The Dark Tower Companion: A Guide to Stephen King’s Epic Fantasy (67 page)

S
LIDELL
, P
OKEY
(5)

The oldest of the four people from Calla Bryn Sturgis who confronted the Wolves when his best friend Jamie Jaffords was nineteen. Slidell lost a brother and a young son to the Wolves. He was killed by a sneetch.

S
LIGHTMAN
, B
EN
(5, 6, 7)

Foreman of Vaughn Eisenhart's ranch. He's about forty-five years old. His daughter died when she was ten, which makes his son, Benny, particularly vulnerable to the Wolves. Andy exploits this to turn Slightman into a spy, rewarding him with gifts like glasses and a record player.

S
LIGHTMAN
, B
ENNY
(5, 6, 7)

Fourteen-year-old son of Ben Slightman, the foreman of Vaughn Eisenhart's ranch. He is unusual in Calla Bryn Sturgis in that his sister died of pneumonia when he was ten. He becomes a good friend to Jake. Though he's a couple of years older, he's younger in a lot of ways. He is open to fun, but willing to work hard when necessary. He proves his bravery during the battle with the Wolves, but is killed by a sneetch after Margaret Eisenhart is beheaded next to him.

S
LOW
M
UTANTS
(T
HROUGHOUT
)

Victims of the weapons, wars and experiments of the Great Old Ones. Also known as the green folk because of the color of their skin. They were mutated by the long-term effects of the Great Poisoning. Jake and Roland encounter a group in the mountains while pursuing the man in black. They move into Gilead after its fall. They are marauders in Eluria, ambushing caravans for the wagons and their contents. Roland heard of one tribe that prays to Big Sky Daddy. A desert tribe called the Total Hogs once had the blue glass from the Wizard's Rainbow, but they lost it. Not all are dangerous—the mudmen Tim Ross encounters in the Fagonard Swamp help him on his quest.

S
MACK
, A
RDELIA
(W
IDOW
) (4.5)

Teacher of reading and mathematics in Tree Village. She is smart and takes no guff from her students, who usually come to love her. Formerly a great lady in the Barony Estates, she wears a veil to cover the damage to her face caused by blood sores from a degenerative disease. Prone to fugues, shakes and migraines. She gives Tim Ross her late brother's pistol, which proves
valuable on his quest, along with food and other items. Bern Kells murders her after she watches over Nell Ross during the starkblast.

S
MASHER
(L)

One of the slow mutants in Eluria. He gives Roland's guns to Sister Mary.

S
NIP
(4.5)

A pokie who works at the Jefferson Ranch and survives the skin-man attack because he was out rounding up strays with Arn and Canfield.

S
OONY
(4)

The former owner of the hut in the Bad Grass where Roland and Susan Delgado meet. He painted the door red after a religious conversion and went off to join the Manni.

S
PANKERMAN
(3, 4)

Leader of the Pubes until he drew the black rock in their lottery and was executed.

S
PEAKING
D
EMON
(1, 3, 6, M)

A demon that can be compelled to prophesize. They often live in Speaking Circles.

S
PLINTER
H
ARRY
“O
LD
S
PLINT
” (4.5)

An old man who works part-time in the Destry sawmill in Tree Village. He's prone to babbling nonsense that he claims is High Speech and loves nothing more than talking about gunslingers. Tim Ross uses what he learns from him to greet the mudmen in Fagonard Swamp.

S
TOCKWORTH
, R
ICHARD
(4, 7, M)

Alain Johns's alias in Mejis. He is supposedly a rancher's son.

S
TOKES
, D
USTIN
“H
OT
” (4.5)

Blacksmith in Tree Village who also serves as the undertaker and funeral director.

S
TOUTHEART
, T
IM
(4.5)

See Timothy Ross.

S
TRAW
(7)

One of the low men present during Mia's birth. The first person Susannah kills after she gets Scowther's gun. She then relieves him of his Walther PPK and half a dozen extra clips.

S
TREETER
, B
ILL
(4.5)

Bunkhouse cook at the Jefferson Ranch in Debaria. The skin-man killed him beside his stove with his bloodstained apron thrown over his face like a shroud.

