The Traveling Vampire Show

Chapter Twelve

On our way back to Route 3, Lee drove the dirt road very slowly. We both scanned the woods in hopes of seeing Slim and Rusty.

Three times, Lee stopped her truck and tooted the horn. I climbed out and called their names. Then we waited. Nobody yelled back. Nobody showed up. So she drove on.

When we reached the two-lane highway, I said, “Maybe you’d better let me out.”

She shook her head, but she didn’t drive on. Most adults would’ve just stepped on the gas and whisked me off, but not Lee. “I don’t think they’re in the woods,” she said. “By now, they’re probably long gone.” She put her hand on my leg. “Did you tell them where you’d be going?”

Blushing a little because of her hand, I said, “Not really. Just that I wanted to get a car and come back for them.” She patted my leg. “You know what? I bet they’re looking for you. They probably headed straight for town….”

“But we would’ve passed them.”

“A lot of ways we could’ve missed them. Depends on when they left. And maybe they took short cuts.”

“Maybe,” I muttered. I supposed Lee was right about missing them one way or another. It was sure possible. “But I’ve got a feeling they’re still out here,” I told her. “I feel like something went wrong, you know? I mean, Slim already had all those cuts. What if she passed out? Or what if the dog attacked them? Or maybe Rusty broke his leg jumping off the shack. Or maybe they were captured by those people who run the vampire show. I thought they were a pretty creepy bunch. No telling what they might do if they caught someone like Slim.”

Lee didn’t smirk or laugh at me. She looked concerned. “You’re right,” she said. “Any of that stuff might’ve happened. Or something else, just as bad, that you haven’t thought of.” A smile crept in. “Though I think you’ve covered the bases fairly well.”

I almost smiled, myself.

“The deal is,” she continued, “they’re probably somewhere in town by now—more than likely at your house, because they’d be needing to let you know what happened and your house would be about the best place to find you.”

Nodding, I said, “I guess that’s where they might go if they’re okay.”

“So let’s look there first.”

“Okay.”

“If we don’t find them at your place, we’ll keep looking till we do find them. That sound good to you?”

“Sounds fine.”

So then she pulled out onto Route 3, turned right, and headed for town. “We might even pass them along the way,” she said.

We didn’t.

The first thing I noticed as we approached my house was the empty driveway. It puzzled me for a moment. Mom should’ve been back from the grocery store. Apparently, she’d had other errands to run.

A lot of errands, I hoped.

With a little luck, maybe she and Dad would never have to find out about any of this.

“Look who’s here,” Lee said.

Her words gave me a moment of pure joy, but it faded when I saw Rusty leaning back against an elm tree in the front yard, shirtless, his arms crossed.

No Slim.

Rusty looked carefree, though. He smiled and waved as we pulled up to the curb. On his feet were the sneakers that he’d thrown at the dog. I took that for a good sign.

But why wasn’t Slim with him?

Feeling squirmy inside, I climbed out of the truck. Lee got out, too. As we walked toward Rusty, he asked me, “Where you been?”

“Out to Janks Field,” I said. “Where’s Slim?”

“She went home.”

“Is she all right?”

“Fine. Except for, you know, the cuts.” He smiled at Lee. “Hi, Mrs. Thompson.”

“Hi, Rusty.”

“So what happened?” I asked.

“Nothing much.”

“You were supposed to wait for me.”

“Yeah, well. We did. And then we thought we heard you coming… a car, you know? You were supposed to come back with a car, so we figured it must be you. Only what came out of the woods was a hearse. Man, I nearly….” With a smile at Lee, he said, “It scared the heck out of us. I mean, a hearse? Give me a break. So we figured it wasn’t Dwight coming to the rescue.” Looking at me, he added, “Where would you get a hearse, right?” To Lee, he said, “Then a big black bus came out of the woods, and that’s when we figured it must be the Vampire Show. So we beat it. We jumped down behind the shack and ran into the woods.” He shrugged his meaty, freckled shoulders. “That’s about it. When we got back into town, we split up. Slim went to her place and I came here so I could tell you what’d happened.”

“What about the dog?” I asked.

“Last I saw of that little… mutt… it was running toward the hearse like a madman, barking its tail off.”

“So it didn’t chase you guys?”

He shook his head. “Nope. We got off scot-free.”

All my worries had been for nothing. That’s usually how it is with worrying. More often than not, we get ourselves all in a sweat over something that might happen, then everything turns out just fine.

“What about Slim’s cuts?” I asked. “Did they bleed much on the way home?”

“Nope. They were fine.”

“They didn’t reopen?”

