Vampires Need Pedicures Too (A Paranormal Romance) (4 page)

“A.J.?”

“No, like ‘Hey Jay!’, but one word, Ayjay.”

“
So y
ou were friends?”

“
In a way, but not really.
  You know, probably as good of friends as we could be under the circumstances.”

“What circumstances?”

“
I’ll try to explain. 
See,
the shows could be dangerous
back then, not sure if they still are, I don’t go anymore
. 
But
I watched him save three kids outside of
Tulsa
.  An elephant got spooked and took off towards the seats, and this guy just comes out of nowhere and grabs these three kids in his great big arms
, like he was waiting for it or something
.  They were maybe six or seven years old, little guys, you know?

“A
ll of a sudden he was just there
and then the kids are safe and out of the way, but this guy, he goes down under the elephant
-
gets rolled really bad.  We all thought he was dead for sure.  It was ugly.  So we all run in, stop the show and slide him onto a blanket and carry him back up to old Doc Smith’s tent.

“Now the Doc, he was a crotchety
ass, but he kept everyon
e stitched together p
retty well, so we put up with him
.
  Anyway, he sends us all out and
the
n
there he is later
that day
, Ayjay
I mean - smiling and being silly for the kids
like nothing ever happened
.
”

“I don’t understand.
”

“That’s just it, none of us did.  I could sense his pulse was almost gone, he
should have died. 
He did that three times that summer
.”

“What,
nearly died or
save
d
other people?”

“
The saving thing,
all kids - five
of them
.  The first time was the second day he was with us, then that day with the elephant and one more time up in
Kansas
, the day before he disappeared.
  I remember him giving me a weird look that day, a funny smile
- like he
knew something I didn’t
.
  It was only the one time in
Oklahoma
that he got hurt
.
Like I said, it was
as if
he was waiting for the accidents, you know?  Like he knew something, h
e was a saint
if there ever was one
Holly
.

“
So friends?  N
ot so much.  You
couldn’t get
close, not close
like that
anyway.
  But respect?  Yeah.
 
The thing was,
the
kicker
I mean,
was I’ve never met a more broken man in my life.  It was tragic.
” 

“Broken how?  Disabled?
”

“No, his soul.
 
He had secrets, dark ones.  They were like a wall. 
Some of us could feel
it;
I felt it most of all
, what with my condition and all
.  I don’t know what crushed
this
poor guy, but it was evil, I know that.
  Unmerciful
.
”

“Evil?  I’m sorry, you
’re
being cryptic.”

“I don’t mean to be. 
I spent a lot of time with him that summer
.  He stayed with me for a while, you know in my tent,
and he never once left character, always cheerful always living the role.
  I’m pretty sure his makeup was tattooed on, permanent.
  I felt some strange stuff with him around.
”

“Like what?”

“
Vibes, ‘The Willie
s
’
people used to call it. 
We should have all been scared of him, even me.  Like I said, he carried something evil around with him.

“I hadn’t thought much about it since, but now that I connect the dots so to speak, there was a lot of weird stuff that happened that summer.”

“Weirder than what you just told me?”

“Yeah, I mean no,” Tim took a breath and then began again, “We had a bearded lady with the show, Lucy.  Lucy Tradell, she was beautiful, but had some condition so her face was pretty much, well - bearded.  Anyway, Jake
Stumper
was a supplier for us.  Followed the show around
in an old rusted pick-up
and bought and sold rope, wire, tenting, just stuff we needed.”

“Let me guess, he was sweet on her?”

“Oh yeah,” Tim laughed softly remembering
, “H
e kept asking her to marry him, but she felt unworthy or something, always said no.  Then one day, I guess it was around the fourth, she lost her beard.”

Holly laughed, “Lost it?”

“Well, she was cured of her condition I guess.  She ran off with Jake the same day.”

“You think Ayjay did it, cured her somehow?”

“Yeah, I do.  I didn’t think about it at the time, but now, yeah. 
Maybe he was atoning
that summer
.”

“Atoning?”

“For past sins, someth
ing bad he had done or whatever, spreading happiness around. 
But through it all h
e taught me
something,” Tim said through a suddenly sullen expression.

Holly listened
with concern at his mood change.

“Why do I dress like this?  It’s my costume, my role.  Just like A
yjay
, I don’t think about the past, all of the bad stuff.  I stay in character, the clown, the misfit, the one who doesn’t remember
.
  It’s like armor or a shield
. 
Maybe today I’ll help someone, maybe I won’t
.
  Maybe
,
I just don’t know.
  Maybe it keeps the evil at bay or lets me forget about it.
  Like AA, I won’t remember today.”

