EDITH, THE JERSEY PINES WITCHY-WOMAN, STAYS PUT

She could a gone with, only she didn't want to. Nothin' gone happen to that house. It brick. Got them double-glass windows... big, heavy doors and all. Ain't no wind gone blow that joint away. I think them vampires just needed a vacation. Tomas like a fiddle wit' all them gadgets they got over there. Annie got a thing for all them crazy animal bastids they got locked in that menagerie. Well, mostly animals, 'cause some look like they got little bit a human bean in 'em too. Jersey Devil boy resemble a nice, little gargoyle I seed on one a the staircases they got goin' in to City Hall. And I hear they got a couple merfolk swimmin' 'round in there now too. Think they like merfolk criminals. 'cause them people don't give up they own just like that. Annie like a sneak in and watch 'em do dirty. They doan care, 'cause she a different species and all. But Sarah don't like it. She try an pull her out. Not that she can do it, 'cause Annie fly like them elferinos and elferinas. And Sarah can't grab hold a her when she wedged up where the ceiling meet the wall. 

Rest of 'em sleep, or watch experiments or read stuff in the library. Baylah found these old, old books written in Tuareg (that her talk) and some in Arabic too. Tell all 'bout Timbuctu and Old Mali. She get real quiet when she look at them pages. That where she from. She was in the princess business back there, 'case you don't know. 

Yeah, Edith could a gone wit' 'em. but I 'spects sometime she just wanna get shet of 'em. Like to stretch out on that big sofa they got. Like to watch all them  big malf New York and California wimmen throw they heads back and speechify at each other. Like a curse at Barbra Walters (you know she like a hundred and eight years old?) and Whoopi Goldberg and that Sharon Osbourne one they got on after. Mister Edith come in to be wit' her. He brung Pin-Head Mel too. Guess it a lot safer than ridin' things out in the Pines. TV gal say we all gone get stripped nekkid by killer wind and fire-hose deluge. ....... Well, I do not know 'bout you, but Mister Never-You-Mind like to see that, actually. 

Little ghost boy what live in the cellar want Edith a teach him how you play Mah-Jong. He found a set down there and wanna make use of it. She say she not sure how you play that game, so they use it to build little cities and all. You know Mah-Jong got all these tiny bricks made out a carved, polished elephant teeth. I knowed a man once used a set to carve out some fancy teeth for his own self. Looked all right too, 'cept three a his upper incisors got Chinese pictures on 'em. But he say he doan care, 'cause he not fussy.

Mister Edith go walkin' 'round the city. He doan like no city, but he do like a see them once in a while. Try on all them toilet waters they got ev'rywhere you look. Even in butcher shops, I 'spects. Buy hisself a big, old cinnamon raisin bagel (toasted) with cream cheese. Take all the free toilet paper they got layin' out in all them 'everybody pee at once' baffrooms. Talk to all the ladies. He say - Are you a whore, or are you just studyin' a be one?....... He doan know. He jus' askin' questions. But one say she gone for graduate degree. That impress him a whole lot. 

Edith get out some a them old books Tomas got. She not like a look at them when he 'round. Mos' in some kind a Spanish, or Vahmpeerigo (like Vampire Spanish and Eye-talian got a baby). Some in all that Hebrew, Bible talk. She not like a look at that, 'cause she say it make her feel like God lookin' back at her. But them books all got pictures too... real old, skinny-line, black ink pictures. Old men mixin' all kind a crazy shit in little, round hobo pots. .... No! Not hobo pots... like what all them Santa Claus helper goomers use 'round Christmas time.... or what they used to use.... Things is so much different now. They got lots a mean faced, big-boned, bitchy wimmen grabbin' Santa Claus' money 'round here these days. Some of 'em use it a buy steak sandwiches, if you ask me. 

