the Vampire's Mistress part two

a brief visit page 69

Mistress of the dark

A large, white banner stenciled in bright orange letters that said:

‘Welcome home Angie!  and three excited faces greeted us when the door to  our house finally opened.   

Thick, worm-like confettis rained down our heads.   Mom, Gab, and Karen’s expressions halted in mid-rapture upon spotting Mark standing  next to my right.    His brow furrowed in bewilderment as he dusted confettis from his shoulder and some bits that had slid down to his sleeve, quite oblivious to the fact that he was now again being the object of female adoration.

It was as if in a span of  another moment, I had become translucent in their eyes.

The attention I was bracing myself from having---had been transferred in Mark’s direction instead.    And I didn’t  have to peer right into their eyes to know what they must have been seeing:   Mark in a dark, winter jacket.  His snow-covered curls bouncing in a delightful way as he shook  the flakes off on the floor and looking his usual self---

( effortlessly magnificent.)

Ignore them, they must still be in shock of seeing me. I said,  taking hold of his leather-gloved hand.

He curled his fingers around it then snorted in my mind,

Say something to snap them out of it. I don’t think I can stand here a minute longer without turning into a block of ice.

Oh, sorry about that. Step right in, but just remove your shoes.  Mom’s a little neatness freak and she’d go ballistic  if she sees even a single, snowy footprint on the floor.

Mark shot me an annoyed look  but did as I had told.

Almost instantly mom interrupted him in the middle of removing his other shoe.

“ No, it’s alright.  I haven’t cleared the floors in a while and one more, pair of muddy footprints will hardly make a difference.” She was smiling apologetically at him.  As if it was a major crime not to allow Mark inside our house without his shoes.

While I could only gape at her.

Not clean? The dark, hardwood floors were polished to such a shine, anyone can see their reflection on it.

 Mom wasn’t  a stickler for rules.  She never gave us a curfew, required us to wake up early during the weekends, or assigned a particular task in the household for any of us.

She was easy so far as mothers went. 

Keeping our house spotlessly clean  was her way of drawing some sort of line as the only, remaining parent of her children.

Everything, and I mean this in the general sense, around the house from the interior decorations, display figurines, furniture, kitchen fixtures, shoes, closets, bathroom, bedroom, attic, den, living room ( everything had to be in perfect order. Bonus points if you can arrange it alphabetically.)  to the walls, ceiling, and floors had to be immaculate.

You’d think our house was some sort of medical institution or something.

It was almost as if my mom had a huge phobia about any kind of bacteria or germs.

During my late toddler days I had gotten so accustomed to her daily cleaning operations it never seemed important to ask her the why of it.

That was why the fact that she had allowed Mark an exception to that policy had taken me by surprise.   But the again, maybe I shouldn’t.   I thought, as I watched mom fuss over the bits of confettis and snow that clung to his clothing.

Even going as far as offering to hang his coat on the coat-rack that stood just across the closed door.

I sighed, maybe he just had that effect on people.

“ That’s  very generous of you but I prefer keeping it on---“ Mark arched a brow inquiringly at my mom.

“ Julia Dawson, but you can just call me Julie.” She eagerly supplied for him, smiling sweetly.

I rolled my eyes.

“ she’s my mom. Mom this is Mark, and this,” I spread my arms widely to indicate Gab and Karen. both were waiting impatiently for their turn to greet Mark.

But was too shy to do anything more than stand on the sides of the wall looking at him in a starry-eyed way.

“ are my sisters, Gab and Karen.”

 “ we’ve already met on the beach, I’m Josh’s girlfriend.”  Gab said.

“ Yes, I remember.” Mark replied. Bowing his head politely at her and doing the same at Karen.

I could tell that they were utterly charmed by him. Karen was unusually silent and there were splotches of pink on each of her cheeks. I couldn’t blame them.

Mark’s old-world impeccable manners were naturally endearing.   Unlike others who had  yet to keep striving to achieve that particular goal.

I shut the door close and led him toward the living room, where we reclined on the striped beige colored couch in front of our round, wooden coffee table.

Mom immediately barked out orders to both Gab and Karen,

“ fetch two cups of hot cocoa and bring in the jar of the special chocolate brownies I made.”

“ and Karen, take a shower then put something nice on.”  

Both hurried to obey her, Mom taking advantage of grilling Mark without two, nosy daughters to join in.  had asked him where he was from, who his parents were, how we met and other things that couldn’t be put on a single page of a resume.

Mark was too smart and careful to make his replies  too long he made them so short it was almost mono-syllabic.  He took her compliments lightly yet was too courteous  as ever even when she was in the  midst of her endless chatter.

Despite the awkwardness of not being able to contribute much to the conversation, I was glad to find out how Mark cleverly tampered with her mind and planted a memory of me going off on a plane to spend a thirty-day vacation trip to Venice courtesy of winning a radio contest  but was unfortunately mobbed by a group of thugs on my way  back to the airport, with  nothing left to me but the clothing on my back, I was temporarily stranded on the country.