The Traveling Vampire Show

“Janks Field?” asked Rusty. When he saw how we looked at him, he said, “Just kidding.”

So we headed north on Route 3, walking back toward town. We walked more quickly than usual. We often looked behind us.

When at last we reached the sanctuary of well-lighted streets, porches with glowing jack-o’-lanterns and houses with bright windows, we slowed to our usual pace. And we didn’t look behind us quite so often.

“You know what?” said Rusty. “We should’ve gone after him.”

“Sure,” said Dagny.

“No, really. I mean it. Now we’ll never find out who he was. And you know, he must not’ve been following us like we thought, so what was he doing? Where was he going? There isn’t another town for twenty miles in that direction.”

“Nothing but more forest,” I added.

Shaking his head, Rusty said, “Shit. We should’ve followed him or something.”

“Sure,” said Dagny.

“Wouldn’t you love to know what he was up to?”

“I don’t think I want to know,” Dagny said.

The thing about that night is that Rusty got scared and fled.

We could’ve gone with him, of course. It was our choice not to run off and hide. But after he knew that we were staying by the road, he didn’t come back.

He didn’t stick with us.

That’s the point.

Rusty couldn’t be completely trusted to watch out for Slim. In a bad situation, he might save his own hide and let Slim go down.

I never should’ve left them on the roof together.

Chapter Twelve

On our way back to Route 3, Lee drove the dirt road very slowly. We both scanned the woods in hopes of seeing Slim and Rusty.

Three times, Lee stopped her truck and tooted the horn. I climbed out and called their names. Then we waited. Nobody yelled back. Nobody showed up. So she drove on.

When we reached the two-lane highway, I said, “Maybe you’d better let me out.”

She shook her head, but she didn’t drive on. Most adults would’ve just stepped on the gas and whisked me off, but not Lee. “I don’t think they’re in the woods,” she said. “By now, they’re probably long gone.” She put her hand on my leg. “Did you tell them where you’d be going?”

Blushing a little because of her hand, I said, “Not really. Just that I wanted to get a car and come back for them.” She patted my leg. “You know what? I bet they’re looking for you. They probably headed straight for town….”

“But we would’ve passed them.”

“A lot of ways we could’ve missed them. Depends on when they left. And maybe they took short cuts.”

“Maybe,” I muttered. I supposed Lee was right about missing them one way or another. It was sure possible. “But I’ve got a feeling they’re still out here,” I told her. “I feel like something went wrong, you know? I mean, Slim already had all those cuts. What if she passed out? Or what if the dog attacked them? Or maybe Rusty broke his leg jumping off the shack. Or maybe they were captured by those people who run the vampire show. I thought they were a pretty creepy bunch. No telling what they might do if they caught someone like Slim.”

Lee didn’t smirk or laugh at me. She looked concerned. “You’re right,” she said. “Any of that stuff might’ve happened. Or something else, just as bad, that you haven’t thought of.” A smile crept in. “Though I think you’ve covered the bases fairly well.”

I almost smiled, myself.

“The deal is,” she continued, “they’re probably somewhere in town by now—more than likely at your house, because they’d be needing to let you know what happened and your house would be about the best place to find you.”

Nodding, I said, “I guess that’s where they might go if they’re okay.”

“So let’s look there first.”

“Okay.”

“If we don’t find them at your place, we’ll keep looking till we do find them. That sound good to you?”

“Sounds fine.”

So then she pulled out onto Route 3, turned right, and headed for town. “We might even pass them along the way,” she said.

We didn’t.

The first thing I noticed as we approached my house was the empty driveway. It puzzled me for a moment. Mom should’ve been back from the grocery store. Apparently, she’d had other errands to run.

A lot of errands, I hoped.

With a little luck, maybe she and Dad would never have to find out about any of this.

“Look who’s here,” Lee said.

Her words gave me a moment of pure joy, but it faded when I saw Rusty leaning back against an elm tree in the front yard, shirtless, his arms crossed.

No Slim.

Rusty looked carefree, though. He smiled and waved as we pulled up to the curb. On his feet were the sneakers that he’d thrown at the dog. I took that for a good sign.

But why wasn’t Slim with him?

Feeling squirmy inside, I climbed out of the truck. Lee got out, too. As we walked toward Rusty, he asked me, “Where you been?”

“Out to Janks Field,” I said. “Where’s Slim?”

“She went home.”

“Is she all right?”

“Fine. Except for, you know, the cuts.” He smiled at Lee. “Hi, Mrs. Thompson.”

“Hi, Rusty.”

“So what happened?” I asked.

“Nothing much.”

“You were supposed to wait for me.”

“Yeah, well. We did. And then we thought we heard you coming… a car, you know? You were supposed to come back with a car, so we figured it must be you. Only what came out of the woods was a hearse. Man, I nearly….” With a smile at Lee, he said, “It scared the heck out of us. I mean, a hearse? Give me a break. So we figured it wasn’t Dwight coming to the rescue.” Looking at me, he added, “Where would you get a hearse, right?” To Lee, he said, “Then a big black bus came out of the woods, and that’s when we figured it must be the Vampire Show. So we beat it. We jumped down behind the shack and ran into the woods.” He shrugged his meaty, freckled shoulders. “That’s about it. When we got back into town, we split up. Slim went to her place and I came here so I could tell you what’d happened.”

“What about the dog?” I asked.

“Last I saw of that little… mutt… it was running toward the hearse like a madman, barking its tail off.”

“So it didn’t chase you guys?”

He shook his head. “Nope. We got off scot-free.”

All my worries had been for nothing. That’s usually how it is with worrying. More often than not, we get ourselves all in a sweat over something that might happen, then everything turns out just fine.

“What about Slim’s cuts?” I asked. “Did they bleed much on the way home?”