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May. 3rd, 2005 05:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lastgunslingerThe Horn of Eld sits on the writing desk. Roland is sitting on the bed with a white box in his hands.
On the cover of the box is Joe.
He'd watched the movie last week -- watched Joe cut nooses, watched as Tuco came close to hanging Joe with the bounty hunter escaping only because of a lucky cannon blast. He'd watched Tuco drive Joe through the desert, watched Joe watch Tuco as the other man fought with his brother. Watched Joe offer Tuco a cigar.
Roland had smiled at that.
He'd watched impassively as Joe and Tuco were taken prisoner, as Angel Eyes had Tuco beaten, as Joe and Angel Eyes rode out of the camp. He had seen Joe with a kitten in his hat, and he had watched Joe blow up a bridge. He had watched Tuco run around a graveyard, and when the music accompanying the scene had lapsed into chimes, Roland had reached for the remote and paused the movie, waiting for his heart to stop pounding -- the chimes in the movie weren't the kammen, the todash shimes, but they were too close.
He'd watched Joe shoot Angel Eyes and come close to hanging Tuco, only to cut Tuco's noose at the last moment, riding away with Tuco's shouts in his ear -- "You know what you are? You're just a dirty son of a bitch!"
Roland, sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at Joe's picture on the white box, knows it's true. It's why he misses Joe now, especially -- few people would have understood Roland's actions that evening as Joe would have. Maybe not approved -- but Joe would have understood, without pressing for more than Roland was willing to say.
But Joe is gone.
Roland puts the white box on his desk next to the
(don't lose the)
horn. Then he sleeps.
And he dreams.
Trailing someone through the desert, as he had done once for -- months? Years? A moonlit desert, now; he walks on, trying to ignore the cold. Eventually the sun rises, and Roland crests a hill to see a great cemetery in a valley, graves radiating up the hills. In the plaza in the center, there is a gallows...and someone who is about to be hung.
Roland begins to run, for the figure with the noose around his neck is a man wearing a green serape. He reaches down to draw his gun, to save Joe as Joe saved Tuco, meaning to do the cutting...but his gun is gone, and by the time he reaches the gallows Tuco -- Tuco -- has already hanged Joe.
And now Tuco draws a gun out of his pocket, a gun that still hangs from his neck by a rawhide loop -- but it's Roland's gun in Tuco's hand. Tuco cocks the hammer and aims at Roland.
Joe's body twists and turns in the wind.
"Two kinds of people in this world, Roland." Tuco is laughing, tittering -- but now Roland can't tell if it's Tuco about to kill him with his own gun, or Walter o' Dim. "Those who can go home again -- and those who are damned." Tuco-Walter giggles. "You, my friend, are damned."
He pulls the trigger, and Roland is --
-- sitting straight up in bed, breathing hard, looking around wildly, making sure that the only ghosts in the room are the ones in his own mind.
After a moment he throws off the bedclothes and rises. He picks up his Hanzo sword and goes out to the lake. The moon is still up. There's enough light to work.
On the cover of the box is Joe.
He'd watched the movie last week -- watched Joe cut nooses, watched as Tuco came close to hanging Joe with the bounty hunter escaping only because of a lucky cannon blast. He'd watched Tuco drive Joe through the desert, watched Joe watch Tuco as the other man fought with his brother. Watched Joe offer Tuco a cigar.
Roland had smiled at that.
He'd watched impassively as Joe and Tuco were taken prisoner, as Angel Eyes had Tuco beaten, as Joe and Angel Eyes rode out of the camp. He had seen Joe with a kitten in his hat, and he had watched Joe blow up a bridge. He had watched Tuco run around a graveyard, and when the music accompanying the scene had lapsed into chimes, Roland had reached for the remote and paused the movie, waiting for his heart to stop pounding -- the chimes in the movie weren't the kammen, the todash shimes, but they were too close.
He'd watched Joe shoot Angel Eyes and come close to hanging Tuco, only to cut Tuco's noose at the last moment, riding away with Tuco's shouts in his ear -- "You know what you are? You're just a dirty son of a bitch!"
Roland, sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at Joe's picture on the white box, knows it's true. It's why he misses Joe now, especially -- few people would have understood Roland's actions that evening as Joe would have. Maybe not approved -- but Joe would have understood, without pressing for more than Roland was willing to say.
But Joe is gone.
Roland puts the white box on his desk next to the
(don't lose the)
horn. Then he sleeps.
And he dreams.
Trailing someone through the desert, as he had done once for -- months? Years? A moonlit desert, now; he walks on, trying to ignore the cold. Eventually the sun rises, and Roland crests a hill to see a great cemetery in a valley, graves radiating up the hills. In the plaza in the center, there is a gallows...and someone who is about to be hung.
Roland begins to run, for the figure with the noose around his neck is a man wearing a green serape. He reaches down to draw his gun, to save Joe as Joe saved Tuco, meaning to do the cutting...but his gun is gone, and by the time he reaches the gallows Tuco -- Tuco -- has already hanged Joe.
And now Tuco draws a gun out of his pocket, a gun that still hangs from his neck by a rawhide loop -- but it's Roland's gun in Tuco's hand. Tuco cocks the hammer and aims at Roland.
Joe's body twists and turns in the wind.
"Two kinds of people in this world, Roland." Tuco is laughing, tittering -- but now Roland can't tell if it's Tuco about to kill him with his own gun, or Walter o' Dim. "Those who can go home again -- and those who are damned." Tuco-Walter giggles. "You, my friend, are damned."
He pulls the trigger, and Roland is --
-- sitting straight up in bed, breathing hard, looking around wildly, making sure that the only ghosts in the room are the ones in his own mind.
After a moment he throws off the bedclothes and rises. He picks up his Hanzo sword and goes out to the lake. The moon is still up. There's enough light to work.
