Wednesday, August 18, 2010

the book of sarah

First of all, we must agree that what comes next is fiction. I have fed. I'm good for another month. I told you about my mortal boyhood in old Andalusia, back before I was known as Thomas. I'll tell you more later. But now I want to speak of more immediate concerns. It's like that after I feed. There's a feeling of intoxication. I get manic and my mind tends to jump from one thing to another. I have visions during the daylight hours when I 'sleep.' I see people deserved  of death. It's like I am God's pruning shears and it's my job to nip 'it' in the bud. .That explanation is as  good as any. I just nipped a crooked cop. Cop-cop-cop-cop-cop. After all these centuries I still get a charge out of using  the common vernaculars. You have good ones today, but they had even better ones in Restoration England. Wait till I calm down and I'll tell you some. They say I look like Antonio Banderas. Do you know who he is?  Well, I guess that's possible, for we are both sons of Iberia. But I look like a very young Antonio Banderas, for I was  lost to the daylight in the third month of my eightteenth year. I was on a pilgrimage with my father . We traveled with a retinue of thirty retainers to confer with the great Rashi at his rabbinical court in the south of what you now call France. It was determined that I would give my life to The Faith and become a respected teacher of The Scriptures. That was our way. We had done so for generations. And although not of the Davidic line,  we are descended from the Hasmonean Dynasty, a hellenistic Judean family that ruled in the first and second century B.C.E.. So that wouldn't have made me a king, but it would have made me a prince... Defender of the Peace of Jerusalem... Great Steward of God's throne ... and all that. Yet such was not my fate, for before we reached the manor of the great
Rashi, I was taken, never to benefit from his knowledge or to sample the worthy wines from his vinyards. Please, remind me  to tell you about Sarah. I may not be able to speak with you for a few days. The life of a 'vampire' can be complicated. But when I do, please remind me. There are things that you should know.