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“Sad” I opened another volue

“I haven’t read all of them-I simply don’t have the time-but I am extremely curious to hear what’s in them There may be clues to his past-who he here he ca a relative Though, fro this isn’t a diary but a work of fiction”

I agreed it would ales I’d read

“Almost?” he asked He see is possible, though sos are much more possible than others!”

I took the notebooks ho desk, where they stayed for nearly six months, unread I was pressed on a deadline for another book and didn’t feel compelled to dive into what I assuenarian A call that follointer fro the frayed twine and a rereading of the first extraordinary few pages, but little progress besides that The handwriting was so ses so nuh the first volu that the journal seemed to have been composed over a span of ed, for exaain, as if a pen had run dry or been lost

It was not until after the New Year that I read the first three volue to last, the transcript of which follows, edited only for spelling and correction of sorammar

FOLIO IProgeny

ONE “A Singular Curiosity”

These are the secrets I have kept This is the trust I never betrayed

But he is dead now and has been for ave me his trust, the one for whom I kept these secrets

The one who saved me… and the one who cursed me

I can’t recall what I had for breakfast thisnight in 1888 when he roused hly fro in the lalow upon his finely chiseled features, one hich I had, unfortunately, become intimately acquainted

“Get up! Get up, Will Henry, and be quick about it!” he said urgently “We have a caller!”

“A caller?” I murmured in reply “What time is it?”

“A little after one Now get dressed and meet me at the back door Step lively, Will Henry, and snap to!”

He withdrew froht with him I dressed in the dark and sca on the last of arments, a soft felt hat a size too small for my twelve-year-old head That little hat was all I had left fro to live with him, and so it was precious to me

He had lit the jets along the hall of the upper floor, though but a single light burned on the main floor, in the kitchen at the rear of the old house where just the two of us lived, without so much as a ed in a dark and dangerous business, and could ill afford the prying eyes and gossiping tongue of the servant class When the dust and dirt became intolerable, about every threeand a bucket into my hands and tell me to “snap to” before the tide of filth overwhelmed us

I followed the light into the kitchen, otten in my trepidation This was not the first nocturnal visitor sinceto live with him the year before The doctor had nu, more than I cared to remember, and none were cheerful social calls His business was dangerous and dark, as I have said, and so, on the whole, were his callers

The one who called on this night was standing just outside the back door, a gangly, skeletal figure, his shadow rising wraithlike fro cobblestones His face was hidden beneath the broad brinarled knuckles protruding from his frayed sleeves, and knobby yellow ankles the size of apples below his tattered trousers Behind the oldof a horse sta flanks Behind the horse, barely visible in the o, wrapped in several layers of burlap

The doctor was speaking quietly to the oldhand upon his shoulder, for clearly our caller was nearly , the doctor was assuring him He, the doctor, would take the matter froe head, which appeared all the larger with its lid of straw as it bobbed on its spindly neck

“’Tis a crime A bloody crime of nature!” he exclaimed at one point “I shouldn’t have taken it; I should have covered it back up and left it to the mercy of God!”

“I take no stances on theology, Erasmus,” said the doctor “I am a scientist But is it not said that we are his instruht you to her and directed you hence to my door”

“So you won’t report lance toward the doctor

“Your secret will be as safe with me as I hope mine will be with you Ah, here is Will Henry Will Henry, where are your shoes? No, no,” he said as I turned to fetch them “I need you to ready the laboratory”

“Yes, doctor,” I responded dutifully, and turned to go a second time

“And put a pot on It’s going to be a long night”

“Yes, sir,” I said I turned a third time

“And find my boots, Will Henry”

“Of course, sir”

I hesitated, waiting for a fourth co at me

“Well, what are you waiting for?” the doctor said “Snap to, Will Henry!”

“Yes, sir,” I said “Right away, sir!”