DOCTOR FRANKLIN'S COMPOUND UNDER THE PHILADELPHIA NAVY YARD EVACUATES IN THE FACE OF HURRICANE SANDY

The Anti-Enchantment Bureau is in utter pandemonium. The Delaware River is expected to reach unprecedented levels. The underground compound is seriously threatened. Huge, unmarked trucks pull up around camouflaged trapdoors, uploading massive shipping containers of equipment, records and supplies. Some containers bear live specimens which have been sedated or anesthetized for the journey. And the rain comes down in sheets. Agents communicate via private frequency throat mikes, similar to those used by fighter pilots. Certain vetted cadres of Philadelphia police guard exits leading out to various main thoroughfares. Once empty, the water-tight, vacuum sealed doors slam shut. Yet nothing is foolproof. Thus the massive exodus. 

Doctor Franklin, the vampires, plus certain others travel in two large, armored, black RV type conveyances. And that includes me, wilkravitz. But I do not know the destination. 

A small team of agents was dispatched to the townhouse. No one can remain behind. Even Edith knows too much. Granted, tiny segments of society have always known about the paranormal. But the largely, still medieval minded populace must be kept ignorant. That's why they don't tell them about aliens. You know that. It'd be religious warfare in the streets. 

Edith didn't want to leave. She cried. She wanted to go back to The Pines. But Mister Edith, also possessed of keen telepathic capabilities, knew the truth. They would be in danger anywhere else. Chinese agents knew of their existence. Russian agents knew too. You want me to go on? Look how long they kept Papa imprisoned in Rome. Vampires mean power and every government wants that. So the house was emptied. A specially trained and briefed team swept through the place, gathering up books, keepsakes, belongings and anything else pointing toward supernatural provenance.

But Blackie and Minnie stayed behind, keeping to themselves and escaping detection. Papa, still in a nebulous, spirit-like state, disappeared. A few other, shall we say unusual individuals (vampires aren't all that's out there) discreetly sought refuge in the basements of the PENN Museum. The ghoul, known as Johnny Jump Up was still out there. Damn, must be like Christmas Time to him.

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It was quiet in the large RV. Just the engine, the wipers and the tire hum. Baylah felt bad for her boyfriend. He loved the Margate beach house so much. She did too. But an eight foot rise in mean sea level? Come on. That place won't survive. It's gonna be like the Sinking of Atlantis. Bye-bye shore towns. Hope y'all got flood insurance. Happened once before... more than once... Why do you think Longport (an extremely vulnerable town just south of Margate) begins at Eleventh Street? 

I'm typing this because Baylah thinks SO LOUD. She's  like pushing it into my mind. It's not that I'm so telepathic, but her brain is HOT.

The others are quiet. But I get trickles from them too. Tomas goes back to his childhood among the orange groves and olive trees of Old Al Andaluz. Sarah pictures her family. They all do. Annie hugs little Avi. She loves that scruffy Yorkie. Conrad and Leo play a telepathic game of 'movie stars initials.'

And we travel down Route 73, through dark, wooded, suburban towns. These are old suburbs... gray stone houses, huge trees, a scattering of destination type 'inn' restaurants, maybe a cute, little shopping district now and then. Nobody's around, not even some yuppie walking a designer dog. Everybody's inside, glued to their televisions, watching the talking-people tell them how long they got left. 

You know, even if you're snuggled up all warm in your bed, a thick, heavy oak tree can still smash through the roof and shatter your head.

More tomorrow.....hopefully. You're with us as it happens.

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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...: One of the workman came out a little later to take a piss. The alley was closer than the latrine. And nobody was out there, 'cept for the dr... Here's how our sad, little tale ends up. But if you're at all familiar with the original, you knew that. Still, perhaps it'll make you click on the 'older post' at the bottom and see what our little guy had to endure on the cold, hard streets of belle epoch Prague.

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