CANDLELIT CHRONICLES: HISTORIC HAUNTS

Monica Wilber paced her small living room in Heathside, a somewhat less upscale neighborhood a few blocks from the Hudson's better class neighborhood of Westwood. Still in her black heels and red business suit, which she had donned at lunch time to impress Alice when she caught up to her at the Park, Monica's stomping echoed through the thin scraggly carpet on to the hardwood beneath.



         Monica overreacted, of course; EVERYTHING had not been ruined. But certainly her Dead son Danny stood on shaky ground, the flames of wrath licking at his feet. For Danny had committed a serious error-perhaps unforgivable-in selecting the wrong recipient of the poison “Mr. Joe” had provided him. The poison had been intended by Testament to work on Lisabeth Hudson. True, the destined victims of the Child Puppet's initial killing attempt were to be Alice's adoptive parents, the Cavendishes-and if Little Alice died too, well so much the better. The Testament Core had little use for that mealy-mouthed pure and innocent child. What good was a child who could not be corrupted? They all should be like Lisabeth Hudson: vain, arrogant, self-referential, and mischievous. Those were easy to convert. The children who were born purely evil, like Clyde Jenks in The Big Forest region, could be useful too, but since their entire beings were already bent on evil, they didn't always choose to follow the prescribed Testament line but instead desired to go their own way too often.

         But that little Lisabeth Hudson now, she was a treasure, a real find. If not for her, Jed Hudson would never have been appointed Vice President of Logging Operations Division. If not for her, well, Jed and Mrs. Hudson might be the first victims chosen. But for the time being, Testament was perfectly content for Lisabeth to continue to live in Westwood, on the Western side of Madison Mills, and for that it needed to leave Her father and mother in place, and alive; at least until it found a Dead Tool sufficiently clever to take over Logging Operations and to raise Lisabeth. Then, maybe, the Hudson parents would disappear too.

         In the Wilber house, Monica continued to fume while Danny tried to back out the front wall, unsuccessfully. He was unused to this kind of tirade, for he almost never made a mistake when it came to orders from Mr. Joe. Even Danny wasn't certain why he had erred when it came to Alice. The real truth was concealed in Danny's own true nature.

         Danny Wilber himself had been the product of a Testament experiment. When “Mr. Joe” had been appointed by The Testament ectoplasmic Chief Executive Officer to become Vice President of Personnel (both living and Dead) for The Testament Logging Corporation (because it's not just Logging any more), the second most important role in The Testament Corporation, one of his first assignments, after organizing the living and Dead employees, was to begin the campaign of making Child Puppets. Now at this early time, Testament already knew about Clyde Jenks, but because Clyde was so headstrong so early (already independently evil at six days old) Testament wanted to make, or use, child puppets who would be easier to work with, more amenable to Testament's plans, and less likely to hare off on their own evil endeavours, as was Clyde.

         The first chore, of course, was to set some of the employee tools to hunting for children, ages newborn to twelve or so. Once a child reached puberty, she or he was less likely to listen to the ministrations of the Testament minions, since hormonal surges tended to obscure the ability to listen carefully. Such a process took time, but not as much time as did the second task of the Child Puppet campaign: creating Tools by procreation. Neither “Mr. Joe” nor the ectoplasmic CEO, Jepthah Starkes Kenneally, knew for sure that this plan would work either, which is why the first order of business had been to seek out established potential tools: children already in existence, who had either proven to have the proper bent toward destruction, or who seemed to be easily molded. Either would work for now. Once that segment of planning had been instituted, though, “Mr. Joe” had time to devote to the second task, creating a Child Puppet from scratch. If this worked, he and CEO Kenneally assumed, the plan could be instituted on a wider scale, using some of the Dead Tools as well as the living. But first, it would be tried out singly, by “Mr. Joe,” not involving anyone else-just in case the plan was not successful.

         ”Mr. Joe” began to look around the office for a living employee. He wasn't sure just how, or if, it would work with a Deat Tool. Useful as they were (much more so than the Living), so far none had produced offspring, and “Mr. Joe” didn't know if that was even possible. If only it was, his “life” would be made so much smoother! So he searched for a living employee who would be eager, willing, and perhaps not overly gifted with intelligence. Cunning would be fine; cleverness acceptable; even street sense would pass. Just not high intelligence. But then, he chuckled to himself, he was hunting among employees of The Testament Logging Corporation. Those of high intelligence usually were too smart to apply for work here, and if they did, they didn't last long. Most ended up departed, or dead-or both. Too much intelligence could ruin even a Dead Tool, so Testament simply preferred to employ those who were far from genius level IQ.

          “Mr. Joe” needed not to look for long. A new file clerk had been hired, who lived in the Heathside neighborhood, a fair but not impossible walk from the Testament Tower. The distance proved to be important, because Miss Monica Wilber lacked transportation. She also lacked that unuseful genius level intelligence. She was single, alone, lonely, and agreeable. All that made her an excellent choice for “Mr. Joe's” first attempt.