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widely and easily available. I could travel very fast and communicate things to others
much more rapidly than they could get them by any other means in those days. Now,
there s not much demand for it, but I can live on what I ve earned and invested.
 What do you do when you have to file paperwork and someone wants your birth
date?
He led her to an attractive room off the main hall on the front side of the house.
 This is the nice guest bedroom and it has a good lock on the door. Deadbolt. But don t
depend on that if you have to retreat here. Keep the stake handy too. Vampires can be
strong. Strong enough to knock down doors if we get really desperate. He stared hard
at her, the blue of his eyes shadowed and dark.  I may well get that desperate. Okay?
 Okay.
 Stay here now, or come back downstairs?
 Back downstairs, she said.  For now.
He nodded and led the way again.  The documentation thing has been tricky, he
admitted.  Until the whole immigration hubbub started, though, it wasn t hard. I ve
had to die and be reborn a couple of times, passing my estate on to my  heir .
Fortunately I won t have to worry about doing it again, since it would be much harder
now.
As they got to the bottom of the stairs, he asked,  Refill on the coffee?
She considered the rest of the night or more accurately, early morning that
loomed ahead.  Yes, please.
Again it struck her as funny that a vampire who threatened her life should be so
oddly polite at the same time.
He went back to the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with a pot of fresh
coffee. After taking a moment to pour her another cup, they sat down again.
She sought for a topic of conversation when the silence stretched out a hair too
long.  Tell me about your family, she asked.  How did you celebrate Christmas
before?
He made it to a real smile this time, though it was gone within moments.  I had two
brothers and a sister. I left home for school at sixteen, but I always returned for the
holidays, even when I got my degree and moved to Atlanta until that last year, when I
stayed to celebrate Christmas with Lucy s family and to propose to her.
155
Karen McCullough
His face darkened for a moment until he dismissed that memory to concentrate on
happier ones. She watched his expression lighten, erasing some of the deepest lines.  I
had a great family and Christmas was a wonderful time. My mother would bake for a
week ahead of time so we had an abundance of cakes, pies and cookies. The house
smelled unbearably wonderful with the aroma of it. Of course, my brothers and I would
sneak into the kitchen every chance we got and try to snatch some. We got our hands
smacked for it a couple of times. My mother made the best sugar cookies.
 And my father and I would go out on Christmas Eve to find the perfect tree and
bring it back. We had a special bucket we d put the cut end in, then shovel in enough
dirt all around it to hold it upright. In theory. In fact, it kept tipping over. Or the tree
would slide to one side& We had lots of fun getting it to stand up straight. We had a
couple of glass ornaments my dad bought for my mom, but most of our decorations
were made of paper or beads or pieces of tin we cut and hammered into different
shapes. There was no electricity in this area in those days and my dad wouldn t risk
putting candles on the tree except for while we ate Christmas dinner.
The fire popped and he turned to stare into it for a moment. His voice changed,
getting rougher and deeper when he added,  I watched them afterward, though I tried
not to get too close. Watched the kids grow up, get married, have kids of their own,
Mom and Pop grow old and die, then the kids got old and died and so did their kids& 
He looked at her, his eyes shadowed with sadness. Tremors shook him periodically,
but he didn t mention them or react except with an occasional sharp, indrawn breath.
 The worst, but in some ways also the best, memory of my undead time was a
Christmas about fifteen years after I d been turned. I never feel the cold or heat
anymore, so I stood in the snow outside and looked in and listened, though I made sure
they didn t see me.
* * * * *
Children raced back and forth across the room, sometimes scooting out to the
porch, where the chill wind soon fetched them back inside. They yelled with high
spirits and tried not to look too hard and too longingly at the pile of colorfully wrapped
packages under the Christmas tree. Three of the children belonged to his brother John,
two to David and one to his sister, Jenny. Her handsome, sandy-haired husband held an
infant while Jenny helped his mother convey food from kitchen to the table. John s wife
mashed potatoes in the kitchen, while David s stirred a pot of gravy.
Pop sat in a chair, with a blanket tucked around him, watching the chaos of
preparation and children s play. He looked thinner and grayer than Michael
remembered. It shocked him to realize Pop was an old man.
Once dinner was ready, everyone gathered round the table. His father stood to say
the blessing.
 Lord, thank you for bringing us all together again this holy day. Thank you for the
gift of your son given to us on this same day so many years ago. Thank you for the gift
156
Vampire s Christmas Carol
of love and family and food you ve graced us with and the many other benefits you ve
given us this year. And, Lord, we remember the one person who should be here with us
this day, but isn t. We ll never forget Michael and can only hope that he is with you in
paradise this day. Amen.
There was such sadness in Pop s voice, even after all these years, it felt like
something tearing inside him.
 Who is Michael? one of the children asked.
 He was your uncle, your father s brother, Pop said.  He disappeared on
Christmas Eve fifteen years ago and we don t know what ever happened to him. No
one has heard from him.
 Wow! You think he might have decided to run away or something?
Pop shook his head.  He was planning to ask his young lady to marry him. We [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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