by Kathi Daley
“It was.”
The Professor turned to the rest saying, “You hear, and yet there is no one who does not believe with me.”
He took his screwdriver and again took off the lid of the coffin. Arthur looked on, very pale but silent. When the lid was removed he stepped forward. He evidently did not know that there was a leaden coffin, or at any rate, had not thought of it. When he saw the rent in the lead, the blood rushed to his face for an instant, but as quickly fell away again, so that he remained of a ghastly whiteness. He was still silent. Van Helsing forced back the leaden flange, and we all looked in and recoiled.
The coffin was empty!
“Oh, my.” I cuddled with Charlotte. “I’m glad I have you to keep me company tonight. It seems that tales from the crypt are best read during the day.”
Charlotte began to purr. Obviously, stories about empty coffins didn’t bother her in the least. I continued to scratch Charlotte behind the ears as I read. Eventually, it was the steady rhythm of her purr and not the book that lulled me into a deep and dreamless sleep.
The First Kiss
I will always remember the first real date Will and I shared. My heart pounded right through my chest as he drove me home from our evening together. It had been a magical night I knew I would never forget. The food had been delicious, the music romantic, and the setting enchanting. Will had been funny and entertaining as he told me stories about his life up to that point, and I could feel myself falling in love just a little bit more with each memory he shared. I remember the way my heart stopped beating when we pulled up in front of the house. I’d worried and fantasized since he’d asked me out whether this meal together would end with a kiss.
“I had a lovely time,” I stammered.
I could see a movement behind the curtains, so I knew the girls were watching. They’d been so sweet as they’d helped me to prepare for my date earlier in the day. I think in some ways they’d been as nervous as I was.
“I enjoyed myself too,” Will replied.
He put the car into park, turned off the ignition, and turned to look at me. He seemed as nervous as I, which was ridiculous considering the man had been married for thirty years and so had logically shared many kisses.
“It seems we have an audience.” Will laughed as he nodded toward the house.
I turned and looked at the three faces staring down on us from an upstairs window.
“Yes.” I blushed. “The girls were excited that we were going out. I’m sure they waited to hear all about it.”
Will took my hand in his and leaned in just a bit. “I’m happy the girls look out for you the way they do. It’s a testament to the fine woman you are. But I’d sort of like our first time to be without an audience.”
“First time?” I whispered. I felt my body begin to shake, although it wasn’t cold in the car in the least.
Will closed the distance between us and gently touched his lips with mine. I closed my eyes as my entire body exploded in a longing I had never before experienced.
Will leaned back just a bit and smiled. He looked at me and his grin grew bigger. “Breathe,” he suggested.
I let out the breath I’d been holding. I wanted to be embarrassed that I’d acted like such a fool, totally forgetting to breathe after such an innocent kiss, but Will leaned in and kissed me again, longer and harder, before I could think about it too much.
“Would you like to go out again?” Will asked. “Perhaps a picnic on Sunday?”
“I would,” I whispered.
“Good.” Will smiled in such a way as to light up his face. “Around noon?”
“Noon would be perfect.”
Will looked toward the house again. The girls were still watching from the window. “I guess you should go in. I’m afraid they’ll come out after you if you don’t.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “They do tend to be a bit protective.”
Suddenly, it hit me that Brooklyn, Eve, and Pepper were the only people in the world to have worried about me since my parents when I was a child. The thought of having people who cared about my daily movements after all these years made my heart feel full and grateful.
Will came around and opened the door for me. He took my hand in his as we walked up the walkway to the front door. I loved the way his large hand felt as it covered my much smaller one. The man was tall and fit and I felt like a schoolgirl as I imagined his wonderfully perfect hands on my body. He paused as we reached the front porch. He turned and pulled me into his embrace.
“This one is for them.” He laughed as his mouth met mine briefly one final time before he opened the door and ushered me inside.
“Stop that,” I scolded Charlotte as she swatted at my feet while I prepared for bed later that evening.
“Meow.”
I stopped what I was doing and looked down. “I suppose I haven’t maintained my side of the conversation this evening. It’s just that the night was so incredibly perfect that I am afraid if I speak it will break the spell.”
Charlotte tilted her head as she listened to what I was saying.
“I know it’s silly, but I almost feel as if the night was a dream and the only way to maintain the dream is to be perfectly still, perfectly silent.”
I straightened the room after I had moisturized and prepared for bed. I took in a deep breath of the crisp autumn air as I opened the window just an inch. As I began to sort the decorative pillows I kept on my bed, Charlotte jumped up onto the thick winter comforter and knocked the book we have been reading to the floor.
“Yes, I will read to you tonight. I always do. I believe we can finish the book. And just in time for Halloween.”
After placing my reading glasses on the tip of my nose, I adjusted the light and opened the book we were reading. Charlotte crawled into my lap and began to purr as I began to read Bram Stoker’s Dracula aloud. Tonight we would continue with chapter 25.
