordses -- she and Hedda are inseparable."

He studies Eddie for a moment. "Has anything else happened here? Any change with Jake, or anything like that?"

Eddie shakes his head. "Jake's the same. Mostly. I guess Suze got a peek into his mind and he said he was winning the fight."

Eddie hesitates. "What about Sheemie?" He thinks he might know.

"Good." Ted's grinning. It's not entirely nice. Walter's a real son of a bitch.

His face falls a bit. "Sheemie's dead. He had a cut on his foot, and by the time we tended to it...it was too late. You remember what the air was like around the Devar-toi?"

Eddie frowns. "Say sorry, Ted. I figured he might've passed opening doors for Roland--but an infected foot?"

Ted nods. "It...wasn't an easy death."

A subject change is a good thing. "How long have you been here?"

"Only a couple days. Tell the truth, Suzie and I haven't spent much time outside of our room yet."

Ted is not surprised at this, but, uh, yes. Doesn't mean he needs to comment. "When's she coming from? In the...process of things, I mean."

"She's the farthest ahead of any of us. She said she was maybe two weeks away from the Tower."

"Shit," says Ted. He's eloquent sometimes.

"I suppose you were glad to see each other, then."

He's smiling.

And Eddie's grinning. "God, yes. I thought--" He looks down. "I died, right? But I was still there. I didn't lose me, the way she did. I lost everything else. And of all that everything else, she was what mattered most. It was like she died, and not me."

Ted is quiet for a very long moment.

Then he sips at his root beer.

"I'm glad for you both." Honest sincerety is in his face and voice. It's good to know that someone gets a break. Truly. And from what little he knows of their story...they deserved a break.

Eddie's never quiet, practically. "How's playin school-marm treatin you?"

Ted laughs at that. "Schoolmarm. God. That's about what it amounts to -- they've given me Callahan's house, and they turned the church into the schoolhouse, though on Sundays it's still used for worship. Rosalita does for me what she did for Callahan, and teaches a little bit every now and again. I teach them basic arithmetic and geometry, a little bit of science -- though they've gotten me beat in all matters agricultural -- and tell them stories. No books, mind, and we share slates, so teaching reading and writing is difficult -- and it's terrible trying to teach them history when they know far more than you ever will about their home. And there's certainly no point in trying to teach them Latin or anything like that. It's...another world." Ted smiles, a bit.

"It was a fight in the beginning to get some to agree that having a school would be a good thing, but in the end, it was Vaughn Eisenhart and Tian Jaffords who convinced them. I'd been working with Vaughn as best I could, and...we talked. Drank together at the end of the day, sometimes -- Rosalita's got a few sheep out there, and she'd been cooking for him sometimes since Margaret died, but the man's lonelier than you might think." And he could sympathize with gunslingers coming in and changing things, Ted thinks, but doesn't say. "So when the question came up, it was Vaughn who was the biggest advocate."

Eddie smiles sadly. "It's too bad about his wife. She was a hell of lady. I was too wrapped up in my own pain to give shit one about Eisenhart at the time, but he was a stand-up guy about it. He didn't blame us, although he threatened to beforehand."

Ted nods. "Vaughn's doing better now than he used to, but he's thrown himself into work, especially now that Slightman's gone. He hasn't gotten another foreman yet -- seems to think that working himself to death is going to help." Eddie might get the idea that Ted really doesn't approve of this.

Eddie nods thoughtfully. "Any fresh widows in the Calla? I don't remember any off the top of my head."

He shakes his head. "None that I know of -- and I don't think Vaughn'd marry again, anyhow." A quiet smile. "Did you ever hear how they met?"

"Can't say that I have." He shakes his head. He has his own doubts that Eisenhart will finish out his days alone--one of the great truths of life, he's discovered, is that broken hearts can mend--but that's ka's business.

God, Roland is really getting to him.

"She was one of Henchick's granddaughters. Left the Manni to marry Vaughn. Henchick wasn't terribly happy about this, as you might imagine, and made sure she knew it. But she loved Vaughn, and he loved her, and..." Ted shrugs. "They got married. She left all she knew for him. The kind of thing you read about, or see in the movies." Ted's got a fond smile on his face ."So no -- I don't think Vaughn'll ever marry again. After something like that..." He shakes his head. "He told me once -- we were both fairly sloshed -- that Margaret was enough for him. And I believed him, even after we both sobered up."