Stephen King's the Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance Revised and Updated (19 page)

See
CALLA BRYN STURGIS CHARACTERS
: ROONTS

CHADBOURNE

See
CALLAHAN, FATHER DONALD FRANK
: CALLAHAN’S HIDDEN HIGHWAYS ASSOCIATES

CHAMBERS, ELMER

Elmer Chambers is the father of our dear friend JAKE CHAMBERS. He is a TV network big shot who works at 70 Rockefeller Plaza. His job is to destroy other networks and he is very good at it. In fact, he is a self-proclaimed master of “The Kill.”

Elmer is five-foot-ten, and is both a chain-smoker and a coke fiend. He smokes three packs of unfiltered Camels a day and has been known to snort cocaine until his nose bleeds. His black crew cut bolts straight up from his head. Jake thinks he looks like a man who has just suffered some tremendous, galvanizing shock. Elmer is living proof of Jake’s theory that adults don’t really know any better than kids do. They just pretend to. In
Wind Through the Keyhole,
we learn that Elmer Chambers knows great swear words.

I:81, I:82, I:180, III:89–91, III:92, III:93, III:94, III:99, III:100, III:102, III:103, III:108, III:121–22, III:126, III:129–35, III:136, III:137–38, III:156–58, III:168, III:194, III:256, III:315, III:355, III:376, III:380, IV:21, IV:31, IV:32
(indirect),
IV:80
(parents),
IV:85
(parents),
IV:93, IV:655, V:40
(Jake’s parents),
V:46, V:104, V:155
(father),
V:187, V:204
(dad),
V:215, V:382, V:471, V:559
(dad),
V:561
(father),
V:565–66, V:567, V:577, V:590, V:617, V:637, V:656
(father),
V:705, VI:11, VI:32, VI:41, VI:320, VI:324, VII:7, VII:15, VII:84, VII:94, VII:95, VII:98, VII:110, VII:138
(parents),
VII:144, VII:191, VII:299, VII:310, VII:398, VII:399, VII:473, VII:535, W:21
(knows lots of great swears),
W:30
(son of Elmer)

ELMER CHAMBERS’S ASSOCIATES:

GIRL WITH BODACIOUS TA-TAS:
“Bodacious ta-tas” is Elmer Chambers’s term for a pair of really nice breasts. Hence, “a girl with bodacious ta-tas” is a young woman who is well stacked. The girl in the film
The Lost Continent
fits this description. VII:97, VII:99, VII:103–4

**CHAMBERS, JAKE (’BAMA, TOM DENBY, KID SEVENTY-SEVEN, JOHN “JAKE” CHAMBERS, JAKE TOREN, HYPERBOREAN WANDERER)

At eleven years old, John “Jake” Chambers is the youngest member of Roland’s present
ka-tet.
Jake is small for his age and (in his previous life) was often mistaken for a girl. However, his time in MID-WORLD has toughened him up.

Before being brought to Mid-World, blond, blue-eyed Jake was in the sixth grade at PIPER, his expensive private middle school. A loner, he had few friends and felt estranged from his parents, who were always too busy for him. His only close companion was GRETA SHAW, the family housekeeper. Jake spent most of his time under the care of professional people, even though he despised all professional people. At that point in his life, Jake was dangerously close to despising himself.

Unlike the other members of Roland’s
ka-tet
whom Roland “draws” into his world over the course of the second book of the Dark Tower series, Jake enters Roland’s world in
The Gunslinger.
(Unfortunately he doesn’t last very long.) Roland and Jake’s initial meeting takes place in the WAY STATION, an abandoned coach house in the MOHAINE DESERT, while Roland is pursuing the MAN IN BLACK. When Roland first discovers Jake, the boy can’t remember who he is or where he came from. However, under hypnosis Jake reveals that he entered Mid-World by dying in his own
where
and
when
, namely in NEW YORK CITY on May 9, 1977, at 8:25
AM.
Jake had been hit by a 1976 blue Cadillac (a Sedan de Ville) while standing on the corner of FIFTH AVENUE and Forty-third Street. Although Roland initially believes that Jake was pushed by the Man in Black, he later discovers that he was killed by JACK MORT, a psychopath whom we meet again in
The Drawing of the Three.

