House of Cards....

So I guess it shouldn't be such a surprise to meet him having a small meal with some fellow authors who'd been on a restful retreat and got caught here by the Event...... 

However, what is of more interest to me than of this man is the thing that he's creating as he idly chatters with his mealmates. This thing, I fell, will prove to be....important. 

I listen with half an ear as King regales his other fellow authors about some book called "The Gunslinger" (I smile a bit at that, recognizing the story must relate to me somehow) about one part where a "gangster" (whatever that is) leader had this habit of building huge houses of cards. King lays down another set of cards, as if to illustrate. He does this to calm the rather frazzled nerves of the others. Odd, considering that in his vocation it usually entails he set's other's nerves on edge....since horror writers write horror after all. However King, I see, isn't in the "horror" mode right now. Frankly, what with recent events (mad, insane, recent events)..... he knew that his fellow friends needed their minds put at ease somehow. So, they were "talking shop" as it were.

 I and Jake look at each other in surprise at what next they say. Then I mentally kick myself, having to remind myself just who this person is.....
 
 

Jared Cofflin, who'd suggested this restaurant (and escorted the Gunslinger to quietly give assurance to nervous Nantucket citizens that the Gunslinger's guns were safe) ....is wondering whether or not this had been such a hot idea after all. He'd wanted to talk with Ian Arnstien before finally having Roland meet King.....to ease the shock..... Apparently, Ian's "author meet" was today.
 
 

"Shit," he mutters, bowing to the inevitable.
 
 

He and the others then wait, hoping for an opening......
 
 

"Then of course the cards soon collapsed....but sometimes, briefly....one could perhaps see a glimpse into the answer to the universe.....all of them," King pauses, looking back at his audience, "Of course, it goes without saying that it was a bit of the Dark Tower touching the normal world.....but......" 

"Ah yes, always making the eldritch jump out from the normal," an older, grey haired gentleman says, "You always were VERY good at that. New York top ten good."
 
 

"Thanks Piers," King replies, "That Xanth series wasn't too bad, either. And your book of horror you did, Dragonfly wasn't too bad at all."
 
 

King had gone so far, after reading it, giving a glowing praise on the book's jacket......
 
 

"Yes, about that....." Piers Anthony sighs, sipping at his drink. "I had the weirdest set of dream.....where Xanth actually got cut off from Mundania......Earth, and Jenny met a bunch of versions of herself....then went to some....'parallel' Earth called Terra Prime in search for her mother."
 
 

It had been rather disjointed, but parts had rather stood out.....
 
 

King and the others look at him oddly.
 
 

"Eh, did you say....Terra Prime?" a woman blinks, "Had a strange one myself last night. One where Rayek, you know about him in Elfquest, the story I draw, right? Well, some shadowy figure....that I know called Flagg whispered into his lover's ear, Winnowill (nasty character, that one), so that she'd urge Rayek on at a critical moment just when the High Ones were arriving...... Well, he merged his older version of the Palace with the new version that the High Ones, the foreparents of the Wolfrider elf tribe and other elves...... And that universe died....."
 
 

Wendy Pini shivered, remembering it in her mind.
 
 

"Two objects can't exist in the same place at the same time," whispers her husband, remembering his own dreams, "Throw in a bit of time travel paradox.....
 
 

Richard Pini, the husband part of the husband/wife team making up the creative force behind Elfquest (an independent black and white comic book) continues on as if in a dream.
 
 

"But somehow...some type of strangers from some world called Terra....not necessarily Terra Prime created some type of shield that allowed the elves to survive.....to be reincarnated on Terra Prime!" he says softly, "On their eighth birthday they remembered who'd they'd been....and Jenny Elf found her family: Clearbrook One-Eye, and Scouter."
 
 

It had all be jumbled, and not everything made sense, but Richard Pini remembered that much.
 
