The Traveling Vampire Show

“Looking for a vampire,” I said.

She turned her head and hoisted her eyebrows.

“I know. Vampires don’t exist. But there’s supposed to be a vampire show at Janks Field tonight. One night only. The Traveling Vampire Show. Rusty says they’ve got fliers for it all over town.”

“This is the first I’ve heard about it,” Lee said. “I haven’t been into town yet today. Danny’s off on one of his trips, so I slept in.”

“Where’d he go?”

“Chicago. One of those sales conventions. So tell me more about The Traveling Vampire Show.”

“There’s supposed to be a real vampire....”

“No kidding?” She looked at me and grinned. “I’ve never seen one of those, myself.”

“Her name’s Valeria. I guess she’s supposed to go after volunteers from the audience.”

“Cool,” Lee said.

“Anyway, we can’t go to the show. It doesn’t even start till midnight and it’s adults only and I’m never supposed to go to Janks Field at all.”

“So of course you went there anyway.”

“Yeah. You know, just for a look around. We thought we might get a chance to see Valeria.”

“In daylight? You kids need to brush up on your vampire lore.”

“Oh, we know all about that. We’re not stupid.”

She grinned at me.

“We just wanted to see what was going on. We figured maybe it’d be like a carnival and we could watch them setting up for the show, something like that. And maybe we’d get a look at Valeria.”

Gorgeous! Beguiling!

I decided not to mention that Valeria was supposed to be a stunning beauty.

A blush suddenly spread over my skin.

Oh, God, don’t let Lee find out about our wager!

“Thing is,” I said, “we didn’t seriously think she’d be spending all day in a coffin. You know? I mean, the whole thing’s gotta be a fake-out. We figured we might actually see her wandering around in the daytime. Then we’d know she’s a phony.”

“So, did you see her?” Lee asked.

“I guess we got to Janks Field ahead of the show. Nobody was there except us. And that dog.”

Chapter Ten

Lee drove down Route 3 at a safe speed just slightly over the limit but after the turnoff, in the seclusion of the dirt road, she poured it on. This didn’t surprise me. I’d ridden with her many times before and knew all about her reckless streak.

I couldn’t complain, though. She’d never crashed.

So I held my peace—along with the dashboard and door handle—while she ripped over the narrow, twisty road. The force of her turns sometimes bumped me against the door, sometimes threw me toward her.

I was tempted to let go and fall against Lee, not to punish her for the wild driving but to have the contact with her. It might’ve been embarrassing, though. And it might’ve made her crash into a tree or something. I didn’t want to take the risk, so I held on tight.

We jerked from side to side, shook and bounced all the way to the far end of the road and burst out of the dense forest gloom into the open gray gloom of Janks Field and Lee almost sent me through the windshield the way she tromped on the brakes.

We skidded to a stop.

Parked near the shack where I’d left Slim and Rusty were three vehicles: a truck the size of a moving van, a large bus, and a hearse. All three were shiny black, and unmarked—no fancy signs announcing this was The Traveling Vampire Show, no paintings of bats or fangs or Valeria. Nothing at all like that. As if the show wanted to keep itself secret as it roamed the roads on its way from town to town.

Several people seemed to be unloading equipment from the truck.

“Looks like the show has arrived,” Lee said.

“Guess so. If that’s what it is.”

“What else could it be?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“I don’t see your friends, though.”

“Me neither.”

“Think they’re still up there?”

“They might be. Maybe they’re lying down flat behind the sign.”

“Let’s find out,” Lee said. She started driving forward.