Antecedent

by Susan Stumpf

When I got to the shop Wu was busy with some customers. Li handed me the keys to the van and told me it was parked around back in the alley. He also handed me a post-it with an address on it. That was it, no explanation of where I was going or what I'd be doing exactly. Li was a man of very few words. I only heard him speak a few times. He wasn't stuck up or anything. He just seemed like one of those old, wise, Mr. Miyagi types that only spoke when it was required or he had something brilliant and enlightening to say. I was walking toward the back when Wu called to me, "Em, we need four please." Then he went back to talking to his customers. Ok?four what?

  I got in the van and noticed there were four wire crates in the back. I didn't like the looks of this. I drove to the address on the post it Li gave me and pulled up at an animal shelter. Oh no, no, no, no. I was making a food run for Bo! This was horrible! I sat there for a few minutes wondering what would happen if I refused to do this. Would Bo fire me, kill me? No, probably not. I figure if I didn't do it he would just send Wu to do it. So it didn't matter if I refused. I got out and reluctantly went inside.

  I walked into a very clean office area. There were posters all over the walls: spay and neuter your pets, heartworm dangers, and advertisements for different pet medications. I could hear a chorus of dogs barking, and I almost changed my mind. If I had to pick which dogs, I was going to leave. I couldn't pick which dogs were going to die via vampire. Behind the counter was sitting a pretty middle-aged woman with short, reddish brown hair. She was wearing a tan uniform shirt with the name Angel embroidered on it.

  "Can I help you?" she asked.

  "Yeah, I'm here to pick up some dogs," I said not really knowing what to say. Yeah, I need to feed my vampire boss, can you show me a tasty golden retriever?

  "Did Mr. Pavlock send you?" she asked.

  "Yes," I answered nervously.

  "Great, how many are you taking today?" she asked with a smile.

  "Four," I replied, Wu's statement finally making sense.

  "If you'll follow me, your dogs are in the back," she said happily. She obviously didn't know what Bo planned to do with these dogs or she wouldn't be so happy about it.

  Well, at least, I didn't have to pick them out. I couldn't have done that.

  "Mr. Pavlock is such a saint," she said as we walked through a door and down a long hallway. "He's found so many homes for so many dogs, such an animal lover," she said smiling.

  "Yeah, you have no idea," I said as we walked through another door.

  We were in a small room with metal crates against the wall, there were half a dozen dogs locked away in here. She handed me two leashes from some hooks on the wall and took two for herself. We walked four dogs out to the van, and she helped me get them in the cages in the back.

  They were all medium sized dogs. I didn't know much about dog breeds, but there was some kind of long-legged hound dog, two very plain looking ones, and one smaller shaggy one that reminded me of Benji but bigger. Looking at them put a lump in my throat. I shut the van doors and was about to get in and leave when Angel told me I had to go sign some papers before I left.

  "You're new aren't you?" she asked. "Did you take Jason's place? I was so sad to hear about his untimely passing."

  I didn't have a clue what she was talking about, so I just shook my head and followed her back through the front door. I signed the papers as quickly as possible and left. I wanted to get this done and over with. I wanted no part of it.

  I got back to the shop close to five o'clock. I parked around back and just sat there in the van for awhile not wanting to take the dogs inside. I finally went inside and found Wu. He looked at his watch.

  "Bo will be getting up soon. Will you go downstairs and see if he's awake yet?" He was about to escort me back to the door.

  "That's ok," I said. "Bo gave me the codes last night. I still remember them." Bo wasn't up yet so I sat on the big leather couch and watched TV. I wasn't sure what time Bo got up. I knew he didn't usually go out till after eight, but I think he sometimes woke up before sunset and just stayed downstairs till the sun went down.

  Two hours passed and Wu came down stairs. He was a bit concerned that Bo wasn't up yet.

  "Will you go get one of the dogs and I'll check on Bo?"

  "No," I said. "I know this door code as well. I'll check on Bo if you want to go get the dog."

  In reality, I didn't want to pick which dog would die first. I couldn't do that.

  "Ok, I'll be right back," he said and went back upstairs. I entered the code in the door and opened it. Bo was lying in bed awake.

  "How are you feeling?" I asked, not really concerned. I was mad at him and didn't really care how he was feeling at the moment.

  "Tired," he replied.

  "Don't worry, I went and got a shipment of sweet, defenseless little puppies for you to slaughter," I spat.

  Wu walked in to catch the tail end of my rant.

