by D C Young
Just as I was reveling in how lucky I was to have those two, the door bell rang.
“Well, so much for having a moment,” I said under my breath and turned towards the front door.
Chapter Two
Anthony
Finally, a summer that might not be a complete fail.
I’ve never been so ready to go on a vacation before, I thought, as I loaded the washing machine. I mean, let’s face it Aunt Mary plans the best trips. I’ll probably never forget Disneyland as long as I live. Too bad, Mom wasn’t able to come though. She’s always saying how weird her life is but in my opinion, her life is super cool.
That holiday had held special meaning to me. I’d had a hard year; spent a long time sick in hospital and almost died in fact. Mom had been so worried. Dad had been on the edge of hysterics but he’d just taken the opportunity to fight more with her than ever before. It had been hard to watch even though they’d tried to put on a brave face for me at the hospital. I’d known at that point that they’d split up for good. Somehow, I hadn’t been able to see his side of the argument after that; he just always seemed like he was going out of his way to be unfair to her.
Something had happened near the end though, and he’d relented a little. Tammy and I had never really found out what it was but he moved out and Mom moved back in and a few months later he’d been hurt and killed in an accident; at least that’s what Mom had said.
I missed my dad sometimes but losing him had been a long time coming. I loved him and I still did; he just made some bad choices and said some bad things along the way. He’d found out her secret and used it against her.
I’d processed and handled the whole thing a lot different from Tammy. For one, I’d been younger than her and two; I’d still been recovering from a long, terrible illness. I don’t know if my mom knew it at the time but I wasn’t so young back then that I couldn’t figure out what she was.
She might be a vampire, but my mom is no killer, in fact, she helps people every day; it’s her life’s work. She used her vampiric gift to save me from Kawasaki’s disease and then she found someone who knew more than she did to cure my vampirism. My dad thought it was horrific but when I was walking back to her from the brightness that had started to surround me at the end; I thought she’d performed a miracle.
That’s kinda what my mom is to me; a miracle. No one else I know has a mom that awesome and that makes me feel special.
But enough with the mushy stuff… Va-ca-tion! Va-ca-tion!
Sometime ago, my mom was lucky to find a cure for her sensitivity to sunlight. I’ll admit, watching her fight with the sun under all the coats of sunscreen, big floppy hats, sunglasses and tinted windows was painful. I never fussed when she picked us up late from school cause I knew what a challenge daylight was for her.
Now, she could be out in the daytime just like the rest for us and that had changed a lot of things for our family. She went out jogging with Aunt Mary and their friend Allison, she saw more clients and did more of her investigative work in the day, which meant more family time in the evenings for us. Of course, now this meant we could take our first trip together… all of us… and we were going to the beach!
The excitement was real! I mean look at me… I’m doing laundry for crying out loud! But I’d even wash my underwear if it meant that my bags could be packed faster and we could get this vacation bus on the road!
Aunt Mary had it all planned out, two weeks with a great mix of sightseeing, eating out and lounging on the sandy beach in Georgia. We were going to have a great time and for the first time in a long time, we might just have a summer that wasn’t a complete fail.
Chapter Three
Mary Lou
Why can’t we just ‘Stay calm and go on vacation’?
A week before our departure I sat down at my kitchen table and went over all the reservations I’d made for our first family trip to Georgia. It was the first trip we would take together as a family in almost ten years and I was determined that it would rock even harder than Disneyland had.
This trip was as much about Sam as it was about the kids and that’s why I had chosen Tybee. There was an abundance of history and beautiful places to see which Sam would love, plenty of restaurants and bars including old school barbecues joints and dive bars which would entice Rick and Anthony. The haunted culture of Savannah and the South, in general, would captivate our budding psychic, Tammy and then of course, there was the beach… Who didn’t love the beach?
Sam had been out of town plenty of times since becoming a vampire, even to a couple of exotic locales. I would know, I did all the babysitting… but she had never been able to do any recreational travel, not even since she’d become immune to the usual effects of the sun’s rays on vampires.
I was determined to put an end to that streak after all a couple glasses of wine at Hero’s on a Saturday night, though relaxing as it may be, isn’t anything close to a vacation.
It’s why I’d thought long and hard about where we should go for our two week break. Rick was off from work and I had taken a six month hiatus from the office. I had found that with three kids of my own and needing to support Sam as much as I could with Anthony and Tammy, working from home and on the road was a much better option for me. My numbers were up and my sanity intact. I’d worked hard for my three weeks paid leave this year.
I’d booked us a villa by the sea in gorgeous Tybee Island. In the photographs it boasted all white woodwork and walls painted a sky blue; just looking at the brochure made me think of holiday homes on the Mediterranean coast. Vigorous vines of Mandeville in full bloom and all kinds of colors gracefully climbed latticework on the side of the house. The ground floor had a deep patio which ran the entire sea facing side of the house and above it, providing all the spectacular shade was a balcony of equal size.