Just as Jake is the first of Roland’s American
ka-tet
to be drawn into Mid-World, he is also the first to discover Roland’s potential for treachery. While Jake and Roland pursue the Man in Black, Roland lets Jake fall into a deep river chasm below the CYCLOPEAN MOUNTAINS so that he can get closer to their quarry. As Jake falls he utters the famous line, “There are other worlds than these.” It turns out that Jake is right. There are many other worlds, and alternative Jakes exist in almost all of them. In fact, near the end of
The Drawing of the Three
Roland returns to one of these worlds in order to protect his young friend from Mort’s dire schemes. Although Roland’s motives are admirable, the consequences are dire. He creates a split in the time/space continuum, and both he and Jake end up traumatized by two conflicting sets of memories—one where Jake died and entered Mid-World, and one where he didn’t.

The next time we meet Jake is in
The Waste Lands.
At the beginning of this book, both Jake and Roland are suffering from a kind of psychosis brought on by these double memories. The psychosis is cured when Roland, with the help of his new
tet
-mates EDDIE and SUSANNAH DEAN, draws Jake into Mid-World once more. Jake’s second Mid-World birth takes place on June 1, 1977, the day after he finds both the MANHATTAN RESTAURANT OF THE MIND (where he buys
Charlie the Choo-Choo
and
Riddle-De-Dum!
) and the Vacant LOT, where he discovers the ROSE.

Although Jake’s second entry into Mid-World is not as traumatic as his first, it is still difficult. To access Roland’s world, Jake must travel to the haunted DUTCH HILL MANSION located in BROOKLYN and unlock one of the many DOORWAYS BETWEEN WORLDS which is located within it. This door is linked to one drawn by Eddie in the dirt of a SPEAKING RING located on the GREAT ROAD leading to LUD. Although each of these linked doorways is protected by a doorkeeper (on Jake’s side it is the DUTCH HILL MANSION DEMON or PLASTER-MAN, and on Roland’s it’s the sinister SPEAKING
RING DEMON), our young friend passes over and is reunited with his adopted father, Roland.

Although Jake Chambers is eleven years old when we leave him at the end of
Wizard and Glass,
by the time he reaches CALLA BRYN STURGIS in
Wolves of the Calla,
he is twelve. Exposure to the ROSE has made Jake strong in “the touch.” In fact, his psychic abilities are so formidable that when the MANNI help Roland, Jake, Eddie, and CALLAHAN to reactivate the UNFOUND DOOR at the beginning of
Song of Susannah,
HENCHICK (the Manni’s
dinh
) places Jake directly in front of the door so that he can find its psychic “hook,” or opening mechanism. In another
where
and
when,
Jake would probably have made a spectacular BREAKER.

Over the series, we watch Jake mature—a process filled with painful lessons. From Roland, he learns betrayal, but he also learns to forgive those he loves, and to accept that—although people make mistakes—they can change. In Lud (found in
The Waste Lands
) he discovers that adults can be sexually predatory, and that often the objects of their sadistic fantasies are vulnerable young boys. In
Wizard and Glass,
Jake gains insight into what Roland was like as a boy and begins to understand the forces which shaped the man he so loves into the obsessive being that Roland has become.

In the final three books of the Dark Tower series, Jake—now an accomplished gunslinger in his own right—continues to experience life’s less savory lessons. While in Calla Bryn Sturgis, Jake witnesses another adult’s betrayal (this time BEN SLIGHTMAN THE ELDER’s betrayal of an entire community) and then learns to keep secrets, both from his
tet
and from his friend BENNY SLIGHTMAN. Although no stranger to death, Jake has the distressing misfortune of having to witness the deaths of two who are dear to him. First, he sees his friend Benny blown apart by one of the WOLVES’ sneetches, and then, in
The Dark Tower,
he watches as his
ka
-brother Eddie Dean is shot in the head by PIMLI PRENTISS, the Devar Master in THUNDERCLAP.

Perhaps it is this familiarity with death, as well as his own experience of it, which makes Jake so determined to sacrifice his own life to save STEPHEN KING rather than to witness the death of his
dinh,
Roland. On SLAB CITY HILL in LOVELL, MAINE, Jake—fresh from the horrors of the DEVAR-TOI—leaps out in front of an oncoming van, grabs King around the waist, and shields the writer with his own body. Hence it is Jake who is killed, not King, though our beloved
kas-ka Gan
suffers terrible injuries anyway. Blond-haired, blue-eyed Jake dies for a third time in the KEYSTONE EARTH occupied by his maker, Stephen King. Roland buries his adopted son in the Maine woods and makes IRENE TASSENBAUM promise to plant a rosebush over his grave.

