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I am here at my shop. I am speaking to you from Philadelphia After Dark, the special place I started back in my mortal days. Maybe you've been there... a cozy book store with mullioned windows on a narrow, cobbled street? It's where Jonathon ben Macabi, also known as Tomas de Macabea, found me.
Sometimes I come back. The ladies who run the place know me. They know my 'nature' and they help me. Old customers occasionally recognize me too. They say - Sarah? Where have you been?.... I shake their hands, or kiss their cheeks and tell them I've been in Baltimore looking after a sick aunt who helped raise me. They nod. They understand.
I offer them coffee. I drink hot water and lemon. They don't seem to notice. Night-folk can cloud the vision of mortals. We talk. We discuss books, plays, even restaurants. There's a little nook off to the side of the oak counter with three enveloping, wing-backed chairs. I like that space. It's my space, even more than the townhouse we live in now.
Do the others know it? I don't know. I suppose they have their prior lives too. Jonathon often speaks of his years in England, or Old Muscovy, or Byzantium, or Al Andalus. So many places. Edith, our 'witchy-woman' friend and housekeeper still goes back and forth to the Pines (Jersey Pine Barrens) and her little cottage there. Her husband keeps it going. We call him 'Mister Edith.' And the small boy taken by polio who lives in our cellar... well, he wanders all over the house... that's just his special place, remembers how it was before we got there. You see, there were other residences before this one, though he's only our second or third ghost.
If you're a long time follower, you've seen lots of drama play out here. It happens. But night-folk life is really very orderly. We have our territories. 'Families' rarely fight. Sometimes bands break up. This one goes with that group. That one goes with this group. Old members disappear. Newly created vampirinas and vampirinos take their place. Life, or what we call 'life' goes on.
I'm not like Jonathon, or Doctor Franklin. Odd to think of that old reprobate as a vampire now. For almost two hundred and thirty years he preserved his life by scientific means. 'Harmonics'... Most of you know that. Now he and Jonathon debate our night-folk future. They mean to increase the 'cull,' or our taking of, usually, unworthy mortals. The Doctor and his faction press for a less discriminate method. They lack faith and patience. Jonathon keeps to his old ways, relying on God given visions and dreams.
I do my own thing, focused more on the preservation of 'worthy' life than the extinguishing of malefactors. I'm doing it right now. There's a little display by the register. Most take it to be perfume samples. You know those little glass vials with the tiny, plastic stoppers, on heavy stock cards? Used to see them all the time in department stores. I loved them. Too expensive these days. Now we have to make do with waxy, or sticky, perfume ads in thick, glossy, fall fashion magazines. But I keep tradition alive, creating my own samples. 'Everlasting' I call it. Each one contains a drop, or two of my restorative blood. They put it on and absorb it through their skin. Some taste it. Vampire magic can do that. I should call it 'Irresistible.'
Do I offer it to everyone?... No, I don't. Sometimes I slide the display back out of sight. Other times I call people's attention to it. There's a men's version too, called 'Smoke.' A scent artist up in New Hope, makes it up for me. I just ad the blood... barely colors it at all. You see, I know who merits saving and who doesn't. Maladies disappear, or lessen. Aging slows down. People stay around longer. When I'm not here, Wendy and Caroline know who gets it. Most love the scents and are only too eager.
Maybe a sweet, dedicated school teacher enjoys an extra few years, or a young painter fights his pulmonary problems. I've only been night-folk about five years, but I know I'll forget and one day neighbors will say - You know Mitzi, who lives across the street?.... Yeah?.... Well, she's almost a hundred and thirty eight years old!... God bless her. How's she do it?.... Turtle meat and egg salad.... Wait. Let me write it down. And, gee, she's got such a nice bust line too!
Do I 'cull' people?... Of course I do. And I know who to take out too. Believe me. I just don't get all 'Biblical' about it.
Now let me close up in here. It'll be dawn soon and I have to go. You know the line - We open with the gloaming and close up with the dawn.... A bookshop for the evening trade...
How do our regulars walk the streets so late? I 'charm' them. What do you think?
My name is Sarah and I make miracles....
<more next time>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
click COZY BOOK SHOP ... to see all Vampire Wonderland episodes, but you have to click on the 'subscribe' rectangle near the upper right corner of the screen to make that happen now, because the operators of the site changed things around. I'm trying to find a direct link to the new format. think I'll ask THE GEEK SQUAD guys at my BEST BUY store to help. They charge a yearly fee. I hope they'll help. They should.
click HELLO, WHO IS IT? .... to join me on Twitter....
please leave a comment. thank you...
