Free The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western by Richard Brautigan Page B

“That’s funny. There was nothing outside to start it.”
    “Why all this attention to a reflection?” Miss Hawkline said. “We have a dead butler lying in the hall. Let’s do something about that.”
    “Just curiosity,” Greer said. “The only reason that I’m still alive is because I’m a very curious person. It pays to keep on your toes.”
    He looked again at the chandelier but the strange light was gone. He did not know that the light was hiding on the pool table, near a side pocket, and there was a shadow hiding there, too.
    “That light seemed familiar,” Greer said. “I’ve seen it someplace before.”
    The light and the shadow held their breath, waiting for Greer to leave the room.

• A Surprise •
    As they descended the spiral staircase to the main floor of the house, Miss Hawkline said to her sister, “The funniest thing happened a little while ago.”
    “What was that?”
    “It’s really strange,” she said.
    “Well, what was it?”
    Greer and Cameron were trailing behind the Hawkline sisters. They moved so gracefully that Greer and Cameron were almost spellbound. The sisters moved without making a sound on the stairs. They moved in the same manner as two birds gliding slowly on the wind.
    Their voices delicately punctuated the air like the invisible movement of peacock fans.
    “l found some Indian clothes hanging in my closet. I didn’t put them there,” Miss Hawkline said. “Do you have any idea where they came from?”
    “No.” her sister said. “I’ve never seen any Indian clothes around here.”
    “It’s really strange,” Miss Hawkline said. “They’re our size.”
    “I wonder where they came from,” the other Miss Hawkline said.
    “A lot of very strange things have been happening around here.” Miss Hawkline answered.
    Greer and Cameron looked at each other and they had something more to think about.

• The Butler Conclusion •
    When they finally arrived at the body of the dead butler, they really had a surprise waiting for them. One of the Hawkline women put her hand up to her mouth as if to stifle a scream. The other Miss Hawkline turned white as a ghost. Greer sighed. Cameron put his finger in his ear and scratched it. “What the fuck next?” he said.
    Then they just stood there staring at the butler’s body. They stared at it for a long time.
    “Well,” Greer said, finally. “It’s going to make burying him a lot easier.”
    Lying on the floor in front of them was the body of the butler but it was only thirty-one inches long and weighed less than fifty pounds. The dead body of the giant butler had been changed into the body of a dwarf. It was almost lost in folds of giant clothes. The pant legs were barely occupied and the coat was like a tent wrapped around the corpse of the butler.
    At the end of a huge pile of clothes, there was a small head sticking out of a shirt. The collar of the shirt surrounded the head like a hoop.
    The expression, which was of quiet repose, gone to meet his Maker, as they say, on the butler’s face had remained unaltered in his transformation from a giant into a dwarf but of course the expression was much smaller.

• Mr. Morgan, Requiescat in Pace •
    It did make burying the butler simpler. While Greer dug a small grave outside the house, just beyond the influence of frost, Miss Hawkline went upstairs and got a suitcase.

• Prints •
    After the funeral with appropriate words of bereavement over a very small grave and a little cross, everybody went back into the house and gathered in a front parlor.
    Greer and Cameron no longer had their guns with them. They had put them away in the long narrow trunk which was back beside the elephant foot umbrella stand. They only carried a gun when they were going to use one. The rest of the time the guns stayed in the trunk.
    Cameron put some coal on the fire.
    The two Miss Hawklines were sitting next to each other on a love seat. Greer sat across from them in a huge easy chair with a