But I can see a silver, gray mist growin' 'round the moon. I can tell. I can 'smell' it pretty good for one who ain't got no nose. Big Mamma Zephyr gone come this way. Gonna mess ev'rything up. Edith say she gone let a couple bums sleep in a storage room. Only they gotta strip down out back and show her they ain't got no bugs 'fore she does. Mister Edith doan approve a that part, but she tell him to shut up, 'cause she believe in doin things scientific like.

Streets is mostly empty now. Them what got where to go is all locked up inside eatin' 'storm supplies' and drinkin' coffee and playin' wit' hand-held, video poker machines. That what you do when hurricane comin'.....

I think it like a law, or somethin'...

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Billy Kravitz' vampire wonderland: THE BIRTH OF BRITE EYES

Billy Kravitz' vampire wonderland: THE BIRTH OF BRITE EYES: I do not enjoy relating these things to you, but I am a narrator and it is my duty to do so. This is not a choice Zebulon would make, but I ...This episode details the night when Annie 'assumed the burden.' It tells about the birth of a juvenile vampirina, too young to become an elferina and so she became something else...... No one has ever read this before....... Please click on it and scroll around...... And, as you know, we only pretend that it's fiction...

HOW VAMPIRES PREPARE FOR NATURAL DISASTERS, SUCH AS HURRICANE SANDY

Tomas shares no ancient secrets with Sarah tonight. Nor do the vampires prepare for The Revels. A storm approaches. A tempest born amidst the soul crushing heat of the Sahel and nursed upon tropical seas. The hurricane bears down. Earths own version of Jupiter's Red Spot threatens to drown the dry land. 

Humans scurry about collecting necessities. They buy bread and eggs and milk and batteries. They buy big rigid bladders of certified 'clean' water. They buy mustard, nachos and ham. Then they hunker down in their homes and eat by the weak, yellow glow of a flashlight. If forced to evacuate, they refugee farther inland and squeeze in with blood relations.

Vampires, on the other hand, face a different set of problems. They can't be rescued, especially not during the day. No canoe rides from roof-top islands for them. Imagine orange-vested stalwarts chopping through debris to free a life-eater family. Here it comes. The wall crumbles. Daylight pours in and the 'family' sizzles. Whoa! Who's gonna get a commendation from the mayor for that?

No, vampires must flee before disaster strikes, burrowing deep down into the very bowels of the city. And the nocturnal band dwelling within the townhouse is doing just that. Doctor Franklin awaits. The sprawling subterranean laboratories, libraries, specimen collections (both living and non) and hideaways (some quite luxurious) comprising the all-knowing organization called The Anti-Enchantment Bureau has room enough for them. Vampires often shelter there. The old reprobate... the old patriot loves to study them. 

Regulars have met 'the man who created Philadelphia' before. Look, William Penn may have laid out the bones, but Ben Franklin gave them flesh. And America's Da Vinci still lives, not due to any vampire chicanery, but thanks to his own study of frequencies and harmonics. 

So they rendezvous at a special place, the large, bronze, compass rose embossed into the very center of 'the wedding cake' or 'the cake' for short, since the huge Second Empire edifice of City Hall  truly does resemble a nuptual confection.

The sprawling granite plaza is empty... like a ghostly 'close' in an old Norman castle. Tomas and the rest silently enter. The 'doctor' nods to greet them. They approach the compass rose, form a circle and grasp hands. Annie puts up a fight. She 'don't wanna hold nobody's God damned dirty hands.' But Tomas shuts her up real fast. And I think the hovering presence of 'Papa' had something to do with it too. Probably threatened to banish her to the Solar Corona again, 'cause, boy, did she hate that. Odd, how once in space, starlight (even sunlight) has little effect on vampires. It's only on Earth that daylight kills them. Who knows? Perhaps it's the same on other worlds too?

Then they stand there and wait. Doctor Franklin sports his usual green, Eagles sweat suit and the wispy tendrils hanging from his pate blow softly in the late night breeze. 

Finally, over five hundred feet above, the huge, old, illuminated clock begins to toll the hour. Two heartbeats later, the resonating echos reach them on the ground. And slowly, but surely, they begin to fade from this place, only to coalesce in safer surroundings. 