I think that none of us were surprised when we were asked to see Mrs. Harker a little before the time of sunset. We have of late come to understand that sunrise and sunset are to her times of peculiar freedom. When her old self can be manifest without any controlling force subduing or restraining her, or inciting her to action. This mood or condition begins some half hour or more before actual sunrise or sunset, and lasts till either the sun is high, or whilst the clouds are still aglow with the rays streaming above the horizon. At first there is a sort of negative condition, as if some tie were loosened, and then the absolute freedom quickly follows. When, however, the freedom ceases the change back or relapse comes quickly, preceded only by a spell of warning silence.
I realized Charlotte and I had already read this passage, so I skimmed down the page to the point where we’d left off. Charlotte didn’t care if we reread the same passages, but I found that this evening I was anxious to finish so that I could be alone with my thoughts.
“That I may die now, either by my own hand or that of another, before the greater evil is entirely wrought. I know, and you know, that were I once dead you could and would set free my immortal spirit, even as you did my poor Lucy’s. Were death, or the fear of death, the only thing that stood in the way I would not shrink to die here now, amidst the friends who love me. But death is not all. I cannot believe that to die in such a case, when there is hope before us and a bitter task to be done, is God’s will. Therefore, I on my part, give up here the certainty of eternal rest, and go out into the dark where may be the blackest things that the world or the nether world holds!”
We were all silent, for we knew instinctively that this was only a prelude. The faces of the others were set, and Harker’s grew ashen grey. Perhaps, he guessed better than any of us what was coming.
I paused and looked at Charlotte. I had to wonder if my date was but a prelude to things to come. And although the book predicted darkness, I hoped my own story would be magical and endearing.
The New Forty
In every life there are a lot of usual moments and only a few def
ining moments. Looking back on my quite ordinary decision to clean out my closet as a way to deal with the sorrow I’d been trying to avoid since Will left I can see that it was that moment when I truly decided to leave the old Phyllis behind and bravely seek the uncertainty of the new.
They say sixty is the new forty. I certainly hoped that was true because I’d just spent the last four hours boxing up all my old lady clothes to make room for the new wardrobe I planned to buy when the girls and I went on our first annual post-holiday clearance shopping spree. I realize that donating 70 percent of my wardrobe is an extravagant thing to do, but the past few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster and I feel, for the first time in my life, that I want to leave my old self behind and invent something entirely new. I haven’t worked out all the details yet, but I do know that the Phyllis King who will return to work at Zimmerman Academy, where I am both the principal and a teacher, will be a new and improved version of the sixty-two-year-old who went on break just under two weeks ago.
On the upside of the roller coaster, I had a wonderful Christmas with the three teenagers who now share my life: Brooklyn Banks, a gorgeous and sophisticated sixteen-year–old; Prudence Pepperton, a friendly and energetic fifteen-year-old; and Eve Lambert, a brilliant and introverted fourteen-year-old. We really did have the perfect holiday, and although we are not a real family, I feel that we have started traditions that will endure wherever our paths take us.
Having the girls in my life has given me a new perspective, as well as a renewed enthusiasm for the magic of everyday moments. Who knew how much joy could be had from simple things such as buying trinkets for stockings, singing carols as a family, or working together to create a big Christmas brunch? Prior to the arrival of the girls my holidays had been simple, solitary, and uneventful. I may be a bit late out of the gate, but I feel like Phyllis King the academic is finally blossoming into Phyllis King the woman.
On the down side of the roller coaster is the fact that the one and only man I ever felt I could love has left Ashton Falls to be with his elderly father. I cannot fault Will or his decision to do what he knew in his heart needed to be done. It is a noble man who will put the needs of his family above his own desires. Still, I find that Will has left a hollow place in my heart and an emptiness in my life that I feel an overwhelming desire to fill. The girls are doing their best to keep me distracted, thus the suggestion of the shopping trip in the first place.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I said to my cat, Charlotte, who was lying on my bed watching me box up the clothes I’d picked out of my closet. “I have not lost my mind. It’s more that I’ve changed my mind, and these old clothes no longer fit my new paradigm.”
Charlotte rolled over onto her back, a movement that indicated that she was bored with my chatter and wanted her belly rubbed.
I ignored her.
“I’d fallen into such a rut,” I continued. “It’s almost as if I was sleepwalking through life until the girls came along and woke me up. Not that I wasn’t living a perfectly useful life. It’s just that my life had become one-dimensional and I’d let it happen.”
I held up a wool jacket that was half of a wool dress suit. The skirt would have to go, but the jacket might pair nicely with slacks and a sweater.
“What do you think?” I asked Charlotte.
She jumped off the bed and wandered into my closet, making it clear she really couldn’t care less what I did with the jacket.
I decided to keep it to wear with the new jeans and knee-high boots the girls had talked me into buying. It was a good-quality cloth, and the neutral camel color would go with a lot of different things.