Luckily for us,
ka
is sometimes kind. At the end of
The Dark Tower,
a trail-frayed Susannah Dean leaves Mid-World through the ARTIST’S DOOR (another manifestation of the UNFOUND DOOR, but this time drawn by PATRICK DANVILLE) and finds both Jake and Eddie alive and well in yet another version of NEW YORK. Although it’s not the Keystone Earth (here they drive Takuro Spirits and drink Nozz-A-La cola), Susannah is still delighted to find herself in this snowy twinner of CENTRAL PARK. In this
where
and
when,
Eddie and Jake are brothers from WHITE PLAINS and their last name is TOREN. It seems only a matter of time before Susannah Dean becomes Susannah Toren, and that
our
ka-tet,
reunited as family, will find a strange-looking canine named OY to join them.

As CONSTANT READERS will recognize, Jake Chambers is another manifestation of the brave and talented prepubescent/adolescent hero who can be found in a number of King’s novels. In
’Salem’s Lot
the boy is MARK PETRIE; in “Low Men in Yellow Coats” (the first story of
Hearts in Atlantis
) he’s called BOBBY GARFIELD; in
Desperation
his name is David Carver; and in
It
he is the young Bill Denbrough. The boy-hero also appears in the King/Straub collaborative novel
The Talisman.
Although these boys have different appearances, personalities, and talents, they all prove that the adult world isn’t always as wise as it thinks it is. It is the young boy (or the boy who still lives within the body of the man) who tries to remain true to his quest.

In
Wind Through the Keyhole,
Roland’s American
ka-tet
plays a small role. In fact, their tale is but a frame story for the two interlinked narratives which Roland recounts during their stay in the village of GOOK, where our friends are forced to wait out the killing winds of a STARKBLAST. However, within this frame story, Jake and his pet BILLY-BUMBLER, OY, play important roles. While they are gathering wood to keep the town meetinghouse warm during the icy winds of the starkblast, Oy becomes mesmerized by the energy of the coming storm and Jake must risk his own life to carry Oy to safety. This event—and the powerful relationship between bumblers and starkblasts—is what inspires Roland to recount both his autobiographical tale about the SKIN-MAN, and the fairy tale called “The Wind Through the Keyhole,” from which the novel takes its name.

