The Dracula Tape

by Fred Saberhagen

  And Mina, when she met him later, saw and described “a man of medium weight, strongly built, with his shoulders set back over a broad, deep chest and a neck well balanced on the trunk as the head is on the neck. The poise of the head strikes one at once as indicative of thought and power; the head is noble, well-sized, broad, and large behind the ears. The face, clean-shaven, shows a hard, square chin, a large, resolute, mobile mouth, a good-sized nose, rather straight … The forehead is broad and fine … such a forehead that the reddish hair cannot possibly tumble over it, but falls naturally back and to the sides. Big dark blue eyes are set widely apart, and are quick and tender or stern with the man’s moods.”

  Now let us see just what this paragon accomplished for us all. By the time he first examined Lucy, on September second, if I am not mistaken, she had recouped from our perhaps too-enthusiastic embraces of a few nights earlier, and was of course looking better. Van Helsing decided that “there has been much blood lost … but the conditions of her are in no way anemic.” We must make allowance for the fact that English was not the professor’s mother tongue. But neither was his knowledge of the blood and its disorders adequate, a circumstance we all had much cause to regret. After shaking his head over Lucy’s case, but saying little, he went back to Amsterdam to think.

  For several days I had remained away from Lucy to allow her blood time to restore itself, and also to give serious consideration to the idea of breaking off with her permanently and at once. This I decided to do, and when I went back at night to Hillingham it was with the resolution that the time had come to say our last farewell. This decision was for her welfare as well as my own.

  Firstly, I did not want to make her a vampire, when in her ignorance — a state I felt she preferred — she could give no informed consent, could not intelligently weigh the perils and pleasures attendant upon such a momentous transformation. And for us to have continued our intercourse at its then current frequency would shortly have brought her to the point where the possibility of her transformation into a vampire would have to be faced seriously.

  Secondly, I argued with myself, that enjoyable as Lucy was, there was many a peasant wench simpering in my native land who was just as hot-blooded, heavy-breathing, and well-shaped, who might have afforded me the same joys at a small fraction of the expense and effort. Surely it was not for downy skin and tender veins that I had made my odyssey. Alas! how passion can make fools of us! On what was to have been my final visit, devoted to brief explanations and leave-taking, Lucy clung to me as before, and to my chagrin I once more left her noticeably weakened.

  Nevertheless my basic decision was unshaken, and I brought away with me conviction that the assignation just concluded had been our last. The affair was over, I was certain, whether Lucy realized it or not. The chance of her becoming a vampire, which only a few hours earlier had still been relatively remote, had been brought by our most recent embrace to the status of a clear and present danger — or opportunity, depending upon one’s point of view.

  Of course on the next day, which I think was September sixth, Lucy looked somewhat wan and weak and strange again. Holmwood was off attending to his slowly dying father, but Seward looked in on her and did not like what he saw. Again he called in Van Helsing, who had requested that daily telegrams be sent to keep him informed of the patient’s condition.

  The professor hurried back to London, a gleam in his eye I have no doubt, and a bagful of his tools in hand. Before I could have the least inkling of what his intentions were, or even that he was attending Lucy — she had not mentioned to me his earlier visit — the fool had attempted to perform a blood transfusion, with Arthur Holmwood selected — for purely social reasons — as the donor.

  Let us try to see this matter in historical perspective. Not until 1900, some nine years later, did Landsteiner discover the existence in man of the four basic blood groups, A, B, AB, and O, at which point in time the feasibility of transfusion without great peril for the patient may be said to have begun. Of course ever since antiquity some hardy folk have survived their enterprising physicians’ attempts to transfuse blood from human to human, or even from animal to human; no doubt in many cases the survival of the patient has been due to failure of the transfusing technique to work, so that no appreciable fraction of inimical blood cells were introduced into his vascular system.

  I was myself quiescent in my tomb in 1492, the year of the supposed transfusion of Pope Innocent VIII with the whole blood of three young men; therefore I cannot venture an opinion on the accuracy of that most shocking story. During a period of activity in the mid-seventeenth century I read with interest more than casual of Harvey’s epochal discovery of the circulation of the blood. From time to time I continue to gather facts and learned opinions in the field. Although my own opportunities for actual research have been more circumscribed than you might think, and my natural bent is toward action rather more than intellectual affairs, still by 1891 I had accumulated some small knowledge of this subject of more than passing consequence in my own life. Had I known what Van Helsing was doing to treat a vampire’s victim — as he saw the case — I would have stopped him. You may believe that I would not have callously left Lucy to her fate. But though I perceived through the continued communion of our minds that she was now definitely unwell, and suffering, I did not guess the cause.

  Whether because of a fortunate compatibility between Holmwood’s blood and her own, or because of some equally lucky failure of the technique to transfuse much of any blood at all, Lucy not only survived that first operation but by next day had regained something of the appearance of heath. She had been narcotized during the operation, and on waking had no clear grasp of what had happened, although of course there was the small bandaged wound upon her arm to give her food for thought. When she questioned the men who had her in their charge they lovingly told her to lie back and rest.

