by Michael Dunn
It had been too long since Suzie hung out with her friends, and when she approached them after the ceremony, they tried to turn away from her like the flock of sheep they were. The other girls were crying and hugging each other in a cloudy mass of long white robes, saying how much they would miss everyone.
“I’m going to miss you guys too,” Suzie said as she approached her old friends, who stopped and stared at her like she was someone they had never met before. “So, where’s the best party tonight going to be?”
“Uh… I don’t know of any party. I’m hanging out with my boyfriend tonight.”
“Hey,” Melissa Delpy asked the other girls, “Suzie wants to know if there are any parties tonight.”
They all giggled in unison. No one knew of any parties that night at least none they wanted her to attend.
“Y’know, Suzie,” Melissa said, “I heard there might be a party at the trailer park tonight. And you shouldn’t be drinking in your condition.”
“I’m not pregnant!” Suzie shouted, and barely controlled her eyes from flashing yellow. Her first instinct was to slap Melissa’s head off her off her shoulders, but she calmed down, and forced a smile before walking away. She felt like crying, but would not give Melissa or the other girls the satisfaction. She knew how her mother felt at the memorial service when her friends wouldn’t allow her entrance into their exclusive club. Suzie would never talk to those girls again. It would seem JP was right after all: there was a heavy price to her survival, and like her parents months before she, too, had lost her friends.
Tony and JP came by to see Suzie as Dee became photo-happy again. Jack made an excuse to go ‘have a smoke’ when Tony put his arm around Suzie.
“Hey, are you all right?” His voice was strained as he caught her eyes before watching the girls be swooped away by their respective boyfriends and families, off to some party or another.
With more strength than she had to muster since her ‘Uncles’ burial, Suzie swallowed the tears that threatened to over flow from her eyes as she looked up at him and pressed her body against his, resting her nose under his chin.
“Yeah, I’m alright, hun. Don’t worry.” She said, trying to reassure herself. All the same, she couldn’t bring herself to look after the girls who had once been her friends.
“Oh, don’t move a muscle!” A voice struck the two of them, soon followed by a rapid series of clicks reminiscent of machine gun fire as an over-excited Dee Keaton captured the moment for prosperity. “Do you think I could get in there with you? Jack!” Her voice was sharp as she called out for her husband.
Suzie couldn’t help but laugh as she parted, making room for her mother, keeping her hand wrapped around Tony’s for as long as she could. “I’ll tell you later.”
After another blur of photographs shot by a none-too pleased Jack Keaton, Dee took the camera back and continued her shooting frenzy, even inviting JP into a couple of the photographs. Jack needed another cigarette.
“Okay, kids, smile for the camera.”
They did, and when Dee peaked through the camera lens, she saw all three kids had yellow eyes. She moved the camera from her face and looked at the kids with the naked eye. Tony’s were brown, JP’s were blue, and Suzie’s were a sparkling green, and certainly not yellow. Dee looked back into the lens and the yellow eyes returned.
Must be a reflection from the sun, Dee thought and began clicking away. The same thing had happened with the pictures she took of Tony before he and Suzie went to prom. When the prom pictures came back, Tony’s eyes were brown as normal.
Suzie wanted to get away from her mother’s zealous photo session. “Mom, Tony and I are going out tonight. I’ll see you later.”
Suzie took Tony by the hand and led him toward his family. They wanted a picture of Tony and Suzie, but stopped at two.
“Okay, dear, have fun.” Dee said as Suzie and Tony walked away.
“Mrs. Keaton?” JP asked, with an unusual amount of humility.
“Yes?”
“Um, if it’s not too much trouble, could I have a copy of that picture?”
Dee could see it meant a lot to him.
“Sure, um, not a problem.”
“Thank you.” JP smiled and walked away.
Dee put her camera in her camera bag, which was slung over her shoulder and jumped when she heard a voice say, “They grow up so fast, don’t they?”
Dee jumped, then turned to see Roxanne Grenier smoking a cigarette, still as stealthy as ever.