I hung up the jacket and then stood in front of the full-length mirror. I tried to be objective as I considered my image. While my hair was still the same waist-length style in which I’d worn it my entire life, the girls had talked me into getting highlights to lessen the gray. My skin was smooth and line free due to a lifetime of rigorous adherence to a moisturizing routine, and I’d managed to keep a slim figure, although lord knew it would do me good to add a toning routine to my day.
“Do you think I should join a gym?”
“Meow,” Charlotte commented as she wandered back into the bedroom from the closet.
I took that as signifying agreement.
Between the highlights in my hair, the addition of makeup that Brooklyn had spent hours teaching me how to apply, and the younger and hipper-looking clothes, I really did look as if I could pass for forty, or at least forty-five. I found it hard to remember why I’d never paid any mind to my appearance in the first place.
“I’m thinking that I’ll wear my new plum sweater into town. Plum is a good color on me. My mama always told me that plum brought out the sparkle in my eyes.”
Charlotte jumped up onto the dresser and knocked the novel I was reading onto the floor. I was certain she was trying to remind me not to lose sight of who I was in the process of reinventing who I wanted to be. Charlotte had a point, but up to this moment I’d lived my entire life in the pursuit of academic achievement and had paid little attention to anything else. I’d never dated, fallen in love, or married. I’d never had children nor engaged in relationships or friendships that weren’t related to the academic world in which I’d lived. I’d lived a useful and purposeful life and didn’t necessarily regret the choices I’d made, but the opportunity to veer from the path I’d chosen and travel the one unfollowed left me feeling more alive than I had in years.
I changed into my plum sweater, which I paired with black jeans and a soft leather jacket. I picked up the first of five perfectly packed boxes and started down the hall.
“Let me help you with that,” Pepper offered.
“I’ve got this one fine, but there are four more in my room if you want to grab one of those.”
I carried the box down the stairs and set it next to the front door. My garage was in the rear of the property, but I decided I’d pull my car up to the front curb, cutting the distance needed to load the boxes in half.
The house, which two days ago had been decorated for the holiday, had been returned to its previous state of tidiness after a long day of undecorating. The tree that had stood in front of the window had been stripped of the ornaments the girls and I had purchased and had been left out on the curb for the garbage truck when it next came by.
I had especially enjoyed all the lights we’d strung: the small twinkle lights that had been added to the garland we’d wound along the banister, the festive red and green candle lights that had graced almost every tabletop, and the larger Christmas lights that had been strung around the windows at the front of the house.
“Are you going out?” I asked Pepper, who arrived with the second box. She had on boots and a jacket, indicating that she planned to venture outdoors.
“Chad is picking me up in a few minutes. We are going to a movie.”
Chad Carson was a fifteen-year-old student at Zimmerman Academy and about as close to being a personality double to Pepper as you were likely to find. The two energetic extroverts had been the best of friends from the day they met.
“That sounds like fun,” I responded. “What are you going to see?”
“The new action flick that just came out. I can’t remember the name, but it’s the one with that cutie pie actor Brooklyn is always going on and on about. You can come with us if you’d like.”
“Thanks, dear, but I’m planning to head into town to run a few errands. I should be back before you return, but be sure to bring your house key just in case.”
“It’s in my pocket. Are you sure you don’t want to come?”
“I’m sure. You kids have fun.”
“Thanks. We will.”
After Pepper left the house I went back upstairs for the remaining three boxes. There was a definite satisfaction that came from purging the clothes I’d spent an adulthood collecting, but I experienced a certain nostalgia as well. The sturdy, practical clothing I’d purchased along
the way had served me well, even if it no longer fit the new lifestyle I was in the process of designing for myself.
I picked up the next box and headed out of my bedroom. Luckily, I ran into Brooklyn on the stairs, who offered to lend a helping hand. Brooklyn is the eldest of the three and in some ways the hardest to know. She is a perfectly lovely girl, but it is obvious that she has been hurt in the past and therefore guards her heart against future pain by maintaining a barely discernable distance between herself and everyone else.
“Are you going out as well?” I asked as we hauled the three remaining boxes down the stairs.
“Pi is coming to pick me up. He has a gig in Bryton Lake and I’m going to go with him.”
Pi was one of the three Zimmerman Academy students living with Zoe and Zak Zimmerman. He was sixteen, as was Brooklyn, and the two seemed to enjoy spending time together, although I think any hope Brooklyn had of entering into a romantic relationship with the musician has gone by the wayside.
“The roads will be icy when you come home,” I instructed Brooklyn. “Be sure to remind Pi to take it easy.”
“I will,” Brooklyn promised as she trotted out the front door.
I looked around the empty house. I knew Eve and Alex Bremmerton, another of the students living with Zak and Zoe, were around somewhere. I doubted they’d want to go into town with me, but I hated to leave without telling them where I was going. If I knew Eve and Alex, they were probably reading or working on a project, so I headed to the library.