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Just a Vampire
By Delilah

Editors Note: This month the Short Story section again features the work of writer Delilah. Her novelette, Just a Vampire, is a story about a real vampire with everyday problems. VC Magazine is publishing the story in serial form, with a new chapter every few months. Previous chapters may be found at the links below.

Chapter One: http://vcmagazine.net/Vol27/story.html
Chapter Two: http://vcmagazine.net/Vol29/story.html

Just a Vampire
By Delilah

Chapter 3

Rick and Tammi were walking across the parking lot of the Steakhouse when they spotted Eric. Tammi waved and ran ahead, jumping into Eric's big bear hug. Rick followed and he and Eric grabbed each other's forearms and quickly hugged with a growl. Then Tammi noticed Eric had friends with him. Eric made introductions.

"Rick, this is Tim Hughes, and this is Brian Remmel, a couple of guys I met at the Military Preservation Society. Brian is the curator of the Museum of Military Aviation. It's about 20 miles out of town towards Canton. And Tim here is the top mechanic."

"Good to meet you both!" Nodded Rick, shaking hands with the men.

Eric continued, "and this is my lovely wife, Rhonda"

"You got married?!" Exclaimed Tammi, "I hope you're good to him! Hi, I'm Tammi,” she said, offering to shake hands. Rhonda forced a smile and politely shook hands, but Tammi sensed Rhonda didn't like her, nor Rick it seemed.

They went into the Steakhouse and waited to be seated. The men were talking up a storm about airplanes and military history, not noticing the girls who sat in uncomfortable silence. Luckily, it wasn't long before they were seated.

When they got to their table, everyone sat down except Rhonda, who stood beside her chair, waiting. Eric remembered, got up, and seated Rhonda, and then sat down again, continuing his conversation about an airplane the museum was working on. Tammi looked at Rick. Rick shrugged. Tammi was disturbed. This just didn't seem like the kind of girl Eric would give a second look, much less marry.

Tammi heard a high pitched squeak and reflexively grabbed her ears.

"What is it this time?" complained Rick under his breath. Tammi looked in the direction of the noise. Then she heard the ear-splitting squeak again.

Tammi whispered, "There, it's that guy at the bar," she pointed, "His stool squeaks when he turns back and forth."

"Got ear plugs?" asked Rick.

"No," sighed Tammi, "I'm out."

"Well I guess you'll just have to deal with it." Rick rejoined the aviation conversation.

The waitress came to take orders. Rhonda ordered a salad.

Eric purposely skipped Tammi and asked, "How does everyone like their steaks? How about you, Tim? Rare?"

Tammi rolled her eyes; she knew what he was up to. Rick played along as well, smiling as Tim replied, "Medium."

"Medium?" Teased Eric. "Jesus! You might as well eat your boots!"

"Medium," repeated Tim to the waitress.

"Medium? God!" grinned Eric, "Okay Brian how about you? You'll eat a rare steak, won't you?"

"Well, maybe not rare. I’ll have medium-rare." Brian requested.

"Medium-rare," grinned Eric.

"How do you want yours?" smiled Rick at Eric.

"Medium-rare!" he stated emphatically. You?"

"Medium-rare," Rick smiled. "Tammi?"

Tammi quietly tried to explain how she liked her steak. "Um, rare, but warm in the center."

The waitress replied, "Well, okay, warm, red center is medium-rare. Is that what you want?"

Eric giggled. Rick rolled his eyes. "God, here we go."

Tammi sighed, "No, not medium rare; that's too cooked."

The waitress replied, "Rare is a cool red center."

"Yes, I know. But can you ask the cook to warm it first, then cook it rare?"

The waitress looked completely confused. "O-okay, I'll ask. But I can't promise anything."

"Thanks." Tammi sat back and slid down in her seat. She was getting irritated at the man at the bar who kept squeaking his stool every couple of minutes. The men continued chattering about airplanes.

"...well, we're also restoring a T-33," Tim was saying. "The fuselage is in pretty descent shape, but the instruments have all been pirated, but we have several replacements on order. "'Having a bit of trouble finding the airspeed indicator for some reason, but we'll find one soon enough."

Eric chimed in, "Tim's been working hard getting that engine back in flying condition."

"Well," Brian said, "we'll have to put that aside for a while, I've got a new project coming in."

"Did you get the PBY?" Eric asked.

Brian smiled.

