The Traveling Vampire Show

Maybe she’s busy, I thought, and doesn’t want to be bothered by a phone call right now and she’s wondering what sort of jerk is keeping at it this long.

As I let it continue to ring, I began to hope Lee wouldn’t answer. She was one of my favorite people, not only beautiful but one of my best friends, so I hated to make a nuisance of myself.

Finally, I hung up.

“Well,” Slim said.

“Yeah.”

“I wonder what that means.”

“Maybe she went somewhere,” I said.

“Or she’s taking a bath,” Slim said. “If she’s running the water, she might not even hear the phone. Or maybe she heard it, but didn’t want to get out of the tub.”

I pictured Lee lounging in her bathtub, wet and shiny.

“I sure don’t get out to answer the phone,” Slim said, and I pictured her in her bathtub.

Starting to get excited, I sat down at the kitchen table across from Slim.

“Or she might’ve been on the toilet,” Slim added. “There’s no telling. Why don’t you call her back?”

I didn’t relish the idea of standing up just then. “Why don’t we give her a while?”

“Yeah. How about five or ten minutes? Maybe she’ll get done with whatever she’s doing.”

“Good,” I said.

“I’m sure she’s fine.”

“I hope so.”

“I mean, we had some weird stuff happen, but nobody did anything to us. We might’ve gotten a little scared, but we didn’t get hurt.”

I nodded in agreement.

“While we’re waiting ...” She went silent and let a smile spread over her face.

It was a type of smile I’d seen on Slim before, but not very often. It had a slyness to it. It always meant trouble.

“Uh-oh,” I said.

Slim scooted back her chair. I tried to keep my gaze high as she stood up and turned around. Mostly, I succeeded.

“Where’re you going?” I asked.

Striding away, she looked over her shoulder. “Back in a minute. Don’t worry, I won’t vanish.”

“Please don’t,” I muttered.

I watched the black tail of her blouse drift against her rear end as she left the kitchen. When she was beyond the reach of the kitchen light, all I could see was a pair of walking legs. Soon, they were eaten by the darkness.

I was tempted to stand up and go after her, but I still had a towel problem.

“You okay?” I called.

“Fine.”

“What’re you doing?”

“You’ll see.”

On her way back, I saw her legs first. Then I noticed the pale shapes of her face and forearms. By her side, she was carrying something more pale than her skin.

It turned out to be a newspaper.

I looked away and tried to seem interested in the clock while Slim sat down and scooted her chair closer to the table.

Then I faced her and asked, “What’s the paper for?”

“Time to put my big plan into action.”

“What big plan is that?”

“Operation Rescue Rusty.”

I groaned.

Slim chuckled.

By the time she finished explaining, I no longer needed to worry about embarrassing protrusions of my towel. I sighed, pushed myself away from the table, and went to the phone. I was trembling slightly and my heart was pounding.

I dialed, then turned toward Slim.