An Interview with Sherlock Holmes, Harry Houdini and Doctor John Watson. Part Three

An Interview with Sherlock Holmes, Harry Houdini and Doctor John Watson. Part Three

When we left off last week in the interview with my three esteemed colleagues, we had left on a lighter note, after I'd asked if their adventures ever endangered a friend's life,  but what followed may not be easily digested by those of a weaker stomach or fearful nature. I would encourage you to not let your imagination get away with you during this section of the interview, as my friends had said before, more die from fear, than actual contact with danger. The Baker Street Universe is a vast and complicated realm where only the strong and imaginative can survive.

Now to the interview:

" I don't want to make light of our adventures. For even if some like Harry treat it so, you must realize that our very souls at times have been at risk." Watson stated emphatically, his face drawn with a fatigue that was deep rooted, and which at that moment I could now see in all their faces. I began to realize once more the depth of their devotion to serving the public, while at the same time minimalizing their own sense of loss or tragedy, or just plain repeated loss of sleep.

"I see." I said. "I for one, who have authored many of the stories about you, and have also been the lucky recipient of many more directly from  your mouths, find it easy to believe that your work is not for the faint hearted. Such as the adventure with Hyde."

Harry nodded. "Very well spoken, dear friend. That adventure, while being one of earliest logged by you, was not certainly the first, or the last."

Sherlock tapped his pipe against a cigarette tray I had left for him on t he table next to him and nodded, after he had dumped its contents into the bowl of the ashtray. "I suspect that merciless entity will crop up once more to annoy and destroy."

Harry frowned. "At some point we will find a way to destroy him utterly."

"That would be jolly nice." Watson interjected. "If it were possible."

I shrugged. "Einstein was not always right."

Harry shook his head. "He is right in that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It exists. Much as Hyde exists. I do believe we are dealing with a form of Eternal Evil."

"I don't believe in evil, Harry, only problems to be solved. Even the impossible." Sherlock butt in.

"I hate agreeing with harry on this, Sherlock, but our various adventures always lead to the same conclusion...we have no way to stop him completely."

Sherlock steepled his fingers after laying his pipe down and considered Watson's words. "Remember the incident at Lassiter."

Watson frowned. "One I would rather forget."

I interrupted them. "I don't remember writing about that one."

"You wouldn't." Harry answered. "You didn't write it. We experienced it independently of what you created."

"Indeed." Sherlock nodded. "You have a very fertile imagination, dear Mister Pirillo, but the reality of what is out there far outstrips even the best of minds in your world or ours."

"What happened at Lassiter?" I asked, hoping to further the depths of the interview. Every word they spoke elicited further details about the way they thought, as well as acted.

Watson finished the last scone and looked at the empty plate sorrowfully. I hurriedly got up and went back to the small compact refrigerator in the corner of the kitchenette and pulled out another plate. I stuck it in the Microwave and heated it for about twenty seconds, then plucked it out and set it on top the empty plate.

Harry's eyes never left the microwave as he spoke. "You are most inventive."

"Not I." I answered. "This was something invented a long time ago."

"Had we this on our world, a lot of cooking adventures would be less tiresome."

"You will." I assured him. "If worse comes to worse, I'll write it into an episode so it is created.

He laughed. "I love how confident you are that everything you write will come true in our world."

Sherlock glanced at Harry. "So far it has. We must not beleaguer the Creator with such frivolous comments."

"I agree." Watson said in the middle of a chomp on his scone. "Anyone who can foresee my need for these is a god of sorts and can do anything."

I blushed, and then laughed. "Hardly that. Just a humble writer."

Harry smiled. "I like that about you. You're always willing to go the extra mile in anything, even in self deprecation."

"Have you ever considered visiting our world?" Watson asked.

I paused. "I don't think I would be able to deal with all the creatures your crew seems to always be in the midst of fighting. It's more fun writing about it."

"With that, I'll agree whole heartedly." Sherlock said with a bemused look. "Deeds are far harder to carry out than words."