"Oh yeah!" Tim high-fived Brian.

"Franklin's gonna be flying it over next Thursday."

"You guys need any help with that?" Rick beamed, eager to help with the historical aircraft.

"Yeah,” Eric stated, "Rick here is a sheet metal guy."

"Yeah, well, I used to be. I don't have any of my tools."

"We got tools,” Tim said.

"Well I guess you got yourself a sheet metal guy!"

Tammi tried to talk to Rhonda, "So what do you like to do?"

"Well, I'm a member of the Campaign to Re-elect Mayor Thomas, and I'm the treasurer of the Downtown Restoration Association, and I'm a member of the Military History Preservation Society." Rhonda spouted like a TV ad.

"That must be where you met Eric."

"Yes."

"I kinda meant like, what do you like to do for fun, you know, what do you and Eric like to do together?"

Just then, the food arrived. Everyone was served and the waitress left. The guys all dug into their food. Rhonda daintily picked at her salad. As Tammi cut into her steak, steaming red juice ran out all over her plate.

Tim noticed and made a face, "Oh, that's the most revolting thing I've ever seen. Your steak is bleeding! How can you eat that?"

Tammi giggled and leaned toward Tim as she put a piece of bright red meat into her mouth.

"Oh!" groaned Tim as he turned away, putting his hand between his eyes and Tammi.

Eric laughed hard. Tammi giggled. Her steak was perfect. She caught the waitress as she walked by and asked if she could tell the cook how happy she was that she found someone that could cook steak the way she liked it. She enjoyed the meal, but she couldn't find anything Rhonda would talk about. She was really glad when the evening was over.

"I don't like her," She told Rick on the way home.

"Why not?"

"I dunno, she's just not like Eric at all."

"Well, opposites attract."

"Yeah, well, it's not like that,... she's I dunno, so different than he is. He's so laid back, and she's so ... stiff."

"Well, he likes her."

"But they don't even seem to be on the same wavelength."

"Well what do you think of Tim and Brian?" Rick asked as they drove up the drive to their house.

"They both have problems. Tim has something, I dunno, maybe some kind of medical problem. I can't quite put my finger on it. Brian is obviously depressed. He really doesn't seem to think much of himself."

"Yeah I kinda noticed that too. You'll have to work a little 'Tammi magic' on him."

"We'll see,” Tammi smiled.

Rick continued, "But what I meant was, do you LIKE them?"

"Oh, yeah. they both seem nice."

"Make good donors, don't you think?"

"I dunno, maybe..."

Rick unlocked the door and they went inside. "Girls! We're home!" he shouted. Even though it was 11:30 pm Izzy came bouncing into the kitchen.

"Mommy! Daddy! Mommy! Daddy!" she bounced into her daddy's arms for a big hug.

"What are you girls up to?" Rick asked her.

"We're playing Scrabble," Izzy said as she ran back into the living room.

"Scrabble?" Tammi smiled at Rick.

"I gotta see this," Smiled Rick.

They joined the girls at the coffee table in the living room. The lights were off and the room was lit by several candles on the tops of the bookcases on either side of the entertainment center, and several more on the mantle. The bookshelves were filled with all kinds of cooking, gardening, herb, and decorating books on the top three shelves, and the bottom two shelves of each bookcase were filled with children's books; Dr Seuss, Bernstein Bears, a large collection of Little Golden Books, among many colorful picture books of cute animals, fantasy books of unicorns, dragons, old fairy tales and mother goose stories. Izzy loved to "read" the beautiful picture books. And she would sit for sometimes an hour quietly looking at books on the floor. Rick and Tammi sat down with the girls around the coffee table.

"How do you spell cat?" Izzy asked Tiffany, handing her a "C" tile.

Tiffany looked at Izzy's letters. She had A, Z, L, E, N, two I's, and the C in her hand. "Spell cat, Izzy, you know that one," she said.

"C-A-T CAT!" beamed Izzy.

"That's right! said Tiff. She pointed to the board. Look, there's a 'T'. Put your 'A' next to that 'T'."

"Okay."

"Now put the 'C' next to that 'A'." Tiff instructed. "That's it. Now, C-A-T."

"Cat!" squealed Izzy. She smiled and clapped and seemed rather pleased with herself.

Rick gathered tiles for himself and Tammi and they joined the game.

For Questions, please contact the VC Magazine Staff at VCMagazine_Staff@yahoogroups.com

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