The Traveling Vampire Show

“Hey hey!” Rusty blurted. “I knew you were okay.”

I’d known no such thing, myself. As she came toward us, my throat tightened and tears filled my eyes.

She looked fine.

She looked great. Her short blond hair was wet and clinging to her scalp. Her skin was shiny and dripping, scratched here and there from her encounter with the dog. On top, she wore nothing except her white bikini. Her cut-off jeans hung low around her hips. Her feet were wrapped in shirts, mine on her right foot, Rusty’s on her left.

Seeing the look on my face, she said, “Hey, Dwight, it’s okay.”

I hurried to her and spread out my arms, aching to hug her. But then I remembered all the cuts on her back, so I didn’t do it. She looked into my eyes. She had tears in her eyes, too. Her lips and chin quivered a little. Suddenly, she threw herself against me and wrapped her arms around me and hugged me hard.

Not wanting to hurt her, I put my hands on her shoulders.

Her hot, wet face nuzzled the side of my neck. She was breathing hard, her chest and breasts pushing against me. I could feel the pounding of her heart. Each time she took a breath, her flat belly touched mine.

“You guys gonna do it?” Rusty asked.

“Shut up,” Slim said.

“Do I get some of that?”

Neither of us bothered to answer him.

After a while, Slim loosened her hold on me and tipped her head back. “I sure am glad to see you,” she whispered.

“Same here,” I said.

She looked at Rusty. “You too, I guess.”

“How’s the back?” I asked.

“Not bad.”

I turned her around by the shoulders. The cuts looked raw and gooey. None seemed to be bleeding at the moment, but her skin was ruddy with a mixture of sweat and old blood. The bikini ties in the middle of her back were still white in a few places. Mostly, though, they were red.

“Has it been bleeding?” I asked.

“Not much.” She turned around to face me. “Just for a little while right after I jumped down off the shack,” she said, and glanced at Rusty.

“What’d I do?” he complained.

Instead of answering, she looked over her shoulder. “Let’s get off the road before someone comes along.” As we followed her into the trees, she said, “I’ve been staying out of sight.”

“Good idea,” I told her.

“Waiting for you. I knew you’d be coming back for me sooner or later.”

“We’ve been looking all over for you,” I said.

“I’ve been right here.” She stopped and turned toward us. “A long time,” she added.

“How long?” I asked.

She shrugged. “More than an hour, I bet.”

“Why?” Rusty asked.

She gave him a peeved look. “We were supposed to wait for Dwight.”

“I know, I know.”

“Some of us do what we say we’ll do.”

“You didn’t exactly stay put either,” he told her.

“No, I didn’t. But I came here so I could meet him.” To me, she said, “I figured if you came back with a car, you’d have to slow down for the turn and I’d have a chance to run out and stop you.”

“I did come back in a car,” I said.

Her head jumped forward, eyes going wide, mouth dropping open—a look of total, dumb surprise. “Huh?”

“In Lee’s pickup.”

“When?”

“I don’t know. Around noon, I guess. Twelve, twelve-thirty, something like that.”

With a few minor changes in her face and posture, she looked intelligent again, but perplexed. “That must’ve been right after I took off,” she said.

“Should’ve stayed,” Rusty told her.

“You’ve got to be kidding. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough after what I saw.”

“What?” I asked.

“The way they killed the dog.”

“They killed the dog?”

Chapter Nineteen

Good for them,” Rusty said.

Slim frowned at him. “Why don’t you shut up?”

“What crawled up your ass and…”

“Rusty!” I snapped.

“What’d I do?”

Eyes on Rusty, Slim said, “I didn’t really appreciate getting left up there.”

“You should’ve come with me.”

“We were supposed to wait for Dwight.”

“Yeah, but…”

“Yeah, but,” she mimicked him. “Yeah-but, yeah-but you turned yellow and ran away and left me up there.” To me, she said, “You should’ve seen him freak out. Nothing was even there yet. We just heard cars coming through the woods, and he goes ape like it’s the end of the goddamn world. And then this hearse drives onto the field. That did it, the hearse. He goes, ‘Oh, shit! It’s a hearse! We gotta get outa here!’ I told him to calm down. I mean, big deal. A hearse. It’s just part of the vampire show. It’s part of what we went there to see, you know? It was probably Valeria’s hearse. I thought he wanted to see Valeria. But huh-uh, all he wants is to vamoos.”

“You were scared, too,” Rusty said.

“Yeah, a little. But I didn’t run away.”

“Duh. Yes you did.”

“Later.”

“You should’ve left when I did. Don’t go calling me a chicken. I just had the foresight to haul my ass out of there sooner than you.”

“I planned to stick it out.” To me again, she said, “I told Rusty we should just relax and lie down flat so they wouldn’t see us.”

“They would’ve seen us. The minute someone climbed the bleachers. By then, we might not’ve been able to get away.”