The Antidote

The Scarecrow listens to Dell, the Antidote, and Cleo Allfrey discussing something. They mention a courthouse. The Scarecrow notices Allfrey’s camera and remembers being photographed.

The chapter opens with two letters. In the first, Roy Stryker complains of the negatives that Cleo has sent him and also of the dates she has assigned to the images. In the second letter, Cleo replies by informing Stryker that she is quitting her job with the Historical Society, then goes on to explain the images captured by the Graflex camera she bought from the pawn shop: The camera takes photos of scenes that occurred either in the past or in the future. Cleo does not know whether it depicts a fixed, unchangeable future or a possible future. She now spends her time in the root cellar darkroom. Here, she develops a photo of a cottonwood tree: When it develops, it depicts the Sheriff with the dead body of Mink Petrusev. When Dell enters the root cellar, Cleo reveals to her what the camera is doing, then shows Dell the photos she has developed. Upon seeing the photo of the sheriff under the cottonwood tree, Dell reveals what she has learned from the Antidote about the sheriff’s framing of Dew for the murders of several women.