by Phil Wohl
asked the group, “Anyone want a bite?”
Hartwell held his stomach and said, “I couldn’t eat another bite.”
Maggie replied, “I think I’ve already surpassed my Weight Watcher’s points today.”
Belinda nodded, “Yeah, me too.’
Max was buzzed by all of the new blood and was acting like a sloppily drunk college freshman.
“Yeah, daddio, let’s chug this last one! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG!” he yelled as he thrust his fist in the air.
Hartwell gave a fatherly look to Daniel and then put his arm around Maxwell, “I think he’s had enough. Why don’t you do the honors.”
Daniel knew it was closing time and took the last few sips left in his drink and then put his two tall glasses back on earth’s bar so they could be at rest and then be ready to greet the new day and another fresh start.
TWENTY
While the fight was ending at Beach Haven Park, a strange dynamic was unfolding back at the house between Claire Vinson and Samuel. She had been so focused on revenge since her father had died that the pressure and focus had taken its toll on this usually kind and soft-spoken soul. But as she slipped off into a deep sleep, she had the wherewithal to suggest to Samuel that he join her in dreamland.
When Claire felt into the equivalent of an unconscious world, it had the impact of suspending any deep animosity in the house that might be present and overlap it with a veil of soft and friendly competition that existed. Her deep snooze also effectively put an end to her brief, yet controlling relationship with an enamored Samuel, who was transitioned through the extensive and slow debriefing process while they were both out of pocket. It was Samuel’s first relationship and it was one that he would always remember and everyone else would have trouble pieces together details of the week. The break also gave Claire the ability to let her vengeful father go and begin her search for her long-lost mother, who she was told was gone but she always knew was very much still in the here and now.
Linda Vinson had always been able to keep mental tabs on her daughter and up until the previous week, she had never detected any signs of stress or strife. Of course she did feel the emptiness in Claire’s heart from not having grown up with her parents, but especially her mom. Brenda Vinson was always guarded in her comments to her granddaughter about who her father was, but was always flowing with nice things to say about her daughter because she knew deep down that one day they would reunite.
Brenda and Linda didn’t dare talk to each other either by conventional methods or through their thoughts for fear that Lowery would find them all and eliminate the top two layers. His interest would obviously be in the daughter he never knew he had, and his scorn would rest squarely on the shoulders of the mother and grandmother that kept such a deep, bright secret from him.
The line of communication between Brenda and Linda was reestablished the morning that Ellison put an end to mortal Lowery. It was also about the time that Brenda Vinson noticed that her granddaughter had left the house, some 18 years to the day after her daughter had left in haste the morning of Claire’s birth.
The delivery of a baby girl on the night was both a joyous and tumultuous event. Brenda was a trained mid-wife and quite capably delivered Claire into the world and then cleaned up the baby and her daughter before she spoke.
“I don’t want to be the one to say this, but we have to separate in order to avoid his scorn.”
Linda knew what had to be done but she had trouble forming the actual words.
“When?”
Mother looked at daughter and they both looked at Claire, who was swaddled in a pink blanket in the bassinet.
“If he gets even a hint of her, she will spend her entire life without the both of us.”
Brenda then closed her eyes and got a flash of a future moment. She then flipped the images over to her daughter, who felt more reassured that the separation would be anything but permanent.
“Okay, let me just get my things together.”
Brenda had obviously planned ahead as she pointed toward the door and a large suitcase that was filled with Linda’s clothes.
“Wow. This really is goodbye,” an emotional Linda stated.
She walked over to the bassinet and picked up her daughter, who smiled when she lifted her up to near her face and their cheeks touched. The bond between mother and daughter was forged and could not be shaken during Linda’s extended absence.
Linda kissed Claire on the forehead and then put her back in the bassinet. She turned to her mother and jumped into her arms, as Brenda had to summon the strength to keep tears from flowing. While she had the distinct feeling that the separation would be temporary, it was not out of the realm of possibility to experience a shift of consciousness as time marched on. The wild card of the situation was Lowery, who made everything difficult down to his “courtship” of Linda Vinson.
“Hello little lady,” a confident Lowery said to Linda as sat at a hotel bar in Delray Beach, Florida.
Linda nodded and then took a large swig of her glass of white wine, because the smell of the vampire and the vision she had of the two of them kissing was a more than she could process at that moment. She was down in Florida with her mother attending an informal convention of people around the world that had clairvoyant abilities. Brenda was giving a lecture in an adjacent conference room, when she flashed on the vampire doing a lot more than just talking to her daughter. Her first instinct was to run out of the room and rescue Linda, but she couldn’t forgo the money she was getting for being a keynote speaker.
Lowery’s interest in Linda was grounded in his insatiable appetite for all things paranormal. He had been through a variety of witches and werewolf’s, and he even admitted that one woman he had been with could have been easily mistaken for the bride of Frankenstein. So it was no accident that he showed up at an informal clairvoyant convention, and had sampled the blood of many of the attendants when he realized the difficulty in turning them into vampires. He was about to use Linda a similar capacity, but Brenda was able to section her mind off with one side being used for the speech and the other in stopping Lowery from taking all of Linda’s blood.
The only problem in making Lowery more sensitive was that he had to replace one appetite with another, so they need for blood was swapped for the next yearning on his personal list, which was a need for romance. Lowery made the transition from Dracula to Don Juan in the time he walked up to the bar and the moment he first spoke to Linda. She was less taken by his charms and more concerned that he would make her a mid-afternoon snack, which made the decision to share her bed that much more fundamental.
Her mother confronted her in a panic later that day, “What happened? I couldn’t leave the room and help you!”
Linda had some time to think about the events of the day and let her brief romance with of all things, a vampire, to sink in.
She smiled at her mother and blushed like a school girl, “He was quite charming.”
Brenda could not believe what she was hearing.
“What? He was charming because I turned him that way. It was either that or say goodbye to you.”
“That’s what I thought, so I just went with it.”
“You just went with it?” Brenda questioned her daughter.
“When you’re at close range with a vampire, what choice do you really have? He’s going to get what he wants no matter what I see or what I want to do.”
The wise elder smirked and responded, “Not necessarily.”
TWENTY-ONE
Hartwell awoke the following morning after the fifth night of fighting in his own bed with his wife. He was calm and in a playful mood as the hunters and protectors shuffled through the door. This sense of calm and playfulness was distributed to the other members of the house, much as his moods on the other mornings wound up being blueprints for the remainder of the days. His upbeat disposition on th
is day would also serve as a template for the next several days of playful games and adventures between the housemates.
As the 16 active members of the house trickled into the main room, it became obvious that pairings would be in order for a few days of friendly competition.
Cal and Hartwell sat next to each other at the dining table and it wasn’t like they ever needed too much incentive to go at each other. But this time, the furthest thing from their minds would be physical contact.
“You can’t beat me at ping-pong! I was the three-time champion of my grade school!” Cal exclaimed.
Sharon chimed in, “And he has the trophies to prove it in a display case in our room.”
“I studied under Great Master Kwon in Beijing,” Hartwell stated. He zipped into his room and came back with a ping-pong paddle. “I bet you hold the paddle like a tennis racket,” he added as he illustrated the ‘shaking hands’ method to holding a paddle. “The ancients held the paddle between their fingers…” he said as he moved the handle between the middle finger and the ring finger of his right hand.
Cal waved him off, “You can hold that paddle between your toes, because I’m still going to beat you!”
Thaddeus and Garrison were still all about cars after their day as greaser bullies.
“I can beat you in any car on any track or road!” Gary said to Thad.
“Please!” Thad replied. “Any car on any road? Have you ever been in a
