The Traveling Vampire Show

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.”

“That still leaves us a ticket short,” Slim pointed out.

Rusty patted the air some more. “That’s why we go now. We get there good and early, find us an adult and pay him to buy us one more ticket.”

“What’ll we use for money?” I asked.

“How much we need?” Bitsy asked.

“The tickets are normally ten bucks,” Rusty said, “but we might have to pay more. Fifteen or twenty, maybe.”

“I got more’n thirty,” Bitsy said.

I remembered her white patent leather purse. She didn’t have it now. When we first came into Lee’s house, she must’ve left it in Slim’s car.

Rusty frowned as if he couldn’t figure out how his little sister had gotten her hands on that much money. But he played it smart this time and kept his mouth shut.

“Great!” he said. “We’re in business.” He glanced at Slim, then at me. “Okay?”

“Might work,” Slim said.

“Worth a try,” I said.

Narrowing her eyes, Bitsy looked at her brother. “What if we can’t get another ticket?”

Rusty stared at her for a long time, then said, “That happens, you can have mine.”

Chapter Forty-three

In the kitchen, I handed three of the tickets to Slim and left the fourth ticket on the table beside Lee’s purse. Slim slipped them down a seat pocket of her cut-off jeans.