S
TREETER
, Y
OUNG
B
ILL
(4.5)

A thin boy, eleven years old, son of the cook at the Jefferson Ranch. He took care of the bunks, bedrolls and saddles for the proddies. He was also responsible for setting the gate at the end of the day. He survives the skin-man attack because he's camping on the advice of his father. It was a way of evading Elrod Nutter, who tormented him. Roland consoles the boy by feeding him candy and telling him the tale of “The Wind Through the Keyhole.” He identifies the skin-walker from among the salties brought back from the mines. Roland leaves him in the care of Everlynne of Serenity.

S
TRONG
, G
ARRETT
(5)

A smallholder in Calla Bryn Sturgis with a pug-dog face and a receding hairline. He has only one farmhand, named Rossiter.

S
TROTHER
(4.5)

One of two not-so-good deputies in Debaria. A fat man who wears a black hat with a gaudy rattlesnake band.

S
TUTTERING
B
ILL
(7)

An Asimov robot stationed at Federal Outpost 19 on Tower Road. His jobs include keeping the roads plowed, cleaning houses, maintaining generators and delivering supplies to residents of Westring. He can also provide minor medical attention. Official designation:
William, D-746541-M, Maintenance Robot. Many Other Functions
. A fried circuit makes him stutter, but he is able to fix this when Roland suggests he do so. He's at least eight feet tall and resembles Nigel from the Fedic Dogan. He has rudimentary emotions. He assembles a new cart for Roland to haul his supplies and an electric golf cart for Susannah to ride.

Crossover to Other Works:
Bill Denborough in
It
is known as Stutterin' Bill.

T
AHEEN
(1, 5, 6, 7, M)

Sometimes known as the third people. They have the heads of animals or birds, and human-shaped bodies. Creatures neither of the Prim nor of the natural world, but misbegotten things from somewhere between the two. Low men are hybrids of taheen and humans. The taheen have no interest in becoming human and consider humes to be an inferior race, so they generally remain in Mid-World. They speak perfect English and some have limited psychic abilities. They are also immune to mind reading. Their sharp vision suits them for working in the guard towers at Algul Siento. They are less susceptible to dermatological problems caused by the poison air of Thunderclap, but even minor wounds are prone to potentially lethal infections. They consider mucous and pus to be sweet delicacies.

T
AMRA
(L, M)

One of the Little Sisters of Eluria. A lovely lass of one and twenty, according to Sister Mary, though she perhaps means a hundred and twenty years old instead of twenty-one. Even in disguise she looks like a thirty-year-old matron. In the Marvel comics, she is called Tamara.

T
ASLEY
, H
OWARD
(4.5)

Constable of Tree. Every time the Covenant Man comes, he finds some reason to make himself scarce from the village. Sometimes he goes hunting, or up to Tavares, where he has a woman.

T
ASSA OF
S
ONESH
(7)

Pimli Prentiss's houseboy at Algul Siento. A willowy young man who wears lipstick and a kilt. He and Tammy Kelly, the housekeeper, hate each other.

T
AVERY
, F
RANCINE
(5)

A girl from Calla Bryn Sturgis who, along with her brother, Frank, assists the
ka-tet
by drawing a map of the town. She has a crush on Eddie. Like her brother, her hair is black, her eyes are dark blue, her skin creamy pale and her lips startling red. They have identical, faint spatters of freckles on their cheeks. Bright, quick, beautiful and eager to please. They are also one of three sets of twins who take the opopanax feather around to call the town meeting before the Wolves arrive.

T
AVERY
, F
RANK
(5, 6)

A boy from Calla Bryn Sturgis who, along with his twin sister, assists the
ka-tet
by drawing a map of the town. He also helps Jake scatter toys to confuse the Wolves, but breaks his ankle after he steps in a hole and panics, which endangers Jake and Benny Slightman.