“Are you atoning?  For your past sins?”

“
Maybe. 
I’
m not the s
aint Ayjay was.  I’
ve done some things I wished I hadn’t and other
things I don’t want to think about or be reminded of, this helps.
  That may sound stupid or cowardly, but I don’t give a f-, it doesn’
t bother me.  Reliving tragedy
does.  So there it is.”

He finished and looked away, eyes glistening in the candlelight, jaw clenching.

“I don’t think you are being any of those things
,
”
she
reached across the table and gingerly touched the back of his hand
, “
Its
something else though isn’t it, not past deeds, something else?”

Her fingertips were electric.  He
pressed his face into his free hand and then ran his hand back across his brow and through his hair and sighed.

“You said being a vampire was amazing, I don’t understand?
  You don’t sound happy.
”

“
Not at the moment,
but I think that’s going to change soon enough
,” he sighed again and then gave Holly a gentle smile, “
It is incredible, but like everything else, it has a dark side.”

Tim
’s smile faded to a shallow
grimaced
as a
new
silence
settled over the
table;
he
was a different person now.  And she understood, at least in part, the transformation. 
He was still closed
off;
hiding behind his own walls
, but the emotion was there, the unexpected
vulnerability.  She wanted to know more
of him and what he was hiding, and she thought she knew
, so she asked.

“Can it be someday yet?”

Tim
looked into those deep brown eyes again and they held an insistence in them, a qu
iet confidence - an expectation, but mostly they were brimming with compassion. 
He studied her face and then returned his gaze to her eyes and then looked through her
, pas
t
the circus days, before the wars, even before the turning -
into
the old days and somberly
nodded.
 

He spoke softly,
Holly
had to lean in and almost still her breathing lest she miss something.

“It was
mostly
wonderful
.  Everything was slower, calmer
and more chaotic at the same time
.  There was plenty of
time to read and relax and having
fun
took
no
effort
at all
.  I worked the wharves in
Boston
before, before this,” he said motioning to himself.

“Mostly?”

“Well everything smelled pretty bad and depending on where
you were, there was always
violence
in the air
, you know?  Looking back, a sense of danger hung over everything, but even then it was exciting.
 
I think partly due to the danger, but also due to the unknown.  Remem
ber, no one had r
e
ally been out W
est yet, not really. 
Africa
was unknown.  The world was still a mysterious
and
mostly unexplored
place back then.
  Medicine was still more voodoo than science.
”

“
I’m imagin
in
g all the tall ships in the harbor, masts reaching
up, people working everywhere, ships
sailing out to sea
with the wind in their sails
,
it sounds so romantic.”

“
Romantic?
 
Maybe, at the time it was hard work,
but
to be fair, it was
honest
work
.  Then, then I became a vampire and everything changed, for the better
I think
- no,
to spite what I just said -
I know
.  Everything is more vivid, sounds more
distinct, senses heightened.  Like I said, it’s impossible to explain really
.”

“What about your family?
  They were in
Massachusetts
?”

“
Yeah, w
e lived in the country, small farm
west of
Boston
,”
Tim’s eyes were downcast as he spoke.  “I remember we had a few barn cats, a cow and a few chickens.  I guess we were well off for the time.  My parents, a brother, two sisters and me lived there, worked there - it was our life.  Then one night some Indians or outlaws, I don’t know, someone came
.  My father hid us, but
I was the only one left come morning.”

Holly
was touched, “They died?”

“
I buried my brother and father
and put up markers for them
, never saw my sisters or mother again.  Not sure what happened there and not sure I want to, you know?
  I always thought I should have searched for them, but I was only twelve
and human
at the time
. 
I
didn’t even know where or how to start.
  Three hundred years o
f
grief and regret would be one of those down sides I was talking about.
”

Holly
nodded
with moist eyes
and reached across the table
again
and
took
Tim’s hand
in her own
, squeezing lightly.

Tim loved the softness of her skin, the gentle touch of her finger
s
- the warmth.

“Yeah, so then I made my way to
Boston
, lived on the streets and when I was
a
little older went to work on the wharves.  Hauling stuff mostly, but learned a little bit about
your tall
ships and sailing.  I was happy I guess, had a roof,
food
and lots of drink,” he winked, “and then one night I met a girl who changed me forever, the vampire Tim now at your service.”