  On the night of September ninth she suffered a relapse; or it may have been a fresh illness, some bloodborne infection from her fiance. Van Helsing’s prescribed treatment for this setback was a second transfusion, this time with Seward as the donor, as the youngest and sturdiest male available at the moment. Those who wonder at the girl’s surviving this second assault — and a third one, later on — at the hands of the indomitable scientist may ponder also Lower’s similar operation, which was also successful or at least nonfatal, performed in London in 1667. And another in Paris in the same year, by Denis, who is documented as transfusing the blood of a lamb into the veins of a boy left anemic by conventional medical treatment — that is, bloodletting — of the time. The nineteenth century in England saw the obstetrician Blundell, and others, attempting the transfusion of blood between humans with increasing frequency, and often claiming favorable results.

  But many unpublicized attempts must have been made that concluded more unhappily. And Lucy’s second transfusion, from Seward — who wrote that he was much weakened by his donation — had a bad effect upon her.

  As she languished in her bed — and I of course unknowingly pursued my own affairs — on September eleventh the house at Hillingham received from Holland the first of a number of shipments of garlic, including both flowers and whole plants. These of course were ordered especially by the philosopher and metaphysician, who by this time knew — though he had told no one — that a vampire was lurking about. Now, the powerful smell of Allium sativumis at least as discouraging to a suitor of my persuasion as to one of the more common sort — nay, more so, for even bland food can be disgusting to a vampire — but it is not quite the impassable barrier Van Helsing evidently hoped for. Still, had I really been intent upon effecting the poor girl’s ruin, this new tactic would at least have been better than injecting her with foreign proteins.

  On the night of September twelfth Mrs. Westenra, though herself semi-invalid, roused sufficiently to throw the supposedly medicinal flowers out of her daughter’s room and leave the window open. Perhaps her own life was somewhat prolonged by this
removal of the irritating stench of diallyl disulfide and trisulfide and the rest, but Lucy’s was thought — by the doctors, at least — to suffer. One of the most advanced scientists of his day had of course omitted to tell Lucy’s mother of his theories that her daughter would be better off with windows shut and stinking blooms in place. Had he spelled out all his ideas for Lucy’s mother, I suppose she might have thrown the flowers out anyway, and Van Helsing with them, and we should all have been far better off. However …

  Naturally Lucy’s vampire visitor was blamed, by Van Helsing then, and by the whole crew later, for the continued deterioration of her condition. In fact, I was walking the streets of Whitechapel on the night the flowers were thrown out, and far into the morning; but I could have produced no witnesses. On that night I spoke with and joked with an eyewitness to one of the Ripper’s shocking crimes of three years before. I believed her surprising version of that event, but I doubted that a jury would accept her word on my whereabouts or her testimony as a character witness for me.

  She was welcome company, for during most of that night I walked alone and nursed a grim, post-midnight kind of thought. The first real doubts were rising in my mind as to the feasibility of my planned reunion with the mainstream of humanity. Much as I enjoyed being in London, I was being forced to the realization that my mere presence there was not changing me as rapidly as I had hoped.

  On September thirteenth, as Seward recorded in his journal — which he kept, by the way, on an early variety of phonograph, nowhere near as efficient as this admirable machine into which I speak — “again the operation; again the narcotic; again some return of color to the ashy cheeksc…”

  This time Van Helsing himself was donor, whilst Seward, at the master’s direction, operated. With such an agglomeration of cells in her poor veins, it is only a wonder that the poor girl lived as long as she did.

  I must now recount the events of September seventeenth, which was a most fateful day for all of us.

  Jonathan and Mina Harker, fresh from being married in Budapest, where he had long lain in hospital, were now prosperously installed in a house in Exeter. Mina had now read her bridegroom’s somewhat feverish journal of his stay at my castle, but the subject of vampirism had never been discussed between them, and no doubt at this point neither thought such horrors would touch their lives again.

  Arthur Holmwood still watched at his dying father’s bedside in Ring, with moral support from a young American named Quincey Morris, Arthur’s frequent companion on hunting trips round the world, and the third of Lucy’s breathing suitors.

  At the asylum on that evening, Renfield, loose again, came after Dr. Seward with a kitchen knife. Seward, fortunately for himself, managed to stun his powerful antagonist with a single punch, and the madman was soon disarmed and returned to confinement.

  Van Helsing, back in Antwerp on one of his habitual commuting journeys, but still commendably concerned about his patient Lucy, telegraphed to Seward that it was vital for Seward to stand guard at Hillingham that night — to guard against exactly what, Van Helsing had yet to specify. Seward of course would have un-questioningly complied, but that telegram for some fateful reason was missent. It was not delivered until it was twenty-two hours overdue.

  And I myself, on September seventeenth, was visiting Regents Park. My doubts were with me, and I was resolved to work harder at being human. I sat on a convenient bench and read the Times of London for the day:

  *

  CRYSTAL PALACE

  Astounding Performance

  TIGER DRIVING GOAT

  *

  ...enough of that.

