The Traveling Vampire Show

Slim sank onto the front edge of a chair. She propped the bow on the floor between her feet and held it upright in front of her. She couldn’t lean back because of her quiver.

Rusty sat in another chair, looking disgusted and shaking his head.

“We’re not mad at you, Bitsy,” Slim said.

“You’re not?”

“No. Are we, Dwight?”

“No,” I said. “It’s no big deal, Bitsy.”

“No big deal,” Rusty echoed, glaring at her. “Fuckin’ psycho.”

Bitsy gasped. From the look on her face, she was about to blurt, “I’m gonna tell!” But no words came out. Our warnings must’ve gotten through to her.

Slim frowned at Rusty. “You’re not helping matters.”

He rolled his eyes upward.

To Bitsy, Slim said in a gentle voice, “What happened, anyway ? What made you do it?”

She gave Slim a pouty look, then whined, “I don’t knowwww. They ditched me.”

“Rusty and Dwight.”

“Yeah. I got sent in for my shoes, only when I came back out they were already gone. It was all just a trick to get rid of me.”

“A pretty mean trick,” Slim muttered.

Which made me feel crummy again.

“Yeah,” Bitsy said. “It was really mean. I went after ‘em. I could’ve caught up, too, ’cause I knew they were going to Janks Field to look for you. Only they didn’t want me with ’em, or they would’ve waited.” Bitsy looked into Slim’s eyes. “See, the thing is, you’ve always gotta have it just the three of you. Nobody wants me butting in. They’ve gotta have you all to themselves, and I guess you wanta be the only girl.” She pushed out her lower lip again. “Maybe you’re not the only girl around that wants to have fun sometimes.”

I saw Slim’s eyes go shiny. She swallowed, licked her lips, then asked in a soft voice, “You blamed me for the guys ditching you?”

“Sorta,” Bitsy muttered.

“And that’s why you went over to my house?”

“I guess.” She lowered her head and continued. “It wasn’t locked or anything.”

“It hardly ever is.”

“I knew nobody was gonna be there, ’cause of how your mom works over at the restaurant and you don’t have a dad or anything ... and the guys said you were over at Janks Field. So I just went in.”

“Freak,” Rusty muttered.

“Stop it,” I told him.

“Well, she is.”

“Leave her alone,” Slim said. Then she said to Bitsy, “Did you go in on purpose to wreck things?”

“No,” she said. It was almost a whimper.

“Why did you go in?”

She shrugged with one shoulder. “I don’t know.”

“But you went up to my bedroom and chewed on my Dracula?”

“I guess so.”

Rusty sneered. “You don’t know?”

“I guess I chewed on some book.”

“Why that one?” Slim asked.

“Just ... I don’t know ... I knew you liked it a lot.”

“That’s why you chewed on it? To hurt me?”

“I guess so.”

“Why none of the others?”

Another shrug. “I don’t know. I guess maybe I didn’t feel like it.” She raised her head to meet Slim’s eyes. “It made me feel awful, wrecking your book.” Her lower lip bulged, her chin shook and she started crying all over again. “I’m sorrrrry! ” she blubbered.

I started patting her back.

Slim said, “It’s all right, Bitsy. Don’t worry about it.”

“I’ll ... buy you ... a new one.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Slim said. “But I don’t get it. If you suddenly felt so bad about wrecking