Conflict between Ralph Roberts and Ed Deepneau

The conflict between Ralph Roberts and Ed Deepneau begins as a neighborly concern and escalates into a life-or-death struggle that spans two years, drawing Ralph into a supernatural war over the fate of Derry. Ed, once a kind and civil research chemist, undergoes a radical transformation into a violent paranoid who believes he is fighting the servants of the Crimson King. Ralph, an elderly widower suffering from severe insomnia, is drawn into Ed's orbit by his own growing perception of a hidden reality—the world of auras and the little bald doctors who serve the Purpose and the Random. Their antagonism is not merely personal but cosmic, with Ed becoming an undesignated pawn of the Random and Ralph a reluctant champion of the Purpose.

Origins: The Road Rage Incident and the First Signs

The conflict first surfaces in July 1992, when Ralph, walking near the Derry County Airport, witnesses Ed Deepneau driving his Datsun recklessly out of the General Aviation service gate. Ed nearly collides with another car and then leaps out, screaming obscenities and accusing the other driver of being a murderer. Ralph is shocked to see his normally gentle neighbor transformed into a raging figure, his eyes filled with "utter, unreasoning fury" . Ed slaps the larger man and rants about dead babies, a phrase that will recur throughout their conflict. Ralph physically restrains Ed, and when the police later arrest Ed for domestic assault after he beats his wife Helen, Ralph realizes that the madness he glimpsed at the airport was not an isolated incident but the beginning of a deeper unraveling.

Escalation: Domestic Violence and Paranoid Delusions

The conflict intensifies in August 1993, when Ralph finds Helen Deepneau staggering toward the Red Apple store, her face beaten and bloody, carrying her baby daughter Natalie. Helen reveals that Ed attacked her because she signed a petition to bring feminist activist Susan Day to Derry. Ralph calls the police against Helen's pleas and then confronts Ed directly at his home. Ed, sitting shirtless in his yard listening to Jefferson Airplane, dismisses the beating as a minor disagreement and then launches into a tirade about the "Crimson King" and his "Centurions," who he claims are stealing fetuses from WomanCare and transporting them in covered trucks . He speaks of seeing corpses of infants everywhere—on roofs, under hedges, floating in sewers . Ralph recognizes that Ed is genuinely insane, but he also sees the dangerous charisma that allows Ed to manipulate others, including the police who initially seem taken in by his calm demeanor.

The Supernatural Dimension: Atropos and the Crimson King

Ralph's own developing ability to see auras and perceive the little bald doctors—Clotho, Lachesis, and the rogue Atropos—reveals that Ed's madness has a supernatural source. Atropos, the agent of the Random, has cut Ed's life-cord, making him an "undesignated" being who can be used as a weapon. Ed's delusions about the Crimson King are not entirely false; they are a distorted perception of a real malevolent entity that now controls him. Ralph learns from Clotho and Lachesis that Ed has been turned into a guided missile aimed at the Civic Center, where Susan Day is scheduled to speak. Ed's plan is to crash a plane loaded with explosives into the building, killing thousands, including a young boy whose life is crucial to the Purpose. Ralph understands that stopping Ed is not just about preventing mass murder but about thwarting the Crimson King's plan to destroy the balance of existence itself.

The Final Confrontation: The Plane and the Sacrifice

The climax of the conflict occurs on the day of Susan Day's speech. Ralph, using his heightened abilities, teleports into Ed's Cherokee airplane as it flies toward Derry. He finds Ed transformed: gaunt, pale, wearing a white silk scarf with Japanese characters tied around his head, and singing Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit." Ed has a cardboard box of explosives strapped into the co-pilot's seat, with wires leading to a doorbell detonator. When Ralph tears the wires free, Ed attacks him, screaming "You'll spoil everything!" . They struggle for control of the plane, and Ralph manages to grab a photograph of Helen and Natalie that Ed has taped to the instrument panel. Ed's focus shifts from the Civic Center to the picture, and he cries out, "Give them back, they're mine!" . In that moment of distraction, Ralph shoves the control wheel, sending the plane into a crash course away from the building. He escapes the plane just before it explodes, but the conflict does not end there.

Aftermath: The Promise Fulfilled

Five years later, Atropos returns to claim a life as payment for Ralph's interference. He arranges for Natalie Deepneau to be struck by a car on Harris Avenue. Ralph, now an old man again, sees the vision Atropos showed him coming true. He runs into the street and shoves Natalie out of the path of the Ford, taking the fatal impact himself. As he lies dying in Lois's arms, he sees Clotho and Lachesis and says, "Now remember: this doesn't hurt. Right?" . His final words to Lois are about the ticking of the deathwatch stopping. Ralph's death fulfills the promise he made to the little bald doctors: a life for a life. His sacrifice saves Natalie and finally ends the conflict that began with a road rage incident on a hot July day, a conflict that spanned the mundane and the cosmic, the personal and the apocalyptic.