Richard Brautigan - The Hawkline Monster - A Gothic Western

“And you’ve never seen the monster?” Greer said to Miss Hawkline.

“No, we’ve just heard it screaming down in the caves and we’ve heard it banging on the iron door that locks the caves off from the laboratory. It’s very strong and can shake the door. The door’s thick, too. Iron.”

“But you’ve never seen it?”

“No, we haven’t.”

“And the door’s been locked ever since your father disappeared?”

“Yes,” Miss Hawkline said.

The pearls about the Hawkline sisters’ throats had grown a little more intense in light, almost approaching a diamond-like quality. Greer saw a motion in the darkness of their hair. It was as if their hair had moved but it hadn’t moved. Something had shifted in their hair. Greer thought for a second. Then he realized that it was the color of their hair that had moved.

“And sometimes you hear screams?”

“Yes, we can hear them all over the house and we can hear the banging on the iron door, too,” Miss Hawkline said.

“How often?”

“Every day or so,” Miss Hawkline said.

“We haven’t heard anything,” Greer said.

“Sometimes it’s like that,” the other Miss Hawkline said. “Why all these questions? We’ve already told you everything that we know and now we’re telling it to you again.”

“Yeah,” Cameron said. “I want to get that monster out of the God-damn way.”

“OK,” Greer said. “Let’s kill the monster,” while letting his vision casually brush past the necklaces about the Hawkline sisters’ throats.

The necklaces were staring back.

But now the sun was down and early twilight had substituted itself on the landscape and though everybody was ready to kill the monster, they were also very hungry and soon their hunger got the best of them and killing the monster was put off until after supper which the Hawkline women returned to the kitchen to prepare while Greer and Cameron stayed on in the parlor.

When the Hawkline sisters departed, the strange light stayed on the pearls and the moving dark color remained in their hair and they unknowingly transported them to the kitchen which was fine with Greer because he wanted to talk about them with Cameron.

Greer started to tell Cameron what he had seen but Cameron interrupted him by saying, “I know. I’ve been watching them. I saw them in the hall by the butler’s body after it got changed into a dwarf person. They were on the shovel while you were digging the grave and I saw them when I was putting my clothes on after fucking one of those Hawkline women.”

“Did you see them in the chandelier above the pool table?” Greer said.

“Oh, yeah. But I wish you hadn’t been so obvious about going in there and looking for them. I don’t want to make them nervous and know that we know about them.”

“You saw them here in the room?” Greer said.

“Sure. In the fire. Why do you think I was standing over there? because I wanted a hot ass? I wanted a closer look. They’re gone now with the Hawkline women, so what do you think? I know what I think. I don’t think we have to go down in the ice caves to find that fucking monster. I think we only have to go as far as the basement and those fucking chemicals that their crazy father was working on.” Greer smiled at Cameron.

“Sometimes you surprise me,” Greer said. “I didn’t know that you were picking up on it.”

“I count a lot of things that there’s no need to count,” Cameron said. “Just because that’s the way I am. But I count all the things that need to be counted.”

Greer and Cameron decided to have supper first before they dealt with The Chemicals in the laboratory and search out what they thought would lead them to the Hawkline Monster.

“We’ll just play like we’re going down into the ice caves and blast out whatever, but when we get down to the basement we’ll come up with some excuse to linger around down there and if we come across something interesting, maybe like The Chemicals, we’ll shoot it,” Cameron said. “But first let’s enjoy a good supper and not let on at all that we know about that light and its shadow sidekick.”

“OK,” Greer said. “You’ve got it all pegged.”

Then the Hawkline sisters came into the room. They had changed their dresses. They were now wearing dresses with very low necklines that accentuated beautiful young breasts. They both had tiny waists and the dresses showed them to advantage.

“Supper’s ready, you hungry monster killers!”

The Hawkline women smiled at Greer and Cameron.

“You need energy if you’re going to kill a monster.”

Greer and Cameron smiled back.

The same necklaces were still about the Hawkline sisters’ throats and the light and the shadow were still there. The light looked comfortable in the necklaces and the shadowy dark color that could move was at rest in their long flowing hair.

At least the Hawkline Monster has good taste , Greer thought.

During supper Greer and Cameron casually watched the Hawkline Monster about the throats and in the hair of the Hawkline sisters.

The monster was very informal during the meal. Its light diminished in the necklaces and the shadowy moving color in the sisters’ hair was motionless, fading almost into the natural color of their hair.

The meal was steaks and potatoes and biscuits and gravy. It was a typical Eastern Oregon meal and eaten with a lot of gusto by Greer and Cameron.

Greer sat there thinking about the monster and thinking about how this was still the same day they had awakened in a barn in Billy. He thought about all the events that had so far transpired.

It really had been a long day with the prospects of much more to follow: Events that would lead him and Cameron to attempt to deprive the Hawkline Monster of its existence and the strange powers that it possessed sitting across the table from them, staring out of two necklaces about the throats of two beautiful women who were completely unsuspecting, at faith with their jewelry.

Cameron counted random things in the room. He counted the things on the table: dishes, silverware, plates, etc… 28, 29, 30, etc.

It was something to do.

Then he counted the pearls that the Hawkline Monster was hiding in: … 5, 6, etc.

Toward the end of supper the Hawkline Monster left the necklaces and got onto the table. It condensed itself into the space of a serving spoon that was in a large bowl of gravy on the table. The shadow of the monster lay on top of the gravy pretending that it was gravy.

It was very difficult for the shadow to pretend that it was gravy but it worked hard at the performance and sort of pulled it off.

Cameron was amused by the monster getting on the table and he understood how difficult it was for the shadow to pretend that it was gravy.

“Sure is good gravy,” Greer said to Cameron.

“Yeah,” Cameron said, looking over at Greer.

“You hoys want some more gravy?” Miss Hawkline said.

“It sure is good,” Greer said. “What about you, Cameron, more gravy?”

The shadow of the Hawkline Monster was lying as flat as it could on top of the gravy. The monster itself was slightly uncomfortable in the spoon that had a little more reflection to it than it should have had.

“l don’t know. I’m pretty full now. But…” Cameron pun his hand on the spoon. He was now touching the Hawkline Monster. The spoon, though it was in a bowl of hot gravy, was cold.

Cameron casually thought about how in the fuck he could kill the monster but he couldn’t think of a way to kill a spoon, so he just used the Hawkline Monster to put some more gravy on his potatoes.