The Mansion on Summit Hill

(1981)


The house on Summit Hill showed only a light in the far back room—in the roomy area—the dining room, and those rooms beyond within the mansion, purlieus and mysterious they appeared from which come that displeasing light that emanated an stench— beyond description. From behind some curtains by this back room across the wide hall a pair of yellow eyes transferred to an alarmed brain, a simple perception from which the brain presumed those yellowish-eyes (let’s call them evil eyes) were not all human, they were lower than the average human forehead allowed. I had been drinking and so was Tessa, and we had walked into the mansion by accident, thinking it was an old mansion turned into an apartment building, and were about to visit a friend of hers.
The dweller of those eyes was pulled back by a well dressed type figure, which had entered the hall, that connected to the enormous room I and Tessa were standing in, “Are you a thief in the night?” said the man in a well fitted black suite, in a near soft voice. At the same time I noticed behind the curtains—and couldn’t help but see—one large dark wolf like ear, but it was ten feet from the bottom to the upper part of the curtain, I held inside of me a fearful revulsion to this precarious man thirty feet from Tessa and I. He was hard eyed as he scanned me with a tense expression, perhaps close to the same height as myself, five foot eight inches tall. Thin lipped, “We found the door opened sir,” I said, “thinking it was a different location!” I said distinctly said loud so he could hear me, a moment later, he stepped back into his room, and the curtains moved some, the thing behind the curtains still concealed, I had the conviction—whatever it was— was a creature of innocence.
Stooping low, the creature crawled into the dim light and on into the room without a sound, the very room the mysterious man had entered. There was a disquieting to my soul, and I as looked about I couldn’t help but take in the elegance of the home, the old designs on the wallpaper and the large crystal chandelier hanging above us, the easy chairs, then Tessa said “I think we should leave,” despite her worry, I suggested we wait a minute. Everywhere ivory and bronze, and gold looking statues appeared as I examined the place, and objects of exquisiteness. I was so obviously taken in by it all, it dazzled me, then I had a faint indication—though dim was the room we stood in—I wanted to go look behind the drapery the creature was a moment ago, and so I did, Tessa behind me, hesitate for an instant, but she drew close to me, it was so eerie I thought. And from behind the curtain I could see the well dressed man; he was in the process of an experiment of some kind. Doubtless the gentlemen was no apprentice, he was making good use of some cutting instruments. But I am no expert in such areas, and all that I could make out of it was doing some crossbreeding, he had dogs and rabbits in cages, dogs with rabbit ears, and rabbits with dog feet—or paws, then my careless elbow slipped on a railing and he heard me, looked my way, his stare was cold, gave me shivers up and down my spine, goose bumps. But I still conjured in my mind I wanted to investigate this mysterious episode in my life, a tad more. But Tessa wanted to leave.
The noise I had made, plus stepping out from behind the curtains now, somewhat quietly, was like an explosion inside of me. I had thought all St. Paul, Minnesota had heard it. About to run out of the house, an arm grabbed me, and one Tessa, and dragged both of us, as we stood on our feet— talons dug into our skin a half inch—into the room with the dim light.
“Inquisitive,” said the gentleman, “you are an unavoidable conclusion to my procedure.”
Standing before us, the creature was near laughable, he had a bear’s head, and wolf ears, hairy in spots, and had a man’s torso, and a man’s feet, but wide like a duck’s.
Then I noticed Tessa’s knees trembling.
“What are you going to do with us?” I asked.
Here he became silent for a long moment.
“I feel quite relieved that at last I found a female specimen I can use, one so young, healthy and lovely…and perhaps intelligent!”

A moment later I heard voices, I was tied to a chair, I couldn’t move, the voices came from that room with the dim light—I knew I was in it. The voice said, “I’m positive in a week or two of companionship with him, she’ll get pregnant and produce—in the long run, a missing link of some sort.”
“You are to be congratulated, Professor,” said another voice, upon having that creature carry Tessa, off an operating table, and into another room, as if they had did something to her internal female structure—or who’s to say. The voice said to me, and everything was foggy when he said it to me, “You will be her mate, unless you want someone else to be?” And I knew who that someone else might be, and the creature grunted.
“What’s the creature’s name?” I asked.
“Sanoj” said the voice (and the creature growled when he heard his name).
Said the Professor’s companion, “I wish you’d let her find her own mate in her own way.”
“She will not be wise enough to make such a judgment, and I do not want another Sanoj!”
“It is perfectly ridiculous for it to happen again, especially at her age,” said the other man’s voice (as if he had taken a wrong turn somewhere along the line during his experiments).
I looked to the unlit side of the room, Sanoj, was standing there like a pillar in Athens, out of the window, arclights geminating a glow on him. Then I passed out, and when I awoke I found myself out on a country road, and thinking: was this another dream, or along night’s nightmare from my drinking binge? (If indeed I had drinking binge.) The girl Tessa I had picked up from the bar downtown someplace along the Mississippi River, I’d never seen her before, or never again. And to this day I do not know if it as unreal, or just a weird nightmare or… the only other thing, being genuine. But what bothered me was when I got near my apartment, I read the morning paper from a newsstand, it was ten-days since I had last read the paper, and I read the paper that very evening I picked up Tessa.

No: 523 (11-24-2009)