• Counting the Hawkline Monster •

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.