At one point Horn-rimmed got close to us. I belched really loud and he jumped. “Hey Einstein,” I said pointing to the tank, “Who’s the stiff?”

“Oh, ahh, that . . . that is . . . ahhh, Mr. Andrew Thomas Blue,” he blubbered.

I nodded. “And what’s his deal?”

Horn-rimmed pushed his glasses back. “Well, he uh, has been kept alive by machines for a year now and . . . well, his family finally signed the papers to have him cut off.”

I looked at Mo’, then laughed, looking back at the geek. “Bet they didn’t know he’d wind up in Frankenstein’s lab, did they?”

“Well, ahh . . . no. We had to shuffle a few papers.”

“I bet you did.”

Finally they were ready. Horn-rimmed sat at a panel behind the tank while Ponytail took position at the machine attached to Mr. Blue.

“Hey doctor, where’s the popcorn?” I shouted.

Ponytail turned and shushed me. “Mr. McDonald, please. You are being paid well.”

He had me there. I shut my trap. They began working feverishly. Ponytail had one hand on what I assumed was the cut-off button and one finger in the air that Horn-rimmed was staring at. Slowly Ponytail turned a switch and then signaled his partner by lowering his finger.

“Now,” he whispered.

Suddenly the tank was filling with a smoky blue mist that came from the giant syringe. It filled quickly and as it did Ponytail completed turning off his machine and backed away, staring intensely into the mist.

I realized that both Mo’Lock and I were standing and staring too. At first I couldn’t see a thing, but then gradually something began to form in the thick mist above the body inside. I moved closer.

There was something solid in there but I couldn’t make it out. The shifting mist made it hard to see what was going on inside the tank.

Then Ponytail signaled Horn-rimmed again and the syringe began sucking out the smoke. It was gone in seconds.

Behind me I heard the ghoul let out a gasp.

They’d done it. I was stunned.

There, floating above the body was another body, naked and as blue as a summer sky. It floated, facing the corpse as though studying it. It was the dead man’s soul. A motherfucking human soul. I couldn’t believe it, but there it was. It was odd it didn’t really look like the dead man. The corpse was old and flabby, but the spirit was smooth and muscular, almost featureless. It was staring at the corpse below it.

Then slowly it began to rise away from the corpse and was only a few feet short of the top of the tank.

Everybody was standing around the tank, silent, in awe. I hate to say shit like this, but it was as if we were all sharing the same dream. We just watched the soul rise, floating as gentle as a feather.