The Way Station

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Originally published in 'The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction' in April 1980, 'The Way Station' now is chapter two of 'The Dark Tower I – The Gunslinger' by Stephen King.

At a way station in the desert the gunslinger has to cross to get at the man in black, Roland Deschain meets Jake Chambers for the first time. Under hypnosis, the boy remembers that he has recently been killed in his own world, the New York of 1977, which creates a first link of Roland's world to ours.

Later, it's Roland's turn to remember – he flashes back to a training session under the severe regiment of their teacher Cort, who shows them how to use a hawk as a weapon. Afterwards, Roland and one of his best friends Cuthbert expose the cook Hax as a traitor working for the 'good man' and send him to the gallows. The boys' witnessing his execution is one step away from childhood to manhood.

In the desert, Roland discovers a demon in the cellar of the way station, a demon speaking to him from a hidden skeleton. On impulse, Roland takes along its jawbone, which he will have to use later in the book.