In a Cavern, in a Canyon is a short story by Laird Barron first featured in the 2015 anthology [Seize the Night](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25111052-seize-the-night) and later included in the 81st issue of Nightmare Magazine, published in June 2019. The story is currently freely available on [the Nightmare Magazine website](https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/in-a-cavern-in-a-canyon/) as well. The story was later published in the 2024 short story collection [[Not A Speck Of Light (Book)]]. The story plays out over a long period of time. The main events take place in 1977 but the current time in the story is around 2015. It features a woman in her fifties called Hortense Shaw who lives in [[Alaska]]. She thinks back to a night in 1977 when she was 16 years old, when her dad disappeared right after she spotted some kind of non-human creature, alien or cryptid. There's a couple of things in the story that relate directly to Barron's other works. ### __Eagle Talon, Alaska and the Frazier Estate__ The main character grew up in the Frazier Estate apartment complex in the town of Eagle Talon, Alaska. The Frazier Estate is where the Eagle Talon Murders described in [[Termination Dust]] will later take place in 2012. The Frazier Estate apartment building is described in the story as a _"fourteen-story apartment complex"_. This seems to contradict the descriptions we get in Termination Dust, where someone says it's a six-floor apartment building. This could be after the top three floors were consumed in the fire on the night of the murders, but that would still leave us with an original maximum of nine floors. The Caribou Tavern in Eagle Talon is another locale mentioned in both the stories In a Cavern, in a Canyon and Termination Dust. ### __Other Mentions__ The story's protagonist has a sibling with the name Artemis and a family [[Dogs|dog]] with the name Tony Orlando. The name Artemis appears in the story [[Strident Caller]] as the dog of main character Jesse Craven and adheres to Barron's unspoken rule of naming dogs after deities or Greek or Roman figures. It's a fun, little twist that this story features a dog with an oddly human name and a person with a 'typical' dog name. There's also a brief mention of a 'Doc Green', the local veterinarian. One of Barron's recurring characters is a [[Dr. Green]]. It seems highly unlikely that the recurring Dr. Green is Eagle Talon's veterinarian, but Laird definitely didn't give this doctor the same name by accident. He is very conscious with these kinds of things, as stated by himself in [an interview in 2021)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caA1o0O58qw): "What I decided is: no, intentionally repeat names; intentionally have scenes recur; make it work. Instead of doing it completely unconsciously, be very conscious in my choices." (Chthonica Episode #1, july 4th, 2021) There's brief mention of a man called Harmon Snodgrass, who is probably a family member of Emmitt Snodgrass who lives in the Frazier Estate during the events described in Termination Dust. #Story #Speck