“Huh-uh.”

From what he said, I might just as well have stayed on the roof with them. It would’ve saved a lot of wear and tear on my nerves.

“Where did our shirts end up?” I asked.

“Slim has ‘em. They’re ruined anyway. She wore ’em home.”

“Where’d her T-shirt end up?”

“Still on the ground, I guess. Did you see it when you were there?”

I shook my head. I hadn’t seen Slim’s T-shirt or any sign of the dog or the sneakers….

“Wait,” I said.

He suddenly looked worried.

“How’d you get your sneakers back?” I asked.

“Huh?”

“What’d you do, run halfway across Janks Field when the hearse and bus were already there and… ?”

“Heck no. We jumped off the back of the shack.”

“Then how’d you get your shoes?”

“My shoes?” He looked down at his sneakered feet. “Oh!” He gave out a laugh and shook his head as if relieved. “You thought I threw my shoes at the dog!”

“I saw you throw them.”

“Not my shoes. Those were Slim’s.”

“Slim’s shoes?”

“Sure.”

“Jeez, man. Why didn’t you throw your own?”

“It was her idea.”

“Real nice.”

“Don’t blame me, she tossed me hers and told me to throw ’em, so I did.”

“So then she had to go through the woods and all the way home barefoot?”

“No big deal. She was fine. Anyway, I offered her mine but she wouldn’t take ’em.”

“Not that they’d fit her anyway,” I said, a little annoyed.

I had sure misjudged Rusty, giving him credit for what turned out to be mostly Slim’s doing.

At least Rusty had done the throwing.

“Well,” said Lee, “glad you both made it out of there all right. We had our doubts.”

“We got out fine,” Rusty said, smiling and bobbing his head. “In fact,” he added, “Slim’s coming over here as soon as she’s gotten herself all bandaged and cleaned up.”

“Good deal,” said Lee. Then she turned to me. “I think I’ll head on home, now. When Slim gets here, why don’t the three of you talk things over and decide what to do about tonight?”

Rusty raised his eyebrows.

“Lee got us tickets for the show,” I explained.

“No shit?” he blurted. Then he quickly added, “Excuse me, Mrs. Thompson.”

“No problem, Rusty.”

“Just slipped out.”

“Tickets for all of us,” I explained.

“Oh, man, this is too cool.”

“I’ll hang on to the tickets,” Lee said, “and drive us out there tonight.”

“Oh, wow….”

“But you’ll have to work things out, yourselves, with your parents. Handle them however you want. I won’t tell on you, but I don’t want to have a hand in any deceptions you decide to use.”

“We’ll figure something,” I said.

“If we’re going,” Lee said, “we should probably leave from my place by about ten-thirty. We’ll want to get there early enough to beat the crowd—if there is a crowd. And find ourselves a parking place.”

“That’ll be great,” I said. “Your house by ten-thirty.”

“And you’re welcome to come over earlier. Always better not to wait till the last moment.”

“We’ll come over as early as we can make it,” I told her.

Then she nodded, said, “See you later then,” and headed for her truck.

Rusty and I watched her drive away.

“Your brother,” he said, “is one lucky son of a bitch.”

“You’re telling me.”

“Shit. What I wouldn’t give…” He shook his head and sighed.

“Well, we’re the ones going to the Vampire Show with her.”

“Yeah! Fantastic! She got four tickets?”

“Bought ’em,” I said. “They cost her forty bucks.”

“She forked over forty bucks?”

“Well, not cash. She used a check.”

“Do we have to pay her back?”

“She didn’t say anything about it. I think she’s treating us.”

“Wow!”

“It didn’t even matter that we’re underage. The guy knew it, but he didn’t care. Julian? He’s the owner. He’s the one we talked to when we went looking for you guys. He sort of warned Lee that it’s an adults only show….”

“What’d he say?”

“He said the show can be real gory. And clothes get ripped off.”

“Holy shit!”

“Yeah. But Lee didn’t seem to mind. She said she wanted the tickets anyway, so the guy went ahead and sold them to her. But only on the condition that she goes to the show with us. We can’t, like, go without her.”

“Ah. I bet he’s got the hots for her.”

“You know what else? If we stick around after the show, he’ll introduce us to Valeria.”

Rusty moaned almost as if in pain. “We get to meet her face to face?”

“If Julian keeps his word.”

“Ohhhhh, man. This is gonna be some night, huh?”

“I’ll say,” I said. “If we can go.”

“We’re going. Man, we’re going—I don’t care what.”

“Maybe I can finish mowing the lawn before Slim gets here.”