My, but the Grand Armonica can do strange things.....

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THE LITTLE VAMPIRE GIRL, ANNIE, SEES GHOSTS IN THE STREET

All the other vampires prepared for The Revels, assembling specially ordered clothing and costly accessories. Tomas had his bootkins. Sarah her cashmere what-nots and Conrad bought three new packages of all cotton, Hanes briefs. Leo picked up some edgy tight pants on South Street, because he did have a naughty side, after all.

But Annie could not be bothered. She had her corduroy jeans from KID'S GAP  (Edith bought them on Walnut Street) and some sweaters and 'tops' from the girls' department at Macy's. A few were black, so she could affect a classic vampirina look too. Besides, Bahlay promised to take her shopping in Europe at L'Grand Maison du Nuit, THEE  emporium extradordinaire for discerning night-folk everywhere. They say the shop girls are real witches. And the harpist in the tea room is the Emperor Nero, or Harpo Marx, or some talented, though expired soul like that.

Exciting as that exceptional trip was, Annie had other things on her mind. October is Ghost Season. And in a New World city old as Philadelphia, they're positively everywhere. It's not that the month is anything special to them. But humans just expect to see them now. The vibrations are right. Passageways are open and encounters occur at a fast and furious clip.

So far, on just this night alone, the little vampirina saw six. The fire-eyes lady on a subway platform was first. She just sat there, wrapped in a great-coat, staring straight ahead  and mumbling to herself. Few living souls could see her. A roly-poly fourteen year old girl with intricate braiding and a mouth filled with bubble gum thought she could. And she carefully reached out a finger to see if that 'orange shit' shining from her eyeball sockets was, in fact, fire, or just a really bad case of conjunctivitis...... Annie walked over and said - Yo, fat girl (ever the gracious diplomat) you gonna burn youself. The 'fat girl' called her a stringy-haired, little white bitch. She didn't say it, but she thought it. So Annie let her do it. And five seconds later, accompanied by a high-volume litany of 'shits, damns, plus a liberal sprinkling of what Annie called 'the king a the words,' the fourteen year old dashed off the platform and bounced up to the street.

Then the train screeched to a halt. Some late night pre-Halloween celebrants shuffled in, a few bedraggled Marilyn Monroes, two Spidermen, one puny, the other more or less OK, and a Mario Lanza who may or may not have been the real thing. 

Annie was alone, save for the mumbling spirit-woman. So she snuggled in next to her (not that ghostly, spirit-women were especially comforting that way) and hummed a little song. A cop came over to investigate. You don't see too many stringy haired seven year olds humming to themselves on subway platforms this late at night.  He was a nice cop too. But Annie hissed like a cat  and bared her teeth..... That he could have dealt with. Crack babies are everywhere. It was the levitation part that got him. Almost  fell on the tracks. Annie laughed and cackled till the nice cop ran away and twisted his ankle real bad. But he just kept on going.

The fire-eyed ghost laughed too. Annie looked up, whispered something in her ear and walked off toward the exit, leaving the dead soul alone.

Then she boosted two or three Archie comics from an all-night CVS (for the ghost boy who lived in their cellar) and slowly strolled back toward home.

On the way she saw a man hanging from a tree, his head grotesquely cracked to the side. He whispered - How you doin'? as she passed. The little vampirina said - OK, and you?..... The hanged man said - Eh..... But eight heartbeats later she turned around. Maybe she wanted to say something? I don't know. Only the hanged man wasn't there.....

Though a big, black crow sat in the branches...

And if you should wake from your rest this night, sit up, raise the shade just a little and peer out into the blackness..... Perhaps you'll see a dark-time vision too?....... They ARE out there...... They really are...

Don't be afraid.... just look.

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Billy Kravitz' vampire wonderland: THE LITTLE MATCH BOY ~~~~ a re-telling of H.C. And...

