The Kid's deuce coupe

The Kid's deuce coupe is a 1932 Ford deuce coupe that has been customized into a glittering science-fiction vehicle, a parody of American car culture that reflects the psychotic grandiosity of its owner. The car is painted flake gold, with hand-painted flames billowing out of the manifold pipes. Its chrome headpipes stretch almost the whole length of the car, reflecting the sun fiercely, and the windshield is a convex bubble. The back tires are gigantic Goodyear Wide Ovals, and the wheel-wells have been cut to an exaggerated height and depth to accommodate them. Growing out of the hood like a weird heating duct is a supercharger, and growing out of the roof, solid black but shot with red flecks like embers, is a steel sharkfin. Written on both sides, raked backward to indicate speed, are the words THE KID.

The Kid and His Machine

The deuce coupe is the signature possession of a man who calls himself The Kid, a five-foot-three-inch killer from Shreveport, Louisiana, who wears pegged jeans, a Western-style silk shirt, a black leather motorcycle jacket crisscrossed with zippers, and stacked Cuban heels. The Kid drives the coupe at suicidal speeds, typically around ninety-five miles per hour, slaloming around stalled cars and wrecks with what he calls "three-fiffs of a second" of reflexes. He treats the car as an extension of his own violent, unstable personality, and the Trashcan Man, who meets him on Highway 34 near Yuma, Colorado, is immediately terrified of both the driver and the machine. The Kid boasts that the coupe "won every major carshow award in the South" and that it can do "a hunnert n sixty on the flat."

The Journey West

The Trashcan Man rides with The Kid in the deuce coupe as they head west toward Las Vegas, where Randall Flagg is gathering his forces. The Kid drives drunk, drinking Rebel Yell whiskey and Coors beer, and his driving becomes increasingly erratic and dangerous. On Interstate 70 in the Rockies, they encounter a horrendous four-car pileup that blocks the westbound lanes completely. The Kid, rather than turning back, edges the coupe onto the shoulder, with the right-side wheels inches from a thousand-foot drop. The right rear wheel slips, and the car nearly plunges into the gorge, but The Kid floors the accelerator and the coupe lurches back onto the road. The Trashcan Man, terrified, calls him "champ," which is the only thing that saves his life.

The Traffic Jam and the Wolves

Fifteen minutes later, the deuce coupe is stopped for good. The westbound lanes of I-70 are completely clogged with stalled traffic, bumper to bumper and side to side, as far as the eye can see. The Kid refuses to abandon his car and sends the Trashcan Man ahead on foot to see how far the jam extends. The Trashcan Man walks for hours, finds the Eisenhower Tunnel blocked, and decides not to return. When he does go back, The Kid catches him trying to escape and forces him to help clear the road. As dusk falls, wolves appear—gray timberwolves with red eyes, sent by Randall Flagg. The Kid fires both his .45s, dropping three wolves, but more come. The wolves surround the Austin where The Kid takes refuge, and the Trashcan Man, now protected by the wolves, gives The Kid the finger and walks away.

The Kid's Fate

The wolves ring the Austin in a circle of teeth, waiting. The Trashcan Man understands that they will sit there for as long as it takes—two days, three, maybe four—until The Kid starves to death or goes crazy enough to open the door. Inside the car, the temperature will reach as high as a hundred and thirty degrees during the afternoon. The Kid has nothing to eat or drink. The deuce coupe, the symbol of his power and freedom, is left behind on the highway, and one of the wolves lifts its leg and urinates on its tire. The Trashcan Man laughs until tears squirt from his eyes, and then continues west with his wolf escort, leaving The Kid to die in his own machine.