  *

  MASSAGE AND ELECTRICITY

  (Weir Mitchell system) with Swedish and German movements combined. As each LESSON of two hours’ duration is given daily on a living subject, pupils can be perfected in a fortnight. No bruising; those who bruise have been improperly taught …

  *

  Mary Jane Heathcote, 28, was indicted for the willful murder of Florence Heathcote … her little girl … aged five years and six months …

  *

  At Clerkenwell, Henry Bazley, 29, bookbinder, was … charged with having taken away out of the possession and control of her mother a girl named Elizabeth Morey … aged 16 years 10 months. She was traced to Highgate, where she lodged in a room for which the prisoner was found to be paying 5 shillings a week, and where he visited her … Detective-sergeant Drew, who had executed the warrant for the prisoner’s arrest, said that he found him at home hiding in a backyard. The prisoner was a married man with four children. When told the charge he said it was a lie. On the application of the prosecutor the prisoner was remanded …

  *

  ... Do you doubt I can remember all these items as they were? Well, I found them memorable. Check your library’s microfilm files of the Times if you doubt me.

  *

  (To the editor) Sir — Contrary to my inclination, it has fallen to my lot to refute the theory put forward by my friend Mr. Haliburton at the Oriental Congress that a race of dwarfs exists between the Atlas and the Sahara …

  Jas. Ed. Budgett Meakin

  *

  Sir — The necessity for a ready communication between the front door and the upper floor of a house in case of fire or other urgent need … is so obvious as to require no comment … I have thought of the following simple contrivance: A loud-ringing bell is hung in the upper floor; the wire of this bell terminates at its lower end on a chain and hook in the basement of the house. At night the hook is attached to the crank of the ordinary housebell and is detached in the morning … by this means also the filthy and insanitary practice of having a manservant sleeping in the pantry, that fertile source of much immorality, both in and out of doors, may be avoided.

  Yours, & C. H.

  *

  PICCADILLY (Overlooking Green Park) — self-contained FLAT — four rooms, bath room, lift, etc., to be LET, on LEASE, and Furniture sold. Apply Housekeeper, 98, Piccadilly, W.

  *

  … That was interesting. But I would rather buy than rent, wanting nothing to do with nosy landlords.

  *

  Sir — If one of the delegates who spoke so strongly in favor of the eight-hours movement was, on his return home, seized with a sudden and dangerous illness; and if, on sending for his doctor, he got an answer to say that the latter had just finished eight hours of work, and that for the next sixteen hours he was going to rest and enjoy himself, what would he think of the new arrangement?

  Yours truly, J.R.T.

  *

  …And back to the front page...

  *

  MOULE’S PATENT EARTH-CLOSET COMPANY (Limited)

  Garrick-street Covent-garden,

  LONDON

  MOULE’S COMPANY NOW MAKES:

  CLOSETS — for the garden

  CLOSETS — for shooting boxes

  CLOSETS — for cottages

  CLOSETS — for anywhere

  CLOSETS — Complete are now made, fitted with “pull out” apparatus

  CLOSETS — fitted with “pull up” apparatus

  CLOSETS — fitted with self-acting apparatus

  CLOSETS — made of galvanized, corrugated iron

  CLOSETS — to take to pieces, for easy transport

  CLOSETS — can be put together in two hours.

  CLOSETS — to work satisfactorily

  CLOSETS — only require to be supplied

  CLOSETS — with fine and dry mold

  CLOSETS — on this principle never fail

  CLOSETS — if supplied with dry earth …

  *

  The litany went on, and I read it, eyes almost in hypnotic bondage. But my higher attention was still back with that manservant sleeping in the pantry. Why was his condition so “filthy and insanitary”? Had he his feet resting on the bacon, or was his foul breath contaminating bags of sugar? And where exactly in the “fertile source” did the noxious weeds of “immorality” sprout? Was I to read into the letter
dark implications of the deadly sin of gluttony?

  The London papers, that in my own homeland had seemed to promise marvels, seemed only to grow more bewildering the longer I dwelt amid the world which they described. It would take time, I comforted myself, and threw my paper into a dustbin nearby — the park was very neat. Getting to my feet, I strolled on to the zoo. The day was overcast, and, top-hatted like a proper gentleman, I found the sun scarcely bothersome at all.

  It was a relief to reach the zoo and see more animals than people round me for a while. Great throngs of humanity, though I had sought them out and still found pleasure in them, still were wearying to one who like myself had been so long removed from crowds. A stranger in a strange land was I indeed, notwithstanding a reasonable facility in the English speech and an appearance acceptable in the metropolis.

  Naturally enough I gravitated toward the cage of wolves, where three gray beauties suffered with innate dignity their ignominious confinement. Although I at first made no effort to converse, one wolf of them knew me; more accurately, he knew that I was not as common men, and that I was far closer kin to him than any two-legged creature he had ever seen before. He knew that I knew what it was to run on four gray paws, and leap to the kill, and drink the raw red blood from flesh my teeth had torn. He knew, and could not decently contain his knowledge. While the other two in the cage, who may have known something too but did not care, lay drowsing and wondering at him, he bounded like a madwolf against the bars, and let his feelings out in the only kind of voice he had.