The Traveling Vampire Show

“But she’s not here.”

“Thanks for the news flash,” Rusty said.

Slim gave him a dirty look, then said, “They’re Lee’s tickets. She bought them, and she’s intending to go.”

“In fact,” I added, “they might not let us in without her. We’re all under age. Stryker only sold her the tickets on the condition that she’d come with us.”

“How can she come with us if she isn’t even here?” Bitsy asked.

“Well,” I said, “we’re hoping she’ll be back in time.”

“So I won’t be able to go?”

“I didn’t mean it that way. We’d like for you to come with us.”

“Of course,” Slim said. “But with only four tickets, I’m not sure we’ll be able to manage it.”

Lower lip bulging again, Bitsy said, “I guess I wanta go home now. If I can’t go to the vampire show ...”

“You can go!” Rusty blurted. “Jesus! Okay? No problem. We’ll get another ticket, that’s all.”

“How are we supposed to do that?” I asked.

“For all we know,” Slim said, “they might be sold out.”

“Even if they aren’t,” I added, “they won’t sell us one for a thirteen year old.”

“I’m going home,” Bitsy said.

“No!” Looking frantic, Rusty raised his open hands and Happed them at us. “Just hang on a minute. Nobody’s going anywhere. I’ve got it all figured out. Okay?”

“Let’s hear it,” Slim said.

Calming down slightly, he patted the air in front of his shoulders and said, “We go now.”

“Go where?” I asked.

“To Janks Field. We take three of the tickets. Slim drives. We leave Lee’s ticket here so she can follow along later in her pickup. We leave her a note, too, so she’ll know what’s going on.”

“That still leaves us a ticket short,” Slim pointed out.

Rusty patted the air some more. “That’s why we go now. We get there good and early, find us an adult and pay him to buy us one more ticket.”

“What’ll we use for money?” I asked.

“How much we need?” Bitsy asked.

“The tickets are normally ten bucks,” Rusty said, “but we might have to pay more. Fifteen or twenty, maybe.”

“I got more’n thirty,” Bitsy said.

I remembered her white patent leather purse. She didn’t have it now. When we first came into Lee’s house, she must’ve left it in Slim’s car.

Rusty frowned as if he couldn’t figure out how his little sister had gotten her hands on that much money. But he played it smart this time and kept his mouth shut.

“Great!” he said. “We’re in business.” He glanced at Slim, then at me. “Okay?”

“Might work,” Slim said.

“Worth a try,” I said.

Narrowing her eyes, Bitsy looked at her brother. “What if we can’t get another ticket?”

Rusty stared at her for a long time, then said, “That happens, you can have mine.”

Chapter Forty-three

In the kitchen, I handed three of the tickets to Slim and left the fourth ticket on the table beside Lee’s purse. Slim slipped them down a seat pocket of her cut-off jeans.

I found a pen and a pad of scratch paper by the phone. Back at the table, I wrote:

Dear Lee,

Sorry we missed you. We took three of the tickets and went on ahead. We figured we had better get there early and beat the crowd, as the parking has been known to get wierd.

We took Slim’s Pontiac. Please come as early as you can. We well be looking for you and save you a seat.

Love, Dwight

I showed the note to Slim. She read it to herself, then asked, “Who ever taught you how to spell?”

“What’s wrong with my spelling?”

“Aside from it stinks?”

Rusty chuckled.

“Like you’re some kinda whiz kid,” I said to him.