Sometimes I come back. The ladies who run the place know me. They know my 'nature' and they help me. Old customers occasionally recognize me too. They say - Sarah? Where have you been?.... I shake their hands, or kiss their cheeks and tell them I've been in Baltimore looking after a sick aunt who helped raise me. They nod. They understand.
I offer them coffee. I drink hot water and lemon. They don't seem to notice. Night-folk can cloud the vision of mortals. We talk. We discuss books, plays, even restaurants. There's a little nook off to the side of the oak counter with three enveloping, wing-backed chairs. I like that space. It's my space, even more than the townhouse we live in now.
Do the others know it? I don't know. I suppose they have their prior lives too. Jonathon often speaks of his years in England, or Old Muscovy, or Byzantium, or Al Andalus. So many places. Edith, our 'witchy-woman' friend and housekeeper still goes back and forth to the Pines (Jersey Pine Barrens) and her little cottage there. Her husband keeps it going. We call him 'Mister Edith.' And the small boy taken by polio who lives in our cellar... well, he wanders all over the house... that's just his special place, remembers how it was before we got there. You see, there were other residences before this one, though he's only our second or third ghost.
If you're a long time follower, you've seen lots of drama play out here. It happens. But night-folk life is really very orderly. We have our territories. 'Families' rarely fight. Sometimes bands break up. This one goes with that group. That one goes with this group. Old members disappear. Newly created vampirinas and vampirinos take their place. Life, or what we call 'life' goes on.
I'm not like Jonathon, or Doctor Franklin. Odd to think of that old reprobate as a vampire now. For almost two hundred and thirty years he preserved his life by scientific means. 'Harmonics'... Most of you know that. Now he and Jonathon debate our night-folk future. They mean to increase the 'cull,' or our taking of, usually, unworthy mortals. The Doctor and his faction press for a less discriminate method. They lack faith and patience. Jonathon keeps to his old ways, relying on God given visions and dreams.
I do my own thing, focused more on the preservation of 'worthy' life than the extinguishing of malefactors. I'm doing it right now. There's a little display by the register. Most take it to be perfume samples. You know those little glass vials with the tiny, plastic stoppers, on heavy stock cards? Used to see them all the time in department stores. I loved them. Too expensive these days. Now we have to make do with waxy, or sticky, perfume ads in thick, glossy, fall fashion magazines. But I keep tradition alive, creating my own samples. 'Everlasting' I call it. Each one contains a drop, or two of my restorative blood. They put it on and absorb it through their skin. Some taste it. Vampire magic can do that. I should call it 'Irresistible.'
Do I offer it to everyone?... No, I don't. Sometimes I slide the display back out of sight. Other times I call people's attention to it. There's a men's version too, called 'Smoke.' A scent artist up in New Hope, makes it up for me. I just ad the blood... barely colors it at all. You see, I know who merits saving and who doesn't. Maladies disappear, or lessen. Aging slows down. People stay around longer. When I'm not here, Wendy and Caroline know who gets it. Most love the scents and are only too eager.
Maybe a sweet, dedicated school teacher enjoys an extra few years, or a young painter fights his pulmonary problems. I've only been night-folk about five years, but I know I'll forget and one day neighbors will say - You know Mitzi, who lives across the street?.... Yeah?.... Well, she's almost a hundred and thirty eight years old!... God bless her. How's she do it?.... Turtle meat and egg salad.... Wait. Let me write it down. And, gee, she's got such a nice bust line too!
Do I 'cull' people?... Of course I do. And I know who to take out too. Believe me. I just don't get all 'Biblical' about it.
Now let me close up in here. It'll be dawn soon and I have to go. You know the line - We open with the gloaming and close up with the dawn.... A bookshop for the evening trade...
How do our regulars walk the streets so late? I 'charm' them. What do you think?
My name is Sarah and I make miracles....
<more next time>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
click COZY BOOK SHOP ... to see all Vampire Wonderland episodes, but you have to click on the 'subscribe' rectangle near the upper right corner of the screen to make that happen now, because the operators of the site changed things around. I'm trying to find a direct link to the new format. think I'll ask THE GEEK SQUAD guys at my BEST BUY store to help. They charge a yearly fee. I hope they'll help. They should.
click HELLO, WHO IS IT? .... to join me on Twitter....
please leave a comment. thank you...
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