Billy Kravitz' vampire wonderland: THE LITTLE MATCH BOY ~~~~ a re-telling of H.C. And...: Far, far away, across the wide Atlantic Sea and north of the Alps, lies the great, imperial city of Prague, an illustrious assemblage of fi... Please click on this first episode of the much-loved, sad, though heartwarming tale. If you'd like to see more, scroll down to the 'NEWER POST' option and click on that too.... No vampires this time, but something very special ~~~~~ THE LITTLE MATCH BOY

JONATHON a.k.a. TOMAS, IN PERSIA DURING THE AGE OF POETS

The voyage down the Red Sea and around Arabia Felix, as The Yemen was known in those days was uneventful. I fed before we left. Twins, they were. Two sleek assassins, in service to a certain lesser member of the Persian royal house. The empire was exceedingly large in those days, stretching form the ramparts of Seljuk holdings in Anatolia (Turkey) to the River Oxus in present day Pakistan, I believe. Their agents were everywhere, slitting throats, or pouring copious streams of unbelievably searing molten lead into the ear canals of unknowing sleepers. Some were also skilled in the garrote. My two were 'free agents' you might say. More like twentieth century American 'hit men,' very cruel and mercenary in every way. The first laughed when I killed his cousin. He said - How fortuitous! Now the gold is all mine!........ Yet he changed his tune when he became dessert, offering me all manner of princely recompense. But I drained him just the same. And the treasure became mine anyway. 

So I boarded the dhow (sailing craft, like sleek caravels) with perhaps fourteen or fifteen co-religionists and settled in below deck. A young man from The Sinai, himself a refugee from Trinitarian blood lust, agreed to guard me during the passage. And when he was indisposed, his loyal retainer promised to do likewise. 

But I am confused. There were two ships...two, I am sure of it. For we disembarked at a Yemeni port, the captain preferring a hold full of kat (mild, Middle Eastern stimulant) to a bunch of Sephardim (Spanish & Mediterranean Jews). Though he proved to be partially honorable and in return for a hefty assortment of wedding rings and what-nots, arranged for us to continue our trip on board the second ship. In that way we rounded the Arabian 'toe' and continued up toward what political expediency called 'The Persian Gulf.' And I entered a world filled with poets and artists of every type. 

Sarah stirred on her lounge chair, for they spoke in the small, rear garden, as always. She stretched, looked up at the misty sky and said - I've read a lot about that place..... miniature paintings... fine, Chinese porcelains... blue tiled mosques... and courtly love, Omar Kaiyam and all that ' jug of wine, loaf of bread and thou' stuff. Must have been beautiful. 

It was- Tomas, also known as Jonathon said. Especially the heartland, up north beyond the deserts, where the major cities were. Tabriz became my home, a cool, well watered place, a storybook, jewel-box, a manicured cultured city, home to a continuous Jewish presence since Darius held the throne. Imagine, after fifteen hundred years one still heard Aramaic in the plazas.... the language of  Ezra and Nehemiah and the early Talmudical, Essene scholar, Joshua, known to Trinitarians as Jesus. It was there and it was miraculous, even to a life-eater such as I. 

So I settled into a small, but comfortable house, close by the Blue Mosque and there I passed my evenings. 

Did  you have company? - asked Sarah. Was there a concubine, or a wife, or a paramour of some sort?..... She feigned indifference, yet desperately wanted to know.

I was coming to that - said Jonathon......And so he told her of Judith.......

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Billy Kravitz' vampire wonderland: YOU MAY KNOW ZEBULON, ONE OF OUR DISEMBODIED SPIRI...

Some little known truths concerning ZEBULON and his mortal days in the 'White City.' known to creation as JERUSALEM..... Explore the 'cradle' of one of our favorite disembodied spirit guides~~~~~

Billy Kravitz' vampire wonderland: YOU MAY KNOW ZEBULON, ONE OF OUR DISEMBODIED SPIRI...: I will have to transmit this information very quickly. there are those who do not want me to share these things. they do not believe you (m...