I:74–95, I:112–13, I:117–26, I:129, I:132–44, I:149–58, I:174–92, I:198
(indirect),
I:215, I:216, II:15
(as sailor),
II:31, II:32
(Isaac),
II:37, II:101, II:105, II:203, II:231, II:254, II:315–18
(and Jack Mort),
II:319, III:29–30, III:35–36, III:41–48, III:50, III:51, III:59, III:78, III:86, III:89–146
(89–102 looking for magic door),
III:149, III:151, III:152–58, III:162, III:165–70
(169 as Tom Denby),
III:172–73, III:175–76, III:176–78, III:179, III:180, III:181
(coming into Mid-World),
III:182–88, III:190–92, III:193–94
(born),
III:194–96, III:197, III:198–201, III:202, III:203–4, III:205–13, III:219–67, III:268, III:269, III:273–81, III:283–303
(294 Oy almost falls off bridge; 300 Gasher),
III:304–7, III:307–8
(Roland follows),
III:312–14, III:314–16
(Roland follows),
III:323
(indirect),
III:325–28, III:328–31
(Roland follows),
III:334–39, III:340, III:341, III:342, III:349, III:350–61, III:364, III:365–72, III:373–85
(Roland and Jake escape Grays. Run to Blaine’s cradle),
III:389, III:393–420, IV:3–10
(Blaine),
IV:13–42
(30 Edith Bunker, sex goddess; 31–35 Falls of the Hounds),
IV:44–70
(61 leave Blaine; 64 sound of thinny; 64 and 67 saw player, Central Park),
IV:71–112
(Topeka train station; 72–77
Topeka Capital Journal
; 83 reflects on Forty-Sixth and Second; 86–87 roses; 87–89 Charlie the Choo-Choo in Topeka; 91 sign of Crimson King; 95 enters thinny; 97 Oz palace in distance; 106–12 Roland begins story),
IV:335–37
(interlude in Kansas),
IV:414, IV:570 and 572
(Roland’s vision),
IV:615–25
(end of Roland’s story; back in Topeka),
IV:626–68
(626 ruby Oxfords; 632 Green Palace; 634 gate like Wizard’s Rainbow; 646 Tick-Tock; 648 Flagg; 652 Roland’s matricide),
V:8
(strangers from Out-World),
V:29–31
(gunslingers),
V:35, V:36, V:38–47, V:48–70
(visits New York via
todash
),
V:77, V:78, V:80, V:81, V:84, V:87, V:88–119, V:121, V:123–37, V:138, V:142–60, V:162, V:163, V:165,
V:167–69, V:176–85, V:187–98, V:201–34, V:235, V:238, V:239, V:241, V:246, V:249, V:257, V:258, V:266, V:291, V:294, V:302, V:313, V:318–24, V:325, V:328, V:329, V:330, V:332–34
(watches Margaret Eisenhart throw),
V:340, V:341, V:371–76
(following Mia),
V:378, V:380–87, V:388–406, V:408
(indirect),
V:412
(
ka-tet
mate),
V:417–19, V:420, V:421–23, V:428–30, V:437–38, V:442–45, V:448–49, V:452–54, V:457, V:460, V:461, V:462
(indirect),
V:466–72, V:476, V:479, V:480, V:485, V:487, V:488–96, V:496–505, V:506, V:511, V:514, V:519, V:534, V:552, V:553–80, V:581–90, V:592
(indirect),
V:601–17, V:621, V:636–39, V:641–44, V:652–53, V:656–57, V:659, V:660, V:661, V:662–73, V:675–76, V:678, V:679–705, VI:3–8, VI:10, VI:11–43, VI:64, VI:67, VI:68, VI:71, VI:79, VI:84, VI:85, VI:107, VI:121, VI:130, VI:143, VI:147, VI:199, VI:200, VI:205, VI:210, VI:216, VI:222, VI:224–25, VI:231, VI:247, VI:268, VI:284, VI:285, VI:288, VI:290, VI:298, VI:299, VI:302, VI:303
(kid),
VI:307–44, VI:360, VI:389, VI:391, VI:399, VI:400, VI:402, VII:3–11, VII:13, VII:14, VII:15, VII:19, VII:23, VII:24–28, VII:34, VII:36, VII:52, VII:59, VII:61, VII:63, VII:72, VII:78, VII:80, VII:81–104
(100 changes places with Oy!),
VII:104–5, VII:106
(snot-babby),
VII:107
(brat),
VII:108
(snot-babby),
VII:109–12, VII:114, VII:126, VII:129, VII:134
(snot-babby),
VII:136–38, VII:141–59, VII:164–65, VII:168, VII:169, VII:173, VII:177, VII:186
(
ka-tet
),
VII:187, VII:188, VII:189–220, VII:247–61, VII:262
(indirect),
VII:265–73, VII:276
(indirect),
VII:279–324
(279–302 listening to Ted’s story),
VII:325, VII:329–42, VII:350, VII:351–52, VII:362–63, VII:368–70, VII:378–85, VII:387–418, VII:421–33, VII:441–43, VII:444–45, VII:448, VII:449–67
(dies),
VII:470, VII:472–75
(a rose to be planted on his grave),
VII:476, VII:477, VII:478, VII:485, VII:487, VII:503, VII:509, VII:510, VII:520, VII:523, VII:525, VII:526, VII:527, VII:528, VII:532, VII:533, VII:534–35, VII:538, VII:541, VII:542–43, VII:544, VII:549, VII:554–56, VII:559, VII:585, VII:630, VII:633, VII:643, VII:645–46, VII:649, VII:657, VII:662, VII:670, VII:697, VII:724–25, VII:727, VII:728, VII:729, VII:731, VII:733, VII:740, VII:744, VII:746, VII:747, VII:748, VII:758, VII:762, VII:769, VII:785, VII:797, VII:802, VII:809, VII:812–13, VII:818, VII:819, W:3–31, W:303–7