Category Archives: Only in speech

Title: The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
Author(s): Stephen King
Release year: 2003
Publisher: Donald M. Grant

Why in Database: The fifth book in the Dark Tower series, it has some turtle references.

The first mentions are in the summary of the books so far:

The Waste Lands, subtitled REDEMPTION, begins with a paradox: to Roland, Jake seems both alive and dead. In the New York of the late 1970s, Jake Chambers is haunted by the same question: alive or dead? Which is he? After killing a gigantic bear named either Mir (so called by the old people who went in fear of it) or Shardik (by the Great Old Ones who built it), Roland, Eddie, and Susannah backtrack the beast and discover the Path of the Beam known as Shardik to Maturin, Bear to Turtle. There were once six of these Beams, running between the twelve portals which mark the edges of Mid-World. At the point where the Beams cross, at the center of Roland’s world (and all worlds), stands the Dark Tower, the nexus of all where and when.
By now Eddie and Susannah are no longer prisoners in Roland’s world. In love and well on the way to becoming gunslingers themselves, they are full participants in the quest and follow Roland, the last seppe-sai (death-seller), along the Path of Shardik, the Way of Maturin.

Another mention is the inscription on the poster:

Mills construction AND SOMBRA REAL ESTATE ASSOCIATES ARE CONTINUING TO REMAKE THE
FACE OF MANHATTAN. And then, COMING SOON, TURTLE BAY LUXURY CONDOMINIUMS.

In the next fragment we have three geographical references:

You may be right about the building’s not meaning anything,” Susannah said, ”but that Turtle Bay name has a certain resonance, wouldn’t you say?” She looked at the gunslinger. ”That part of Manhattan is called Turtle Bay, Roland.”
He nodded, unsurprised. The Turtle was one of the twelve Guardians, and almost certainly stood at the far end of the Beam upon which they now traveled.
”The people from Mills Construction might not know about the rose,” Jake said, ”but I bet the ones from Sombra Corporation do.” His hand stole into Oy’s fur, which was thick enough at the billy-bumbler’s neck to make his fingers disappear entirely. ”I think that somewhere in New York City—in some business building, probably in Turtle Bay on the East Side— there’s a door marked sombra corporation. And someplace behind that door there’s another door. The kind that takes you here.”

One more geographic reference:

And every year he tells himself the bookstore’ll turn around. Catch on, maybe, the way things in New York sometimes do. Get out of the red and into the black and then he’ll be okay. And finally there’s only one thing left to sell: lot two-ninety-eight on Block Nineteen in Turtle Bay.”

The next piece tells about the voice of the turtle (Maturin):

Jake took over. ”Tom and Jerry’s Artistic Deli goes out of business, and Tower has it torn down. Because part of him wants to sell the lot. That part of him says he’d be crazy not to.” Jake fell silent for a moment, thinking about how some thoughts came in the middle of the night. Crazy thoughts, crazy ideas, and voices that wouldn’t shut up. ”But there’s another part of him, another voice—”
”The voice of the Turtle,” Susannah put in quietly.
”Yes, the Turtle or the Beam,” Jake agreed. ”They’re probably the same thing. And this voice tells him he has to hold onto it at all costs.” He looked at Eddie. ”Do you think he knows about the rose? Do you think he goes down there sometimes and looks at it?”

The next two fragments mentions a turtle-like cloud:

Roland looked up. And yes, it was there. He saw it, too. But he also saw a cloud like a turtle, and another hole in the thinning dreck that looked like a gunnywagon.

Eddie grasped a handful of duff, scooping up fragrant needles and leaving five black marks in the shape of a hand on the forest floor. ”Real,” he said. ”I can feel it and smell it.” He put the handful of needles to his mouth and ran out his tongue to touch them. ”I can taste it. And at the same time, it’s as unreal as a nineteen you might see in the fire, or that cloud in the sky that looks like a turtle. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

The next fragment is a reminder of an important saying in this series:

”That’s not the same,” he said, pointing at a graffito in dusky pink. ”It’s the same color, and the printing looks like the same person did it, but when I was here before, it was a poem about the Turtle. ‘See the TURTLE of enormous girth, on his shell he holds the earth.’ And then something about following the Beam.”

The next passage is again a geographical reference:

This sign was still standing. Roland and Eddie turned to read it. Although neither of them had seen it before, they both felt a strong sense of deja vu, nonetheless.
MILLS CONSTRUCTION AND SOMBRA REAL ESTATE ASSOCIATES ARE CONTINUING TO REMAKE THE FACE OF MANHATTAN!
COMING SOON TO THIS LOCATION:
TURTLE BAY LUXURY CONDOMINIUMS!
CALL 661-6712 FOR INFORMATION!
YOU WILL BE SO GLAD YOU DID!

The next three fragments are again a geographical name:

The door opens. George/Nort shoves Callahan through it. The storefront is nothing but a dusty shadowbox smelling of bleach, soap, and starch. Thick wires and pipes stick out of two walls. He can see cleaner squares on the walls where coin-op washing machines and dryers once stood. On the floor is a sign he can just barely read in the dimness: TURTLE BAY WASHATERIA U WASH OR WE WASH EITHER WAY IT ALL COMES KLEEN!”

Why, instead of finding one dead man in the Turtle Bay Washateria, whoever happened in there first would have found three.

”Because it’s supposed to be here,” Tower said. ”It’s always been here. Perhaps waiting for you, or someone like you. Once, Mr. Dean, my family owned almost all of Turtle Bay, and… well, wait. Will you wait?”

Last turtle appearance is a comparison:

Now he was too aware. What he was aware of most was that right now they were as helpless and vulnerable as a turtle without its shell.

Author: XYuriTT