It had five bedrooms and five bathrooms upstairs; every room, its own suite. The two which shared the balcony were slightly bigger and designed to be matching master suites. Downstairs was a fully equipped kitchen, spacious living and dining areas, a powder room and a modern entertainment room with a 60” high definition TV. Blu-Ray discs and On Demand broadcasting as well as high speed Wi-Fi internet access throughout the house would surely keep the kids occupied and well entertained. An attached garage housed the washer and dryer and two Ford Escapes, the use of which we would have for our entire two week stay.
Entertainment wasn’t high on my priority list for this trip. I needed to relax, but the more entertained the kids were the more likely the adults could get the opportunity to just veg out. I would be quite fine with a trashy novel, a stiff cocktail, a hammock and the shade from that balcony… Sam could wake me up when the two weeks were over.
In the interest of not completely wasting our time in the South, I’d gone ahead and made reservations for us to visit Old Fort Jackson for the firing of the cannons over the Savannah River, take a walking tour through Bonaventure Cemetery, tour the Mercer-Williams house, walk River Street and take a trolley tour of the city. Coupled with trying our best to eat at every restaurant in town, I thought that was about as much culture as could be expected from a bunch of off-season tourists.
Id collected travel information for the entire greater Savannah area as well as South Carolina which was a very short trek over the Talmadge Bridge and also had a lot to do, particularly shopping. I’d also put all that information into a nifty folder I would take with me. At the drop of a hat, we could get off the beaten path and freestyle this vacation if we wanted to. I thought it would be best to be prepared seeing as we had two teenagers in tow.
I was proud of the plans Id made, there was something in the mix for everybody involved and come Hell or high water, we were going to have fun and a whole lot of it too.
Chapter Four
Sam
Never been so ready to blow this joint!
Suddenly, I’m with Louie on the vacation thing one hundred percent.
When I answered the door, I’d
been expecting a few of the packages of vacation clothes and other supplies Id order for our East Coast vacation. That was the only reason the doorbell hadn’t been an entirely unwelcome sound.
I turned the lock and pulled the front door open with confidence; a wall of warm tingly sunlight fell on me. Ahhh, no more burning or roasting in the sun for me. These are the things I live to celebrate every day.
Yeah, my life is just as weird as it’s ever been.
I’m actually still enjoying the fact that I no longer have to coat myself in layers of sunscreen, don a huge floppy hat, sunglasses and gloves just to get from the door to the car.
On the front step, a uniformed postal worker stood waiting to make her delivery but instead of the Amazon, Zulily and ThredUp boxes I was expecting, she had only a thick flat rate document envelope in her hand.
I didn’t order any gift cards, ma’am.
Still, I smiled and greeted her cheerfully. “Hi, there! What have we got?”
“Small package for you. Could you sign here please?”
She handed me the little digital device and I did my best to sign the screen legibly with the plastic stylus. I handed it back and she turned over the envelope, said goodbye and made her way back to the mail truck.
I closed the door behind me and took the package into my office, sat at the desk and opened it. It was from Kingsley’s more than familiar L.A. office and inside was a crisp manila folder with about a half inch thick stack of paper in it. I sighed softly and opened the folder to read its contents. Pausing, I thought back on whether Kingsley had said anything about a referral or needing my help on a case.
Nope, not that I recall.
In fact, I hadn’t even spoken to him in about two weeks. He’d been in Sacramento dealing with a particularly difficult client. A bright yellow sticky note had been carefully attached to the inside cover of the folder. It read: ‘Call me when you’ve had a chance to look these over. Kingsley.’
Okay, I guess he didn’t get the memo that we’re going on vacation. How would Tammy say this? Ummm, I just can’t with Kingsley Fulcrum right now. Hahaha! I think I absolutely nailed that.
Quickly, I browsed through the pages. The case was interesting, I’ll give him that. As usual, at first glance his client was clearly guilty but knowing Kingsley, there was something more there than met the eye. It was something that both infuriated and stirred admiration in me for him. He sincerely felt that everyone, no matter the outlook of their situation, deserved a good defense. But because of that same philosophy, he really did end up defending some guilty scumbags at times.
I took a deep breath, picked up the phone and quickly dialed Kingsley cell phone number. It rang just three times before he answered. His voice was upbeat as usual.
“Hi, it’s me,” I said, “I just got your package do you want to fill me in. What do you need me to do?”
“Hi, Sam. I know you’ll be going off on vacation in a few days but I was really hoping you could check out a few things around town for me before you leave.”
Well, I guess he did get the memo…
“Okay, I don’t think that’ll be a problem, my desk is really clear right now.” I found myself giving my desk the once over as if to confirm the statement to myself. I’d had a steady stream of clients since my dramatic introduction to the Immortal Council a year ago and though neither Julia nor any of the other inhabitants of Elysium House had confirmed such, I always had a strong feeling they had something to do with the influx of work.
I’d investigated quite a few missing person cases as well as a few straight out paranormal activity phenomena and it had all been really good for business. But at the same time, knowing how much this trip meant to everyone, not to mention my own growing anticipation to get away, I’d stopped taking anything on that needed my immediate attention two weeks ago. I wanted to prepare for the trip but that hadn’t stopped me from filling up every available consultation appointment for a month after our scheduled return from Tybee Island.