  "Oh, Em, don't get your panties in a bunch," Bo said.

  "Excuse me," I said defensively. "My panties?!"

  "Yes, after all, it was your panties that caused all of this trouble in the first place." He laughed.

  "What?! What trouble have my panties ever caused?" I asked as my mood worsened.

  "Well if it wasn't for your cat woman costume and you taking your clothes off in front of me, I really wouldn't have needed to visit that hooker, now would I," he joked.

  "You have got to be kidding me!" I screamed. "This isn't my fault! It was YOUR idea to pretend to be my boyfriend. YOU kissed me! YOU were the one trying to take off my clothes! So you see, Bo, I have no more control over your penis than you do!"

  I took a stab at his little circulation problem, but it didn't seem to faze him. Wu, on the other hand, was standing there with that little Benji looking dog in his hands looking quite shocked at our conversation. I stomped toward him, grabbed the dog out of his hands and turned around "?and you're not eating this one!" Then I stormed out and went home.

  About midnight my cell phone rang, it was Bo of course. My cell phone almost never rang.

  "What do you want?" I answered.

  "Wow? yes, Em, I am feeling much better. Thank you for asking," he mocked.

  "What do you want?" I asked again.

  "Will you bring your games and come over?" he asked.

  "It's midnight! What if I'm in bed?"

  "You're not, you never go to bed before 1 am and not till about 2 a.m. here lately.

  "Stalker," I accused.

  "Will you bring your games over? Bring those two that I like."

  "I don't want to," I replied.

  "Well then don't do it because you want to, do it because I'm paying you to."

  "Ehhhh, I really hate you right now."

  "I know," he said pleasantly.

  "I'll be right over."

  He had a point. I wasn't being asked to come over as a friend, I was his around the clock employee.

  The two games Bo liked were Sanctum and Outlaw. He liked the shooter games that had quests to them. I grabbed the console and games and drove over. I'd been given a key and now had the pass codes for the doors. I was a regular vampire henchman now.

  Bo was lying on his big leather couch topless with some silky pajama pants on. He wasn't a muscular man, he wasn't overly attractive either. He was very ordinary looking. His skin wasn't milky white like the vampires in the movies. He was pale, but really no more than any businessman who didn't get out in the sun much.

  "Here ya go, boss," I said sarcastically, setting the box down and turning to leave.

  "Aren't you going to stay and play?" he asked.

  "No," I said flatly.

  "You're mad at me, why?" he asked, eyeing me curiously.

  "Because you're a jerk," I said, and he laughed.

  "Well I won't argue with that," he said, "but why do you think I'm a jerk?"

  "You ate those puppies! Those poor, cute, little dogs!"

  "So you're not mad about the human that I killed the other
night, but you're upset over the dogs?" He asked looking perplexed.

  That did sound backwards of me. Humans were mean and cruel, and really a hooker to me seemed a little less than human. That's probably horrible of me to think, but it was true.

  "Yes," I answered.

  "Em, you do understand that I am indeed a vampire, right? I mean, I don't drink Kool-aid, sweetheart. I need blood," he stated condescendingly.

  "I know," I said. "I just hate that those dogs had to die."

  "They were going to die anyway," he said.

  "Huh?"

  "I only take the dogs that are on the kill list. Those dogs only had a few hours to live anyway. They were going to be euthanized after closing hours. If they are going to die anyway I might as well get a meal out of it, right?"

  "Oh," I said.

  That changed things; he wasn't a heartless monster then. I guess it did make sense that if they were going to be put to sleep, he might as well eat them.

  I stood there for a few moments thinking about it.

  "Was that all you were mad about?"

  "No," I snapped from my thoughts. "I can't believe you blamed this whole thing on me!"

  "Em?I was joking."

  "Oh," I said again.

  I guess I really didn't have anything to be mad about then, but I'd been mad for long enough that it'd set in and the emotion wasn't easy to shake.

  "Well, you're still a jerk for eating a hooker and getting sick and making all of us worry about you."

  He gave me a slightly amused smile.

  "So will you stay?" he asked.

  I had too much vampireness for the time being, I think. The nightmare, the vomiting blood, the dogs; the last forty-eight hours just made me feel queasy.

  "No, not tonight, I've got to stop and get some stuff for my new dog," I said.

  "Have you picked a name for him?" he asked.

  "No, not yet."

  "Well I was going to call him breakfast, but I think you should call him lucky," he said and laughed, amused with himself.