"Lassiter." I reminded them. These men had a tendency to go all over the place when they relaxed and my job was to herd them back in the direction I needed them to follow, however abruptly it might seem to be at times.

"Yes. Lassiter." Watson said. "It seems that a very odd thing had happened there."

"How odd?" I inquired, finding it most likely that it would be another monster, but it wasn't.

"I met myself."

Sherlock almost burst into laughter when he commented. "And we know that such a rare jewel among men could barely handle such a humiliating circumstance."

"Holmes!" Scalded Watson.

"I beg your forgiveness, Watson, it's just a thought."

"Then keep it to yourself."

Sherlock nodded, but his amused look remained.

"Anyway, I was in Lassiter on business for Mrs. Hudson. She had a niece who had been getting visits from a very strange man who claimed to come from another world."

"And was it?"

"Oh yes. It was, but not in the sense that a child might think." Watson replied. He leaned forward in his chair, adjusting his body to be more comfortable. 

Harry and Sherlock lapsed into a thoughtful silence, already knowing the outcome of the story.

"As it turns out, when I visited the home of the child, I found that the mother was dating a man who looked exactly like me."

"And just how did you find that out?" I asked, curious as to how that had happened.

"When she gave me a kiss after I knocked on the front door of her home and she came saw me."

"Dear Madam!" I warned her, backing off. "I am hardly the sort of man to kiss just any lady!" I remonstrated her.

Her name was Evelyn. "But Watson, we have been intimate for months now, why would you break my heart at this moment after we've shared so much?"

My entire body shook and my face turned red as a beet, which she surely must have seen, as she backed away from me. "Oh." She said next, at a loss for words.

At that precise moment the child ran out and hugged my legs. "Daddy!"

Watson looked up into my eyes. "I have never been so horrified in my life. Were those words to get back to my beloved Mrs. Hudson, my life would be shattered in ruins. But like the bloody fool I was, I hugged her back, pretending innocence. I looked at Evelyn and she understood."

"So how did you resolve the issue?" I asked.

"Actually, Sherlock did." Harry jumped in. 

"I was accompanying Watson as I sometimes do, when Sherlock is busy elsewhere with his studies or investigations and remained in the Tesla for him. Seeing what was going on, I bounded to the porch and lifted the tiny girl up and laughed. "Why you must be my precious little friend that Watson has been talking so much about."

I gestured to Watson and he took Evelyn inside to speak with her.

"Excuse me, sir." Our taxi driver had said, stepping up to the porch. "Is there a problem here?"

I turned to him, adjusting the laughing girl against my chest. "I don't think so."

The taxi driver, tugged at his hat and beard, revealing Holmes. 

"Holmes, you scoundrel you!" I told him.

He went inside and a few moments later the Doctor and Evelyn came back out with Sherlock between them. "I'm sure that once your friend returns, he'll be able to explain everything." Sherlock told her.

She kissed him lightly on his right cheek and then smiled. "You are good man, Mister Holmes. I will be sure to pass on my regards to Watson when he returns."

The little girl looked at Watson, then at her. "But he's already here, Mommy. Daddy's already here."

"And so I am." Watson told her, smiling sweetly. "But I have to go with these gentlemen for a time, but I will be back shortly."

"Okay." She said, then leaped into his arms and hugged him tight. 

I swear I've never seen Watson so embarrassed and yet at the same time so touched by that incident. I suppose it's because he was considering the possibility of a child in his own relationship some day."

"Bloody hell I was." Watson said.

"I was just thinking how glad I was that Sherlock had shown up, as I hadn't the devil of a clue what to do at that point."

They all burst into laughter and I smiled, and then turned off my cell phone recorder. "I suggest we take a brief bathroom break before we continue our conversation."

"I thought this was an interview." Harry said rising from his chair.

"With you three." I said with a smile on my face. "It's an adventure as well."

They laughed.

I will continue the conversation interview with these three gentlemen as soon as I am able.

The Author and Interviewer

John Pirillo