T
ELFORD
, G
EORGE
(5)

Owner of Buckhead Ranch in Calla Bryn Sturgis. He's silver-haired, tanned and handsome in a weather-beaten way. Has a white mustache and shaggy white eyebrows. A smooth talker who knows how to work an audience. Too old to have to worry about the Wolves taking his children. He reminds Eddie of Pa Cartwright from
Bonanza
. He is dead set against the plan to fight the Wolves and speaks his mind even when it's clear the tide has turned against him.

T
HOMAS
(2)

One of two desperate yet grim young men Roland encountered while they were pursuing a demon named Flagg who looked like a man.

Crossover to Other Works:
In
The Eyes of the Dragon
, Thomas was the younger son of King Roland of Delain.

T
HONNIE
(6)

One of the Manni of Calla Redpath.

T
HORIN
, C
ORAL
(4, 7, M)

Younger sister of Mayor Hart Thorin of Hambry and owner of the Travellers' Rest saloon and whorehouse, where she also keeps a large bedroom. She also owns a great deal of land along the Drop. She appears morose and has a hard streak and was a wild child. Sallow and skinny but not as thin as her brother, whom she considers an idiot, and good-looking in a large-eyed, weasel-headed way. She drinks too much as a way of dealing with the town's treachery. After she starts sleeping with Eldred Jonas, who sees that she's as cold-blooded as he is, she becomes a coconspirator in the murders of her brother and her former lover, Kimba Rimer. She locks Susan Delgado in the pantry at Mayor's House after she is captured. After Jonas is killed, she takes up with Clay Reynolds and is killed during a bank robbery shoot-out in Oakley.

T
HORIN
, H
ARTWELL
“H
ART
” (4, M)

Lord High Mayor of Mejis and Chief Guard o' Barony, though he is actually a puppet to his chancellor, Kimba Rimer, who convinced him to hire the Big Coffin Hunters as bodyguards. Husband to Olive and older brother to Coral, as well as majority owner in the Travellers' Rest saloon. A skinny, twitchy man with fluffy white hair rising in a cloud around the bald spot on the top of his head. Fat hairy knuckles. His build is peculiar: a short and narrow-shouldered upper body over impossibly long and skinny legs like a marsh bird. He's roughly sixty-five years old and underneath he's backcountry, a rancher. A bit of a fool, apt to blabber. Fond of low comedy and puzzled by anything highbrow. He won't let anyone call him Excellency. A knuckle-cracker, a back-slapper, a dinner-table belcher. His best asset is his speaking voice, which is strong and high, carrying and pleasant. Fond of strong drink and young girls. When his wife proves barren, he arranges with Cordelia Delgado to turn her niece Susan into his gilly, using a long-standing law that allows for him to have a male heir, though he really just lusts after the beautiful young woman. He pays for Susan with gold, silver, horses and gifts of clothing. He doesn't know that everyone in town is laughing at him. He wants nothing to do with the business with the Good Man except for his share of the profits, thinking he'll be too busy in bed with Susan to feel guilt over what he's allowed in his Barony. Roy Depape stabs him to death.

T
HORIN
, O
LIVE
(4, M)

Wife of Mayor Hart Thorin of Hambry. She is the daughter of a fisherman named John Haverty and grew up north of Hambry, where she used to play in the caves. A plump woman. She is barren and, though she still loves her husband, she hasn't shared a room with him for ten years or a bed for five. She is humiliated by her situation and knows the people of Hambry are laughing at her husband's infatuation with Susan Delgado. She is the only person in high society whom Roland likes in Hambry and, after seeing her situation, he understands his mother better. She tries to come to Susan's rescue after Clay Reynolds takes her, planning to go west because there's nothing left for her in Mejis, but Reynolds shoots her after she tries to draw an ancient pistola that misfires.

T
HOUGHTFUL
, R
ANDO
(7)

The Crimson King's minister of state. He appears first as Fimalo, Stephen King's superego. He is an old man who is dying slowly. His hair is dirty gray
and his skull is covered with eczema. His face is covered with pimples and sores, some bleeding. He tells Roland and Susannah about the last days of the Crimson King in Le Casse Roi Russe. Mordred eats him after the Castle Rooks tear out his eyes while he's still alive. See also Austin Cornwell.