The shadow wished that the Hawkline Monster were dead, even though it would probably have to follow the monster into oblivion.
Anything was better than the living hell of having to be in partnership with the Hawkline Monster and do all these evil things.
The shadow remembered back to previous stages of The Chemicals and how exciting it was to be created by Professor Hawkline. At that time the light was benevolent, almost giddy with the excitement of having just been created. There was a future with the possibility of help and joy for all mankind. Then the light changed in attitude. The light concealed its personality change from Professor Hawkline.
The light started pulling little pranks that the professor let pass as accidents. Something falling over or something being changed into something else, so that the professor thought that he had made the mistake or something had been mislabeled and then the light found that it could leave the jar and move about and of course the poor innocent shadow of the light was forced to follow and become a participant-observer in pranks that gathered in momentum until they became acts of evil.
After while Professor Hawkline knew that there was something very wrong with The Chemicals but he kept thinking right up to the moment that the monster did that terrible thing to him that he would be able to correct the balance of The Chemicals and complete the experiment with humanitarian possibilities for the entire world.
But that was never to be because one afternoon when the professor was upstairs working on a new formula in his study the light pulled its most gross evil prank upon him. The shadow shuddered to think about it.
The light was at last totally awake and knew that it was being severely threatened by the people upstairs and it had better take care of that threat right now.
The light crawled out of The Chemicals and balanced on the rim of the jar in preparation for departure and the shadow reluctantly prepared to follow.
The Decision
“Yes,” Miss Hawkline said, finally.
Her sister nodded in agreement.
“It’s a difficult decision but it’s the only way,” Miss Hawkline said. “I’m sorry that this had to happen to our father’s lifework but there are things that are more important.”
“Yeah, our lives,” Cameron interrupted. He was impatient. He wanted to go downstairs right now and throw that jar of stuff out and then sleep tonight beside the body of a Hawkline woman. He was tired. It had been a long day.
“We have the formula to The Chemicals,” Miss Hawkline said. “Perhaps we can start over again or give it to somebody who might be interested in it.”
“I don’t know,” the other Miss Hawkline said. “I’m a little tired of the whole thing, so let’s not talk about the future now. Let’s just pour the stuff out and get some sleep. I’m tired.”
“Those are my feelings,” Cameron said.
Upstairs
The monster drifted off the lip of the jar and glided across the laboratory to land on the bottom step of the stairs that led upward to the house.
The shadow clumsily followed behind it, darker than the darkness in the room, more silent than complete silence and alone in the tragedy of its servitude to evil.
Then the Hawkline Monster flowed like a reverse waterfall up the stairs. It sparkled and reflected as it moved. The shadow followed behind it, a reluctant complement of darkness. The Hawkline Monster stopped at a dim space of light that shined under the laboratory door.
It was waiting for something to happen. The light of the monster was now almost surgical in its perception. It looked under the door and down the hall.
The monster was anticipating something about to happen.
The shadow waited behind the Hawkline Monster. The shadow wished that it could look out underneath the door to see what was happening, but, alas, its role in life was only to follow and so it detailed itself right behind the ass of the Hawkline Monster.
Whiskey
Everybody started to leave the parlor to go downstairs and pour out the Hawkline Monster but just as they reached the door and one of the Hawkline women had her hand on the knob, Cameron said, “Hold it for a second. I want to get myself a little whiskey.” He walked over to the table where the liquor was in various cut-glass decanters. He paused, trying to figure out which bottle was the whiskey. Then one of the Hawkline sisters said, “It’s the bottle with the blue top.”
That Miss Hawkline was carrying a lamp.
Cameron took a glass and poured himself a big slug of whiskey. Greer thought that this was strange because Cameron never took a drop before a job and certainly the destruction of the monster was a job.
Cameron held the glass of whiskey up to his nose. “Sure smells like the good stuff.”
Greer in sudden anticipation of killing the monster did not notice that Cameron, though he had poured himself a big glass of whiskey, did not take a drink from it. When they left the room, he was carrying the glass in his hand.
Searching for a Container
Then a parlor door opened to the hall and one of the Hawkline sisters stepped into the hall, followed by another sister and Greer and Cameron who had a glass of whiskey in his hand.
The shadow could not see over the Hawkline Monster but the shadow heard the door opening and the people coming out into the hall. It wondered what was up, why the monster was so interested in the people at this time. Then the shadow shrugged. It was useless to continue with this line of thought for there was nothing that the shadow could do about it. The shadow could only follow the Hawkline Monster which it hated.
The Hawkline Monster watched them come down the hall toward the laboratory door. It waited, contemplating what form of action to follow next. It tried to realize a container, a shape to put its magic and its spells in and then to evoke that container upon these people who threatened its existence.
The shadow by now had given up trying to figure out what was happening. The shadow just didn’t give a fuck anymore.
To Kill a Jar
“Do you think we need a gun?” Greer said to Cameron.
There was no reply.
Greer thought that perhaps Cameron hadn’t heard him, so he repeated the question.
“To kill a jar?” Cameron said.
The Hawkline women smiled.
Greer did not get the joke. He also did not notice that Cameron still had the glass of whiskey in his hand. Greer was unusually excited by the prospect of direct confrontation with the Hawkline Monster.
Cameron was carrying the glass of whiskey the same way he carried a pistol, casual but professional, waiting to be supereffective without any impression of menace.
Even the monster watching from underneath the laboratory door paid no attention to the glass of whiskey in Cameron’s hand.
The Hawkline Monster had by now formulated a plan to take care of the threat to its life. The monster smiled at its own cunning. It liked the plan because it was so fiendish.
The monster suddenly backed its ass up and moved down a step toward the laboratory floor and knocked the unsuspecting shadow down two steps.
Fuck! the shadow thought and tried to regain some of its nonexistent dignity while keeping a close watch now on the Hawkline Monster, so that it could follow what the monster did next because that is the business of shadows.
The Elephant Foot Umbrella Stand
As they walked down the hall, they passed the elephant foot umbrella stand and Cameron could not but count the umbrellas in the stand.