To place the scene in perspective, imagine the first few moments of dawn as the sun lights up the sky to the east.\u00a0 It takes a little longer for the sun to actually make its golden way down into the valley, but we were nearer the plains portion of the city, when the sun’s rays touched Matana.\u00a0 Night and day are strange things, metaphysically, but if you think that there is always a shadow, perhaps it makes sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was sitting on one of those outside lounge chairs like you’d have at a picnic or a barbecue, not like the type around the pool.\u00a0 I was sipping fresh lemonade, and the remains of an apple crisp were next to the chair.\u00a0 Hawk stood near the fence.\u00a0 Ed was wearing sweat pants under his robe, and was leaned up against a pole near the porch where his mother sat.\u00a0 My sister and her newest squeeze, Roberto, were crashed out on the couch.<\/p>\n
“I would never have suspected lemonade to be so refreshing in the morning,” I pointed out.\u00a0 There was a little sprig of mint in it to add some flavour.<\/p>\n
“I would prefer coffee,” the vampire staked to the ground next to me complained.<\/p>\n
“Well, it is chilly,” I noted.\u00a0 “But it’s good.”<\/p>\n
“We could use saltwater, instead,” Hawk grumbled.\u00a0 He had finally caught on that I did not intend to stake the vampire.\u00a0 Of course, the day was yet young, as they said.<\/p>\n
“Joe?”\u00a0 Ed’s mom got out of her seat, and put her knitting down.\u00a0 I don’t know what she was knitting, but it looked like a silver net of some sort.\u00a0 She was wearing a floral top, and some of those black pants that martial artists always seem to be wearing, and a set of sleek black slippers.\u00a0 “Joe?\u00a0 You go mind your own business, Joe.”\u00a0 She yelled over the top of the fence.\u00a0 “Go put your binoculars away.\u00a0 We’re having a party, me and my son’s friends.”<\/p>\n
“Y’didn’t invite me!” came a rough voice from somewhere in the next yard.<\/p>\n
“Come around for apple crisps later,” Ed’s mom was adamant.\u00a0 “I’ll fix you up.”<\/p>\n
“‘Kay,” the voice agreed.<\/p>\n
She turned back around.\u00a0 “He’s a bird watcher,” she explained, “but this bird,” she feinted a kick towards Matana, “ain’t the type with feathers, and thus none of his beeswax.”<\/p>\n
“Thank you, ma’am,” Hawk noted.\u00a0 “They are awfully nice apple crisps.”<\/p>\n
“I’m glad you like them.\u00a0 The secret’s in the spices,” she winked, and went back to her seat.<\/p>\n
“Are you going to let me up?” Matana asked.<\/p>\n
“You’re not bleeding, yet,” I pointed out.<\/p>\n
“So I’m not human enough for you to let me go?” she asked.<\/p>\n
“Why’d you go all vamp on Ed?” I asked.<\/p>\n
“Why’d your pet unicorn up and skewer me like a kabob?” she retorted.<\/p>\n
“What?” Hawk asked.<\/p>\n
“It’s something I need to handle,” I explained.\u00a0 “And it’s irrelevant.\u00a0 I would be a thousand times more upset if you’d actually hurt my friend,” I focused back on the vampire.<\/p>\n
“Thanks, E,” Ed said.<\/p>\n
“No worries,” I shot back.<\/p>\n
“He’s the one who started it,” she finally said, squirming as if to try turning away from me.<\/p>\n
“What, did he sprinkle sugar on himself and do a little bat-calling dance?” I asked.<\/p>\n
“Uh,” Ed started.<\/p>\n
“I don’t believe in the, `He wore a short skirt so he was asking for it,’ defense,” I warned her, cutting Ed off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I did want to see her fangs,” Ed explained.<\/p>\n
“Oh.\u00a0 Well that changes everything,” I said.\u00a0 “C’mon, Hawk, let’s pull up the stakes and let them go back at it.”\u00a0 I rolled my eyes.\u00a0 “Not.\u00a0\u00a0 Maggie said something about you not being a threat.\u00a0 What do you eat, Matana?\u00a0 Only blood from virgins aged 16-19?\u00a0 Some kind of special vintage requirement?”<\/p>\n
