Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, and a Hawaiian sunset loomed behind the reception desk at Armstrong Travel, a constant reminder that there was life outside Dullsville, and that excitement was very far away.
The only thing exciting about working at Armstrong's was the gossip. Under normal circumstances, I found the scandals of the town quite boring--the mayor seen cavorting with a Vegas showgirl, a local TV reporter from WGYS faking an alien abduction story, a Brownie leader embezzling earnings from the cookie bake-off.
But now life was different--there have been Mansion family sightings!
Ruby, the perky partner, filled me in on all the latest. She's like a walking National Enquirer.
"It's still a mystery what the husband does"-- referring to the Mansion family--"but he's obviously wealthy. The butler does the grocery shopping at Wexley's on Saturday at exactly eight o'clock P.M. and picks up the dry cleaning on Tuesdays--all dark suits and cloaks. The wife is a tall pale woman in her mid-forties with long dark hair and she always wears dark sunglasses."
"It's like they're vampires," Ruby concluded, not knowing about my fascination. "They've only been seen at night; they look so ghoulish, dark, and brooding, like they're straight out of a B-movie horror flick. And no visitors have been inside that house. Not one. Do you think they're hiding something?"
I was hanging on Ruby's every word.
"They've lived there for over a month," she continued, "and haven't painted the place, or even cut the grass! They've probably even added creaky doors!"
Janice laughed out loud and ignored her ringing phone. "Marcy Jacobs was saying the same thing," Janice added. "Can you imagine? Not mowing your lawn or planting flowers. Don't they wonder what the neighbors think?"
"Maybe they don't care what the neighbors think. Maybe they like it that way," I interjected.
They both looked at me in horror. "But get this," Ruby said. "I heard that the wife was at Georgio's Italian Bistro and ordered Henry's special antipasto...without garlic! That's what Natalie Mitchell says her son said."
So? I thought. I like a full moon. Does that make me a werewolf? Big deal. And who can trust Trevor and his family? The buzzing of the front door brought the gossip session to a complete halt. And the new customer made us all buzz.
It was Creepy Man!
"I have to finish something in the back!" I whispered to Ruby, whose eyes were riveted to the bony man.
I scurried as fast as I could, not looking back until I was safely standing behind the Xerox machine. Yet I yearned to run to good ol' Creepy, squeeze his fragile body and tell him I was sorry for the Trevor Halloween paint job. I wanted to listen to all he had to say about the world as he knew it, his adventures and travels. But I couldn't, so I cowered behind the copy machine and copied my hand.
"I'd like two tickets to Bucharest," I heard him say, taking a seat at Ruby's desk.
I craned my neck to see him.
"Bucharest?" Ruby asked.
"Yes, Bucharest, Romania."
"And when would you be going?"
"I'm not going, madam. The tickets are for Mr. and Mrs. Sterling. They would like to depart on November first, for three months."
Ruby fiddled with her computer. "Two seats...in economy?" "No, first-class please. Just as long as the flight attendants serve them some bloody wine, the Sterlings are always happy!" he said in his thick accent, laughing.
Ruby laughed back awkwardly, and I chuckled inside.
She went over the itinerary and handed him a copy.
"It's like giving blood, the cost of tickets these days!" Creepy Man laughed, signing.
This was getting good!
Ruby swiped his credit card. "And you're not going, sir?" she asked, as he signed his name, trying to pull more info out of him. Way to go, Rubes!
"No, the boy and I will stay behind."
Boy? Was he referring to Gothic Guy? Or did the Sterlings have a child I could baby-sit? I could play hide-and-seek with him in the Mansion.
"The Sterlings have a boy?" Ruby asked.
"He doesn't get out much. Stays in his room listening to loud music. That's what they do at seventeen."
Seventeen? Did I hear him right? Seventeen? He was talking about Gothic Guy. But why wasn't he in school?
"He's always had a tutor. Or as you say in this country, he's been home-schooled," Creepy Man answered, as if he had read my mind. Or he should have said, Mansion-schooled! No one was home- schooled in Dullsville.
"Seventeen?" Ruby repeated, trying to pump more information from his brittle bones.
"Yes, seventeen...going on one hundred." "I know how that is," Ruby interjected. "My girl just turned thirteen, and she thinks she knows everything!"
"He acts like he's lived before, if you know what I mean, with all his grand opinions about the world." Creepy Man laughed a maniacal laugh that sent him into a coughing frenzy.
"Can I get you anything else?"
"I'd like a town map."
"Our town?" she asked, with a laugh. "I'm not sure we even have them."
She turned to Janice, who just shook her head.
"There's the main square and the cornfields," Ruby said, rifling through her desk. "Are you sure you don't want a map of somewhere more exciting?" she asked, offering him a map of Greece.
"This is all the excitement a man of my age can handle, thank you," he said with a grin. "The square reminds me of my village in Europe. It's been centuries since I've seen it."
"Centuries?" Ruby asked, curiously. "Then you hide your age well," she teased.
If anyone could get info on the walking dead, it was Ruby. She could flirt with the best of them.
Creepy Man's face turned from a white wine to a bright burgundy.
"You are so kind, dear," he said, tapping his bald head with a red silk handkerchief. "Thank you for your time," he said, preparing to leave. "It's been lovely, and you have been lovely, too." He grabbed her hand in his bony fingers and smiled a crackling smile.
As he stood up, he looked directly at me and through me like he knew he had seen me before. I could feel his cold stare as I frantically turned around, quickly gathering together the thirteen copies of my hand.
I didn't dare turn back around until I heard the door close. I peered out as he walked past the front window--and he glanced back like he was looking straight through me. I felt a chill go through my body. I loved it.
The rest of the day whizzed by. I hardly noticed it was after six.
I slung my black bag over my shoulder.
"Wow, we'll have to pay you for overtime!" Ruby said, as I got up from the reception desk.
If I couldn't be Elvira or the Bride of Dracula, I'd be Ruby. She was the complete opposite of me in her white-on-white--white go-go boots with a tight white vinyl dress, or a smart white pants suit with white heels. She wore bob-length white-blond hair and always touched up her make-up with a white compact that bore an R made of red rhinestones. She even had a white poodle that she sometimes brought to the agency. She always had boyfriends coming in to visit. They knew she was major class.
I approached her desk, which was covered with white crystals, white angel ornaments, and a smiling thirteen-year-old girl framed in white Lucite.
"Ruby?" I asked as she fiddled with her white leather purse.
"What, honey?"
"I was just wondering?" I said, twisting my purse strap. "Do you..."
"What is it, dear? Sit down." She grabbed Janice's chair and wheeled it next to hers.
"About today...I know this sounds crazy, but do you...well...do you believe in...vampires?" "Do I?" She laughed, fingering her crystal necklace. "I believe in a lot of things, honey."
"But do you believe in vampires?"
"No!"
"Oh." I tried not to show my disappointment.
"But what do I know?" she chuckled. "My sister, Kate, swears she saw the ghost of an old farmer in a cornfield when we were kids. And I dated this guy who saw something silver shoot straight up in the sky, and my best friend, Evelyn, swears numerology helped her find a husband, and my chiropractor heals people by putting magnets on their joints. What's fantasy for some is reality for others."
I hung on her every word.
"So do I believe in vampires?" she continued. "No. But I also didn't believe Rock Hudson was gay. So what do I know?" She smiled a sparkling white smile.
I laughed as I walked to the door.
"Raven?"
"Yes?"
"What do you believe in?"
"I believe in--finding out!"