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.