“Great!”Kingsley said. “Let me fill you in. Do you have a pen and paper?”
I grabbed a notebook from the top drawer in my desk and jotted down the information quickly. Being able to write as fast as I could hear had definitely been one vampire quality that helped with my line of work. Sometimes I wrote down entire conversations as they were happening and people there just thought I was making notes.
“Okay, I’ve got it. I’ll give the guy a call as soon as we hang up. If he can meet today that would be better than putting it off for later in the week; Mary Lou has us flying out to Georgia Thursday morning.”
“I really hope you have a great time out there. Of all the people I know, you deserve a vacation the most, Sam. With everything that’s been going on lately, there’s no doubt you need a rest.”
“Thanks, Kingsley. I’ll keep you posted.”
It meant a lot coming from Kingsley. It was nice to have someone around who recognized your hard work and supported you in your career.
Husbands…boyfriends, take note!
I hung up and dialed Rennie Telfair’s number. He too, answered quite promptly. After a brief chat, we’d decided to meet that afternoon at a shop he owned in Westminster called Essence.
After I hung up, I Googled the place to get directions and found it was about twenty minutes from my house in Fullerton, a relatively easy drive too. I also found out it was some sort of New Age herbal shop that also sold books. If I had known at that moment what I would encounter in that strange little place in Westminster that afternoon, I might have stayed away.
I smile now as I think about it, knowing I wouldn’t have changed a thing because then I would never have met my newest friend, the mysterious and intriguing, Mr. Rennie Telfair.
Chapter Five
Rennie Telfair
Finally… I meet the famous Samantha Moon.
I liked tea time, I really did, but I never liked tea. A mixture of two fingers of Kentucky’s finest bourbon and three fingers of Coke, in precise measure, of course, was better suited to my tastes. My daddy preferred RC Cola in the mix, mostly, because he was a personal friend of Claud A. Hatcher of Colombus, Georgia, who came up with the concoction; as granddaddy and I have always called it. I take after my granddaddy with my cola preference. The two of them are still arguing over how I was ruined. I know. I watch it take place at every afternoon tea, except for when I’m in California, though they’ve been dead for years.
In general, being a psychic isn’t all that bad. Listening and watching my dead kinfolk argue is one of its drawbacks. So, I escape to California as often as I’m able. I even have a few bookshops set up there to pass the time, mostly. The shops do provide some modest income on occasion, but I don’t really need it.
In my years as a silent member of the paranormal community in Los Angeles, I’ve heard about every supernatural being, every psychic prodigy, spell caster, witch and fortuneteller on the West Coast worth mentioning. I hadn’t had the pleasure… or displeasure of meeting them all, but I had come to be acquainted with quite a few.
Being the owner of a few of the only bonafide magic bookshops left in existence was definitely helpful in that enterprise. You see, sooner or later, they all ended up finding me for one reason or another.
But then, there were always creatures like Samantha Moon, who never really ‘needed’ anything that I had to offer. These were usually the people I found the most intriguing. Resourceful, self sufficient and industrious… they were just like me.
I’d heard of the incident that caused Samantha’s vampirism. The blatant, barbaric attack had been the talk of the underground community for months after the fact. I was surprised she’d survived and even more surprised that she’d rallied back from it so well.
She’d accepted it, adjusted for it and come out like the champion she was.
So admirable! So courageous!
I’d followed the gossip about her wavering husband and kept myself abreast of the situation when her son, A
nthony, had fallen ill. His recovery had been a relief and his development after that, astounding. When her daughter, Tammy had run away, I was heartbroken. I was jubilant when Detective Spinoza found her and opened up a much needed line of communication between mother and daughter. Tammy had flourished after that.
You see everything happens for a reason!
For someone I had never met, I surely found her fascinating. That’s a lot coming from me; I am rarely fascinated with anything or anyone for that matter. Books, magic paraphernalia and all things paranormal are hobbies of mine; the more bizarre, the better.
I was at my office in the Essence Bookshop when I received the call that I was expecting from Samantha Moon. Samantha occasionally helped out Kingsley Fulcrum in his legal practice and had been assigned with conducting an interview with me concerning information that I had about a client he was defending in a murder case. I had witnessed only a portion of what had taken place during an argument that ended with two men pulling pistols, but from which only one walked away.
Miss Moon had made arrangements to join me for tea in my office that afternoon. I knew her by reputation only, so I was eager to get to meet her. Being acquainted with others among the Western Elders, I had heard of her exploits and was already quite impressed at the name she had made for herself in such a short time. As I waited for her to arrive, I was considering how much information, if any, I wanted to provide her with. There was a much larger issue at stake than just the criminal trial in which Kingsley Fulcrum’s client was involved.
“Gladys,” I called out to my assistant, who also doubled as a clerk in the Bookshop.
“Yes, Mister Telfair?” she asked.
“I am expecting a Miss Samantha Moon for tea. Do make certain that she finds her way into the parlor?”