She sighed and kicked a little with her feet, straining at the wrists.\u00a0 “It’s not important.”<\/p>\n
“You went vamp on my friend.\u00a0 I have you staked in the sunlight.\u00a0 You’re human enough that it isn’t killing you, but not human enough that it hurts you.\u00a0 Anything I want to ask is important, or I’ll let Ed’s mom and Hawk work you over.”<\/p>\n
“No point,” Hawk noted.\u00a0 “It’s best to just stake ’em.”<\/p>\n
“Oh, I think we could find something that would hurt,” Ed’s mom pointed out.\u00a0 “I have some garlic saved up from the garden.\u00a0 Or I could run the hose, making it cold running water.\u00a0 Or spill poppy seeds.\u00a0 \u00a0Or something.\u00a0 I’m sure we could find something.”<\/p>\n
I looked at Ed.<\/p>\n
He shrugged.\u00a0 “Mom’s always had her own opinions.\u00a0 Anyway, that’s maybe why I don’t find you so strange.”<\/p>\n
“What do you do for a living, ma’am?” Hawk asked.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know if that’s a polite question, but I’m retired now, honey.\u00a0 I did a little bit of this and that, just enough to make the ends meet.”\u00a0 She smiled.\u00a0 “Nothing to worry you boys.”<\/p>\n
“Spy,” Hawk, Ed,\u00a0and I said at the same time.\u00a0 At least two of us were kidding.<\/p>\n
She laughed.\u00a0 “Cook,” she countered.\u00a0 “Housewife.\u00a0 Couple of other odd jobs, that’s all.\u00a0 Let me keep my mystery.”<\/p>\n
“Proving my point, exactly,” I grinned, taking the edge off any retort.\u00a0 “Could be worse.\u00a0 You could be a writer.”<\/p>\n
“Um,” Ed started.<\/p>\n
“Shush,” his mom said, winking.<\/p>\n
“The plot thickens,” I smiled again, and finished off my apple crisp, staring at Matana.<\/p>\n
The vampire began to cry.\u00a0 Just little sniffles, and the occasional jerk of her shoulders, twisted as they were.\u00a0 She couldn’t quite turn away, anyway, and her face kind of scrunched.\u00a0 I felt like a bit of a heel, but I was still pretty mad.\u00a0 And pretty tired, all things considered.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It won’t happen again,” she said, finally.<\/p>\n
“Only one way to make sure of that,” Hawk said, almost cheerfully.<\/p>\n
“I didn’t know.”<\/p>\n
“Didn’t know what?”<\/p>\n
“A lot of things,” she admitted, but it was a distancing technique.\u00a0 She was figuring out how much to lie, and how much truth to tell.\u00a0 “He’s not…” she looked for a word.\u00a0 “He’s not entirely what I expected.”<\/p>\n
“I think she’s complimenting you, Ed,” I grinned.<\/p>\n
“Trying to explain why he smells like bacon, are you?” Hawk leaned over near her.\u00a0 “I’ve got you figured, vampire.\u00a0 You got a little excited, went over the edge, and it would have been a tragic accident, I’m certain.”<\/p>\n
It finally clicked why it didn’t sound right.\u00a0 Matana was classy, held herself together.\u00a0 “It’s the war, isn’t it?” I asked.<\/p>\n
“The war?” Hawk and Ed’s mom both narrowed their eyes.<\/p>\n
Matana nodded, very slightly.\u00a0 She narrowed her eyes, too.\u00a0 “I think I might be being played,” she admitted.<\/p>\n
“Welcome to the club.”\u00a0 I sighed.\u00a0 “Hawk, let’s let her up.\u00a0 Ed, go brew some coffee.\u00a0 My sister likes it, too.”<\/p>\n
“Bring her into the kitchen.\u00a0 That way, if you still want to stake her, I can mop up easily,” Ed’s mom suggested, taking her knitting stuff and leading the way into the house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“I don’t know if that’s a polite question, but I’m retired now, honey. I did a little bit of this and that, just enough to make the ends meet.” She smiled. “Nothing to worry you boys.” “Spy,” Hawk, Ed, and I said at the same time. At least two of us were kidding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001002,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chapter-seven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}