Ralph uses Bodyguard spray on Pickering

Ralph Roberts, a seventy-year-old widower whose insomnia has eroded his sleep to a few hours a night, finds himself the target of a violent attack in the Derry Public Library. The assailant is Charlie Pickering, a mentally unstable anti-abortion activist who has been radicalized by Ed Deepneau. Pickering, believing Ralph to be a "Centurion"—an enemy of the pro-life cause—ambushes him in the reading room, pressing a hunting knife into his side and threatening to disembowel him. Ralph, initially paralyzed by fear and exhaustion, manages to turn the tables by using a can of Bodyguard spray, a non-lethal deterrent that had been given to him by Gretchen Tillbury of WomanCare. The attack is a direct consequence of Ralph's earlier intervention in the domestic abuse of Helen Deepneau and his subsequent entanglement in the violent abortion debate gripping Derry. It marks a critical turning point, forcing Ralph to confront the physical danger of his situation and to rely on the very tools of self-defense he had been reluctant to carry.

Background and Context

Ralph's insomnia, which began after his wife Carolyn's death, has left him in a state of chronic exhaustion, impairing his memory and judgment. On the day of the attack, he has gone to the Derry Public Library to research his condition, reading James A. Hall's Patterns of Dreaming. The library is quiet, and Ralph is absorbed in his book, unaware of the danger approaching. The attack is not random; it is the culmination of a series of events that began when Ralph called the police after Ed Deepneau beat his wife, Helen. Ed, now a leader of the radical anti-abortion group The Friends of Life, has identified Ralph as a "Centurion"—a term for their major enemies—and has incited his followers to act. Charlie Pickering, a man with a long history of mental instability and prior arrests for attempting to firebomb WomanCare, is the tool Ed has chosen to carry out this threat.

The Attack

Pickering, wearing a baggy gray sweatshirt with Snoopy on the front, materializes in the doorway of the reading room. He sits down beside Ralph and, without warning, presses a hunting knife into his side. He whispers ecstatically, asking what color Ralph's guts will be when he "let[s] them out all over the floor." The knife traces along Ralph's ribs, and Pickering's breath is nauseating. Ralph, frozen with terror, recognizes him from a newspaper photo showing him standing behind Ed Deepneau during a protest. Pickering accuses Ralph of being a "fucking Centurion" and a "baby-killer," parroting Ed's delusional rhetoric about stealing fetuses. He prods the knife deeper, drawing blood, and Ralph feels the first warm trickle down his side. The pain is maddening, like the stinger of a gigantic bee. Ralph realizes that Pickering is not just threatening; he fully intends to kill him, and is only waiting for an excuse to do so.

Ralph's Defense

As the knife presses deeper, Ralph's hand, which has been slowly moving toward his jacket pocket, closes around an object he does not immediately recognize. It is the can of Bodyguard spray that Gretchen Tillbury had given him weeks earlier, a can he had put on top of a kitchen cabinet and forgotten. In a moment of desperate improvisation, Ralph distracts Pickering by whispering, "I know who the Crimson King is." The name, a key part of Ed's paranoid mythology, shocks Pickering, causing him to recoil. Ralph seizes the opportunity, throwing himself to the right and falling off his chair. As Pickering leans over him, thrusting the knife forward, Ralph raises the can and presses the nozzle. The spray envelops Pickering's face in a thin haze of droplets, fogging his glasses. The effect is immediate: Pickering screams in pain, drops the knife, and clutches his face, crying that he is blind. Ralph, though wounded, has survived.

Consequences and Significance

The attack has profound consequences. Ralph is treated by a paramedic, who photographs and bandages the wound. The knife is taken as evidence, and Pickering is arrested. Detective John Leydecker, who investigates the case, notes that Pickering's bail is set at eighty thousand dollars, a sum that Ed Deepneau later posts, demonstrating Ed's continued influence and resources. The incident forces Ralph to acknowledge the reality of the danger he faces, moving him from passive observation to active engagement. It also reveals the extent to which Ed's madness has infected others, turning them into weapons. The attack is a direct result of Ralph's decision to help Helen, and it underscores the high personal cost of his involvement. The can of Bodyguard, which Ralph had dismissed as unnecessary, becomes a symbol of the precariousness of his situation and the unexpected ways in which help can arrive. The event also deepens Ralph's connection to the supernatural world he is beginning to perceive, as he later realizes that the can was placed in his pocket by the enigmatic Dorrance Marstellar, who seems to know more about Ralph's fate than Ralph himself does.