Dee smiled, “Oh, heaven forbid, it seemed like just yesterday we were both taking orders while pregnant.”
They both laughed at their shared memory. Dee looked around to make sure Jack was not around before she asked Roxanne, “Can I bum a cigarette?”
It was a question Dee had not asked her in nearly twenty years.
Roxanne dug through her purse and pulled out her pack of smokes and handed one to the former waitress.
“Thanks.”
Both mothers looked at their children in the distance.
“They grew up too fast,” Dee agreed. “You’ve seen more of my daughter lately than I have.” There was more than a twinge of jealousy in her voice.
Roxanne looked at her not knowing if Dee knew what was really going on with Suzie or not.
“She’s doing good. She’s a great kid. You’re very lucky.”
At that time, Tony led his parents toward Dee and Roxanne. Roxanne forced a friendly smile. “Gard. Eunice.”
Then a memory clicked in Dee’s head. Once upon a time, Roxanne held a torch for Gard, who fell for a girl from New York State. “This must be her,” Dee thought.
Gard held out his hand to Dee. “Hi, Dee, it’s been a long time. This is my wife, Eunice.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Dee said as she shook Eunice’s hand. She had been wanting to meet her for the longest time.
The parents watched their children off in the distance as they were huddled together away from the rest of the students.
“It seems like those kids are by themselves,” Dee said, almost heartbroken.
“It’s… it’s because they’re special. The other kids wouldn’t understand,” Gard said.
Dee thought that was cryptic.
“Look at them,” Dee said with eyes moist. “They’re adults now. Soon, they won’t need us anymore.”
Roxanne closed her eyes and shook her head.
Gard looked at Dee and told her, “I’m sure our parents said the same thing when we graduated.”
The trailer park friends fled Dee when Jack was on his way back.
“Ready to go?” Jack asked.
Dee nodded. “I think I’m going to stop using these instant print cameras. Something’s a bit off.”
“Why’s that?”
“When I took a picture of the kids, all their eyes were yellow. That never happened with my Canon…”
Jack stopped. “Oh, really?”
“Yeah, isn’t that weird? I saw it on Tony’s eyes too when he was taking Suzie to prom. I thought it was a fluke, but it’s happened again, so it looks like they still have to work some kinks out of these new cameras. It’s disgraceful. You would really think they’d’ve noticed it before releasing the model,” Dee said, shaking her head.
Jack nodded slightly, keeping his head down.
When Jack and Dee got home, Jack excused himself to the garage and shut the door.
2
After the graduation ceremony and despite the shunning from girls she thought were her friends, Suzie’s hormones were in overdrive, and all she could think about was getting Tony naked. Normally, a single thought of sex wouldn’t get her hot, it usually took a half-hour of foreplay to get her going, but now, one second of imagining Tony with his shirt off, or in his basketball uniform, got her ready to rip off his clothes.
Suzie never thought of herself as a very sexual person before. True, she and Tony had their share of enjoyable sex, even if sometimes she felt she was doing it for Tony, bec
ause sex was something she could take or leave most of the time. It was good on occasion, but not something she needed daily or even weekly. Now, she wanted it all the time, hungering for Tony.
In the parking lot, after her mother’s photo op, Suzie jumped into Tony’s arms and ravishingly kissed his face and bit his lower lip. Tony jumped when Suzie jumped in his arms since Suzie was usually too shy for such outward public displays of affection. Tony raised an eyebrow when he looked at Suzie, who was suggestively biting her bottom lip.
“Um… are you ready to get out of here?” Tony asked, bewildered and excited.
“Oh, God, yes.” Suzie said between kisses.
“Maybe we should get some dinner first.”
“Maybe not.”
When they got to their new spot in the woods, not surprisingly, nowhere near that infamous large oak tree, Suzie pushed Tony on his back and got on top of him. She was still getting used to her new strength as she ripped off his shirt.