 

"Hey, I keep telling you that Jenny never was an official part of the Wolfrider tribe in my story," Wendy suddenly says sharply, looking over at Richard, "You sound like that one guy who kept calling and calling....wanting to know when that second graphic adaptation of Isle of View would be finished. Even wrote a few letters, asking about a possible relationship between Jenny and Scouter."
 
 

She snaps her fingers, trying to remember, then nods and says the name when it comes to her.
 
 

"He wrote me as well," Piers nods, putting odd feelings to the side for a moment, "Funny, though. He never kept pestering me about it after I wrote an answering letter to most of his questions......
 
 

Piers suddenly recognizes that name (being rather unique). It was the same young man who suggested a means of Jenny Elf getting back home, if she felt the need to leave Xanth......
 
 

"Eh, you did answer his letters?" Piers suddenly asks, looking over at Wendy.
 
 

"You know that I'm a busy woman," she says, "Can't answer every......"
 
 

Piers just stops her with a small shake of the head and a smile. He answered all fanmail, and Wendy knew it. Besides, the guy only had wanted a simple answer that should have been routine business for a publishing company such as which Wendy and Richard Pini (founders of WaRP graphics) had here. Just good business and good PR, as it were......
 
 

"Maybe you should have......instead of just ignoring him?" Arnstien mutters, under his breath, "Guy strikes me as being.....rather dogged in his pursuits. And somebody who hates to be ignored or slighted....."
 
 

Point in fact, it had finally been a rather exasperated phonecall left on an answering machine telling that there would indeed be no second graphic novel that finally got this fellow to stop. After several months of what he hoped had been polite phonecalls and letters.....with questions.
 
 

That wasn't important right now....
 
 

"Funny you should mention Terra Prime," Queen Astra says from the side, interrupting.
 
 

The authors turn at the sound (finally noting beforehand the rather hushed and surprised expressions of the other patrons.... Some who'd been stunned into silence at the sight of Queen Astra's nonhuman members). Some had already seen, and gotten used to (somehow) to the elfin children that had come earlier to Nantucket (incredibly cute....and already having been adopted by human parents for some reason).....but note the Gunslinger....and know....KNOW that their's gonna be a big surprise for at least one of these literary folks (with everything else going about, why not Roland the Gunslinger)!! Nerves are frayed and people are nervous, though they attempt to go about their business as best they can (beats running through the streets, screaming madly) in these strange times....hoping soon for a chance at answers. Should be fun.....and maybe, FINALLY, some F***ing answers to all this madness! So all watch and wait.....

 King turns....and his jaw drops when his eyes fall upon Roland! The cards he'd been holding fall out of his hands, numbly and he steps back in surprise, bumping the table with the house of cards. 

The next thing that happens is rather surprising to all, and some even shout in surprise as the cards dropped by King....instead of hitting the ground, begin to fly around the room like angry bees! King waves his arms as if to ward them off, then all pause in shock as the cards fly to the still standing house of cards.......and build a cardboard edifice that seems to defy gravity......reaching for the ceiling! And somehow, King had a funny feeling that this house of cards couldn't....wouldn't be blown down by a mere breath of wind......or even a thermonuclear blast! Somehow, he knew.......but that wasn't how Balazar's house of cards had acted in the book, which was in reality a representation of......
 
 

"The Tower!" Roland whispered fiercely, eyes alight in ecstasy, "It's a sign of the Tower!"
 
 

The whole room started at the apparition in awe for several long minutes, then two of them turn to each other when the spell finally passes and it dawns on some.....that the house isn't going to fall any time soon (some brave souls even try, later, to topple the house of cards....only to find it.....rather unyielding (even without a table underneath it)!
 
 

Roland's more practical nature finally overcomes what could be called religious awe (chiding himself that after meeting those OF the Dark Tower....that this Sign is a small thing in comparison)....and taps a stunned King on the shoulder (who feels as stunned and shocked as the day he got clipped by that van a bit ago)!
 
 

1. "I....would have a word with you," Roland says in a tone that was a command, not a request. 

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