Эллен Шрайбер - Vampire Kisses

"Centuries?" Ruby asked, curiously. "Then you hide your age well," she teased.

If anyone could get info on the walking dead, it was Ruby. She could flirt with the best of them.

Creepy Man's face turned from a white wine to a bright burgundy.

"You are so kind, dear," he said, tapping his bald head with a red silk handkerchief. "Thank you for your time," he said, preparing to leave. "It's been lovely, and you have been lovely, too." He grabbed her hand in his bony fingers and smiled a crackling smile.

As he stood up, he looked directly at me and through me like he knew he had seen me before. I could feel his cold stare as I frantically turned around, quickly gathering together the thirteen copies of my hand.

I didn't dare turn back around until I heard the door close. I peered out as he walked past the front window—and he glanced back like he was looking straight through me. I felt a chill go through my body. I loved it.

The rest of the day whizzed by. I hardly noticed it was after six.

I slung my black bag over my shoulder.

"Wow, we'll have to pay you for overtime!" Ruby said, as I got up from the reception desk.

If I couldn't be Elvira or the Bride of Dracula, I'd be Ruby. She was the complete opposite of me in her white-on-white—white go-go boots with a tight white vinyl dress, or a smart white pants suit with white heels. She wore bob-length white-blond hair and always touched up her make-up with a white compact that bore an R made of red rhinestones. She even had a white poodle that she sometimes brought to the agency. She always had boyfriends coming in to visit. They knew she was major class.

I approached her desk, which was covered with white crystals, white angel ornaments, and a smiling thirteen-year-old girl framed in white Lucite.

"Ruby?" I asked as she fiddled with her white leather purse.

"What, honey?"

"I was just wondering?" I said, twisting my purse strap. "Do you…"

"What is it, dear? Sit down." She grabbed Janice's chair and wheeled it next to hers.

"About today…I know this sounds crazy, but do you…well…do you believe in…vampires?"

"Do I?" She laughed, fingering her crystal necklace. "I believe in a lot of things, honey."

"But do you believe in vampires?"

"No!"

"Oh." I tried not to show my disappointment.

"But what do I know?" she chuckled. "My sister, Kate, swears she saw the ghost of an old farmer in a cornfield when we were kids. And I dated this guy who saw something silver shoot straight up in the sky, and my best friend, Evelyn, swears numerology helped her find a husband, and my chiropractor heals people by putting magnets on their joints. What's fantasy for some is reality for others."

I hung on her every word.

"So do I believe in vampires?" she continued. "No. But I also didn't believe Rock Hudson was gay. So what do I know?" She smiled a sparkling white smile.

I laughed as I walked to the door.

"Raven?"

"Yes?"

"What do you believe in?"

"I believe in—finding out!"

11 Mission Improbable

"I'm on a mission!" I screamed to Becky, who was already waiting on the swings in Evans Park. I had told her to meet me at seven P.M. "You'll never believe what's happening!"

"You have another pair of Trevor's underwear?"

"Trevor who? No, this is way beyond him! Way beyond the city limits. This is totally out of this world!"

"What gives?"

"I have all the dirt on the Mansion family!"

"Oh, the vampires?"

"You know?"

"It's all over town. Some say it's the way they dress. Some say they're just weird. Mr. Mitchell told my father they must be inhuman since they ate at Georgio's and held the garlic."

"But that's the Mitchells. Still, I may have to add that to my journal. Every bit of info is crucial!"

"Is this why we're meeting?"

"Becky, do you…believe in vampires?"

"No."

"No?"

"No!"

"That's it? You're not even going to think about it?"

"You could have asked me that on the phone. I cut out early on a second helping of macaroni and cheese!"

"This is of major importance!"

"Are you mad? Do you want me to believe in vampires?"

"Well…"

"Raven, do you believe in them?"

"I've wanted to for years. But who knows? I didn't believe Rock Hudson was gay."

"Who's Rock Hudson?"

I rolled my eyes. "Never mind. I asked you to meet me here to help me out on my mission. See, the answers lie not in rumors, but in truths, and the truth lies in that Mansion. And every Saturday night Creepy Butler Man goes to Wexley's for an hour of grocery shopping. I drove by the Mansion, and they don't seem to have a security system. And if I play my cards right, Gothic Guy will be keeping to himself in his attic room of blaring Marilyn Manson angst. He'll never hear me."

"He'll never hear you doing what?"

"Finding the truth."

"This sounds so way out."

"Thank you."

"So you need me to be at my house waiting by the phone, so when you get safely home, you can call me and share all the details?"

I stared at her hard.

"No, I need you to be my lookout."

"You know this is trespassing? Like really trespassing? Like breaking and entering?"

"Well, if I can find an open window, then I won't be breaking. I'll only be entering. And if it all goes as planned, no one will be the wiser and so then I won't even be entering. I won't even get in trouble for exiting!"

"I shouldn't…"

"You should."

"I can't."

"You can."

"I won't."

"You will!"

The conversation stopped. "You will!" I said, this time sternly. I hated to be bossy, but it had to be done. I got up from my swing. "I won't steal anything. You'll be an accomplice to nothing. But if I do find out something major, colossal, spectacular, totally out of this world, then we can both share the Nobel Prize."

"We have till Saturday, right?"

"Yes. Which gives me plenty of time to gather more info and comb the Mansion grounds. And you have plenty of time to—"

"Think of excuses?"

I smiled. "No, to finish your macaroni and cheese."

12 Quiting Time

It was better than graduation day: the day my part-time job was over. I had safely cleared $200 after taxes. Enough for dear old dad to buy a sparkling new tennis racket and a new can of bright neon-yellow tennis balls.

I felt a little tinge of melancholy as I picked up my sweater to leave Armstrong Travel, my check safely in my purse. Ruby gave me a huge hug, a real hug, not like Janice's porcelain babydoll hug.

I waved good-bye to Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, and the Hawaiian sunset.

"Feel free to come back anytime!" Ruby said. "I'm really going to miss you. You're one of a kind, Raven."

"You are, too!"

She really was, and it was nice to have finally bonded with someone who was different from the average Dullsvillian.

"Some day you'll find a one-of-a-kind guy who is just like you!"

"Thanks, Ruby!"

It was the most tender thing anyone had ever said to me.

Just then Kyle Garrison, Dullsville's golf pro, came in to flirt with Ruby. She had found a lot of one-of-a-kinds for herself. But she deserved it.

I placed my paycheck on my night table, and I curled up in bed, happy that my prison sentence was over and that I could cash the check tomorrow and proudly hand all my earnings over to Dad. But of course I couldn't sleep. I lay awake all night, wondering what my one-of-a-kind guy would look like. I prayed he didn't wear plaid pants like Kyle the golf pro.

Then I thought about the guy at the Mansion. And wondered if I'd already met my one-of-a-kind.

"What are you so smiley about?" Trevor asked me the next day after lunch. I couldn't help but smile, even to Trevor. I was that happy.