Suzie pulled off her top and bra and began nuzzling on Tony’s neck like she was feasting, then proceeded down his chest. When she sat up, straddled on top of him, Tony looked into her eyes, which were bright yellow and two teeth on the top and bottom were sharp and pointy.
Suzie looked down at Tony. “Oh, honey, I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?”
Tony took a deep breath and whispered, “No.”
3
When Tony finished, which was the best sex of his young life, both he and Suzie lay in the bed of Tony’s new pickup truck watching the waning quarter moon chase the sun out of the sky. Even if Bordeaux had them killed tomorrow, it would’ve been worth it.
In the back of the truck, Suzie lay happily in Tony’s arms with her head nuzzled on Tony’s chest, and felt the most relaxed she had been since the accident. She glanced at Tony, who looked deep in thought, staring at the night sky. He was quiet most of the night, but he was naturally quiet.
Suzie rubbed her finger across Tony’s chest. His face still had that expressionless, concentrated look and she thought he probably didn’t feel the touch. Maybe he was just out there with the stars, like Suzie had been on prom night. Maybe he couldn’t talk to her or just didn’t want to. Either way, his silence was getting annoying.
“Something on your mind?” She asked.
It took him a few seconds to respond, and he said after a deep breath, “Yeah, there is.”
“Well… what?”
Tony sighed, “Okay, I should get this off my chest.”
Tony rolled on his side and faced Suzie. “This isn’t going to be easy. I mean, remember how hard it was for me just to ask you out or tell you about the accident?” Tony laughed, Suzie didn’t, and he continued.
“So, you can imagine how hard this is going to be. Um… you see, since everything that’s happened, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and because of recent events, there has been an added element of danger to our lives, and I think the only way we can resolve this is to…”
Suzie heard nothing after ‘resolve,’ and felt like Tony had reached into her chest, tore out her heart, and was about to eat it. This couldn’t be happening, could it? She had never felt so scared, so hurt. This seemed to have come out of nowhere. If she didn’t hang on to something, she would have burst into tears. Two rejections in one day was not only unbearable, but emotionally crippling. She thought they were doing so well together and why did he have to bring this up right after sex?
“You’re breaking up with me?”
“What? No, just the opposite.”
“The opposite?”
Tony crawled toward the cab of the truck and reached into the window, then pulled out a palm-sized velvet box and crawled back to Suzie. He opened the box and showed her the ring inside. It was a golden ring with a tiny diamond on the top.
Suzie screamed, “Oh my God!” as she took the ring out of the box and slipped it on her finger, then extended her arm to see how it looked from a distance. Tony grunted in frustration.
“I’m trying to ask you to marry me, and I guess I’m just not doing it right!” Tony sighed and put his hand on his face.
With a large smile on her face, she said, “Yes!” Suzie giggled and embraced him.
She kissed him long and hard, pushing him backward until she was on top of him and staring down into his large brown eyes, biting her lower lip as she was known to do. This was the happiest night of her life and she was certain they would live happily ever after.
4
“Mom!” Suzie said as she came through the front door. Her left hand was hung out in front of her so her mom could get a good look at the ring.
Dee came running from the kitchen when she heard Suzie’s excitement.
“What? What is it?”
Suzie didn’t have to answer. When Dee saw the small diamond ring, she knew, and then covered her mouth to scream. They both jumped up and down hugging each other.
“Oh my God,” Dee said. “There are a million things that need to get done.”
“Mom, we haven’t even set a date yet.”
Dee shrugged. “Tell me everything! Tell me everything!”
Suzie saw the look on her mother’s face and knew she was going to love doing this, possibly more than taking pictures. With all the things she needed to keep her mind on over the summer, Suzie was glad to let someone take over the details for her.
“You’re right, mom. There are a million details to look over. Why don’t you do it, that is, only if you want to.”
“Oh honey, I’d be honored. We should tell your father. JACK! JACK!”
They heard him leave the garage and begrudgingly come through the house.
Jack entered the living room, drunk, unkempt, and asked a contemptuous, “What?”
