From Cabinet 34, Drawer 6

"From Cabinet 34, Drawer 6" is a short story by Caitlin R. Kiernan that first in 2005's Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth. It revolves around the discovery of an impossible fossil, Grendelonyx innsmouthensi--"Grendel's claw from Innsmouth"--in a storage cabinet in a museum. The story was reprinted in Kiernan's collections Two Worlds and In Between (2011) and Houses Under the Sea: Mythos Tales (2019).
Kiernan's story was inspired by both Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" and the 1954 film The Creature From the Black Lagoon. She relates in the afterward to Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth:
==Locations==
The Pratt Museum was a real museum located at Amherst College in Massachusetts; since a 2006 move on campus, it's been known as the Beneski Museum of Natural History. It houses the largest collection of dinosaur tracks in the world.Amherst College, Beneski Museum of Natural History, "Dinosaur Tracks"
The discovered fossil bears a label "from Naval dredgings, USS Cormorant (April, 1928), Lat. 42°40'N., Long. 70°43'W, NE. of old Innsmouth Harbor, Essex Co., Mass. ?Devonian." The coordinates are about 1,000 feet from the entrance to Essex Bay, near Coffin Beach.
Kiernan provides explicit directions to the fictional location of Innsmouth: From Ipswich, "take Argilla Road out of town and stay on it all the way down to the river." Unfortunately, in the story, these directions lead to "a locked gate and chain-link fence crowned with loops of razor wire." In real life, the directions would take you to the Castle Neck River Reservation, owned by the Essex County Greenbelt Association.Essex County Trail Association, "Castle Neck River Reservation"
==Characters==
*Lacey Morrow, a paleontologist who discovers a fossilized claw in a cabinet at the Pratt Museum
*Dr. Solomon Monalisa, head of a secret organization that preserves and conceals evidence of Earth's true history. He is described as a "grinning scarecrow of an old man in a blue fedora and a shiny gabardine suit, blue bow tie to match his hat.... [H]is violet-grey eyes sparkle like amethysts and spring water." He first appeared in Kiernan's short story "Onion".
*Dr. Jasper Morgan, Morrow's boss at the Pratt.
*Dr. Mary Hanisak, a colleague at the Pratt's zoology department who specializes in the evolution of rodent teeth. Described as "chubby little Dr. Hanisak like a storybook gnome". Has a secret connection to Monalisa.
==External Link ==
* "'From Cabinet 34, Drawer 6' (2005) by Caitlin R. Kiernan", review from Deep Cut in a Lovecraftian Vein
==References==
Category:Caitlin R. Kiernan works
Category:Expanded Mythos Works