Richard Laymon - The Traveling Vampire Show

“Wrecked.”

“Can’t you fix it?”

“I could wash it,” she told Rusty, and glanced at me in a way that brought back memories of her laundry room. “I might be able to mend it, too… sew some new buttons on. But the first time your mother takes a good look at it, she’ll know it got wrecked. I mean, there’s fabric missing where the buttons got torn off.”

“In other words, I’m fucked.”

Almost pleased, I said, “Yep.”

“Not necessarily,” said Slim. “There’s one way out.”

“Suicide?” Rusty asked.

“A little less drastic than that,” Slim explained. “As a matter of fact, it’s simple. All we’ve gotta do is win Bitsy over. You’re off the hook if she doesn’t tell on you.”

“But what about the dress?”

“She can say she was fooling around… got into a game of touch footfall or something and had a little accident.”

“Better make it tackle football,” I said.

Slim grinned at me. “Yeah.”

Rusty shook his head. “She’ll never go along with it.”

“It’s your only chance,” Slim said.

“What you’ve gotta do,” I said, “is really kiss up to her.”

“Barf.”

Giving me a meaningful look, Slim said, “We’ve got to all be really nice to her.”

“Never should’ve let her come with us in the first place,” Rusty muttered.

Slim smirked at him.

“Hey, moron,” I said, “it was the only way to get you out of the house.”

“I could’ve snuck out.”

“Sure. Maybe by around midnight. Which would’ve been a little late for catching the Vampire Show.”

“Not gonna catch it anyway if we let Bitsy go home and rat on me.”

“I shouldn’t have pushed her,” Slim muttered.

“That was Rusty.”

“You know what I mean. We wouldn’t be in this fix if I hadn’t given her the third degree.”

Rising out of his worries, Rusty flashed a smile at me. “What the hell did she do in your room?”

“Let’s drop it,” I said. “I don’t know and I don’t wanta know.”

“Must’ve been pretty embarrassing.”

Slim shook her head. In a low voice, she whispered to Rusty, “The kid’s in love with him— everything’s embarrassing.”

I believe I snarled.

“Well, she is,” Slim told me.

“I know.”

“That’s right,” Rusty said.

At the sound of a door opening, we went silent and watched Bitsy step into the hallway. She was no longer crying. She seemed calm. Back straight, she limped toward us. She’d used a couple of safety pins to fasten the top of her dress together, but she hadn’t done a very good job with them. Her front was open to one extent or another all the way down to her waist.

“How are you doing?” I asked her.

“Not so good.”

“We’re really sorry you got hurt.”

“Yeah,” Rusty said. “I’m sorry.”

“You know what?” Slim asked her. “We’re glad you’re the one who did that stuff in our houses. I mean, we figured we had those weirdos from the vampire show creeping around, so it’s a fantastic relief to find out it was only you.”

“That’s for sure,” I said.

It wasn’t a total lie. I was very glad we weren’t being stalked by Stryker and his gang. But the notion of Bitsy creeping through my house— while my mom was home —gave me a bad case of the creeps. I knew that Rusty and I had sneaked into Slim’s house that same day, but this seemed different. In fact, this seemed a trifle demented.

What if she sneaks into the house when I’m there?

I imagined her skulking through the hallways and rooms late at night, lurking in shadows, spying on me.

“I’m sorry I upset you,” Slim told her.

“And I’m sorry you fell,” Rusty said.

I just smiled at her and shrugged.

She smiled at me. A rather sad smile that used only one side of her mouth. “Anyway,” she said, “I don’t wanta go home, after all.”

“Okay,” Slim said.

Rusty looked as if he wanted to whoop for joy. He held it in, though, and simply sighed as if his death sentence had been commuted.

“All I ever wanted,” Bitsy said, “was just to hang out with you guys. I didn’t wanta wreck anything.”

“That’s real good,” I said, trying to sound sincere.

“So can we all be friends?” she asked. “If I promise not to tell?”

“Sure!” Rusty blurted.

“And nobody tells on me, okay?”

“A deal,” Slim said.

I nodded.

“What’s to tell?” said Rusty.

Blushing, she looked away and muttered, “Nothing.”

“Well,” said Slim, “I’m glad that’s all settled. Now we just have to decide what to do about Lee.” She asked me, “What do you think?”

“I guess… since it was Bitsy who did the other stuff, maybe there really isn’t anything to worry about.”

Rusty gave his sister a look of exaggerated suspicion. “You didn’t do something with Lee, did you?”

Bitsy narrowed her eyes. “No.”

“Anyway,” I said, “I guess we can either go on to the drive-in or wait here.”

“There’s no point in the drive-in anymore,” Bitsy said.

We all looked at her.

“By the time we can get there…” She shrugged. “We’d just have to turn around and come back. Wouldn’t even get to see a whole movie. Not if we have to be here by ten-thirty.”

“We could at least watch part of one,” I told her.

“Nah.” A smile lifted her heavy lips. “Who wants to see a couple of stupid movies, anyway? I wanta go see the Traveling Vampire Show.”

Silence crashed down on us.

Slim, Rusty and I stared at each other.

Bitsy watched us, a funny smile on her face that made me suspect she knew exactly what she was doing.

Nobody else spoke up, so I did.

“We’d like to have you come with us,” I said, “but we’ve only got four tickets.”

She pointed at us, counting aloud. “One, two, three, four.”

“The problem is, one of the tickets is for Lee.”

“But she’s not here.”

“Thanks for the news flash,” Rusty said.

Slim gave him a dirty look, then said, “They’re Lee’s tickets. She bought them, and she’s intending to go.”

“In fact,” I added, “they might not let us in without her. We’re all under age. Stryker only sold her the tickets on the condition that she’d come with us.”

“How can she come with us if she isn’t even here?” Bitsy asked.

“Well,” I said, “we’re hoping she’ll be back in time.”

“So I won’t be able to go?”

“I didn’t mean it that way. We’d like for you to come with us.”

“Of course,” Slim said. “But with only four tickets, I’m not sure we’ll be able to manage it.”

Lower lip bulging again, Bitsy said, “I guess I wanta go home now. If I can’t go to the vampire show…”

“You can go!” Rusty blurted. “Jesus! Okay? No problem. We’ll get another ticket, that’s all.”

“How are we supposed to do that?” I asked.

“For all we know,” Slim said, “they might be sold out.”

“Even if they aren’t,” I added, “they won’t sell us one for a thirteen year old.”

“I’m going home,” Bitsy said.

“No!” Looking frantic, Rusty raised his open hands and Happed them at us. “Just hang on a minute. Nobody’s going anywhere. I’ve got it all figured out. Okay?”

“Let’s hear it,” Slim said.

Calming down slightly, he patted the air in front of his shoulders and said, “We go now.”

“Go where?” I asked.

“To Janks Field. We take three of the tickets. Slim drives. We leave Lee’s ticket here so she can follow along later in her pickup. We leave her a note, too, so she’ll know what’s going on.”