Dee was startled and hesitated to tell him at first. She relented and showed Jack Suzie’s left hand. “Look, Jack. Tony proposed to Suzie.”
Jack’s mouth dropped and the memory of his recurring nightmare came rushing forward, the one about seeing Tony and Suzie’s hideous child, the one where Suzie joked, “He has his father’s eyes,” but Suzie had those same eyes in his dreams. Jack had never seen the movie Rosemary’s Baby, but he knew the plot and was aware of the movie’s catchphrase, the same one Suzie used in his dream.
That was the moment Jack cracked. That child should never be born, and Jack decided the trailer park shouldn’t be allowed to exist either.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Caravan Arrives
June 7th, 1971
The sweltering summer months slowed the lives of those in Bestiavir to a barely noticeable pace. For some, it marked the end. Drowning himself in alcohol weeks after burying his wife in the woods next to his son, Rene Naschy went out into the woods and blew his brains out. Bordeaux had him buried next to his family.
For others, it was a time of joy.
The trailer park community stood outside watching as the caravan turned off Bray Road heading their way, an semi-annual event when the packs met in June, this year, the pack from Bisclavret, upstate New York near the Canadian border, drove to New Mexico.
Decades ago, after Bordeaux created the trailer park community and it was a more or less stable environment, he left in search of others like himself, when he came across William Endore in the wilds in upstate New York. Through Endore, Bordeaux had met others, such as Gilbert Ramsey and his brood in Greifswald, Montana, but it was Endore’s pack he saw most often.
The caravan arrived in three Ford Broncos and two Winnebagos, all well-kept for William didn’t share the same poverty illusion as Bordeaux. The caravan stopped in front of the basketball pole and piled out as the residents of the trailer park stiffened, acting as diplomatically as they could.
William exited the passenger side of the lead Bronco. He was shorter than Bordeaux, but stockier, and wore mirrored sunglasses over his neatly trimmed salt-and-pepper hair, beard, and moustache. A red t-shirt under a tan fishing vest and faded blue jeans, William Endore looked ever the hunter.
The vis
iting alpha laughed heartily and stuck out his hand. “Robert, nice to see you again.”
Bordeaux smiled and shook his hand firmly. “Nice to see you again. Glad you could bring the family.”
“Glad to be here,” William laughed. “It’s been a long three day drive.”
“Well, we have a special barbecue set aside for all of you.”
The others got out of the Broncos and Winnebagos. Christy Wagner Huntington ran out and embraced her little brother, Larry giving him a big hug.
“How are you?” Christy asked. “Mom and dad told me you haven’t been yourself for a while.”
“I was, but I’m much better now, sis.” Larry said.
“I’m glad.” Christy was three years Larry’s senior and looked just like him. She married Josh Huntington from Bisclavret two years before and have been trying to have a baby since. Conception was a tricky operation for their people.
“So, do you have a girlfriend here?”
“Uh… no,” Larry was embarrassed to answer, staring at his shoes.
“Just as well. Here, let me introduce you to Amelia Glendon.”
“Amelia, come here.” Christy waved the shy girl over. “Amelia, this is my brother Larry, the one I told you about.”
Larry and Amelia each exchanged a nervous “Hi.” Larry smiled and was instantly smitten. She was a willowy blonde with long, stringy hair. Freckles dotted her pale face and thin small nose. Her wide, friendly smile won over Larry, who fell for her immediately. He now understood how and why Tony would risk everything for Suzie.
Eunice Brandner was delighted to see her sister, Edith Brooks, and her niece, Crystal.
“Tony, come here and say hi to your aunt and your cousin.” Eunice waved her son over. Eunice had grown up in Bisclavret, but moved to New Mexico to marry Gard. To prevent extinction, to prevent inbreeding, and to prevent one pack from getting too powerful over another, the communities from Bisclavret, Bestiavir, Greifswald, and other packs in the Western Hemisphere had an exchange program. This generation, the Bestiavir community had a surplus of boys (or it would have if Benny were still alive) and the Bisclavret community would have a few girls graduating high school soon.
