Unknown Vampire

8 Farm

The rain was soft on the windshield and the wipers grabbed the drops and pushed them down and to the sides just before it was impossible to see what you were doing; Annie Rose was heading home away from the house of horror her home had come to be.  Marie Rose was always there to comfort her daughter and had been since she was a little girl about the age of Annie’s unborn son.

But time after time Annie Rose’s thoughts had turned to the good times in her relationship with him.  She no longer knew his.  He even had an account in that name, Drew Barrymore that required a fingerprint match to cash a check.  Granted, she had never seen him use it.  But he had one at the Northern National Bank the same as she did.  Come to think of it, ‘I never even saw him write a check either?’ she marveled in her mind, noticing only now. 

She had to swerve a little to stay in her lane on the curve for her distractions, the rain and memory lane.

He was always buffing and sharpening that high priced hunting knife of his.  If it need sharpened that often and yet never got used, what good was it?  She had tried to replace it once with a top of the line knife she bought off the internet for a fortune.  But it had been no dice.  And, he sold it a few days later to an ex-con from Arkansas, who was surprisingly wealthy though he talked of poverty and swore like poverty too, until one time Con and her man were supposed to go hunting.  They never did that again.  They never did anything again. 

Had he killed the hillbilly ex-con?  She couldn’t say.

Once she thought she saw the Lexus in her side mirror but when she curled her neck to get a better look a car going the same way on the four lane splashed mud and distracted her for just a moment.  The result was when she looked in the mirror again there was no sign of a Lexus, black or otherwise.  So she went back to reminiscing about her life with the man she knew by an alias for the cops assured her, he had aliases on his aliases and though one of the names he went by were real it was not likely anyone but him knew which one; they were all well-established aliases.

There it was again.  She was sure this time.  It was a black Lexus and it purposely blended into the traffic when it was clear she had noticed it.  She was almost to the exit and she purposely almost went past the exit and then at the last moment nearly rolled her Taurus to just barely make it.  The Lexus passed by as had it not even thought of catching her.

She pulled to the road that crossed over the bypass and sat gasping for air.  It had been a black Lexus and it had been following her.  She was still panic stricken.  What was she to do now?  She was almost to Wilton, and in fact she had to pass through Wilton to get to the hobby farm Marie Rose prided her keeping it up alone even after her husband had died of suicide as was known far and wide.

She looked at her gas gauge.  It was less than a quarter of a tank.  If she was to maybe have to make a run for it, she was going to have to have more gas.  So she turned right toward downtown and loaded up at the gas station not far away, keeping an eagle eye out for the Unknown Vampire she was sure of it.

“Is something wrong ma’am,” the lady in the dead station store said since she knew full well there was.

Annie Rose could barely manage but she did shake the head of her trembling body.  ‘What if in his homicidal mind he jumped to the conclusion Drew Barrymore (How could she have been so gullible to think anyone would have a name like that?) but could he possibly jump to the conclusion Drew Barrymore Junior was not his kid?  What if he was waiting for her when she got to Marie’s?  What if that Lexus going by was his?  What it . . .?’ she was so busy thinking she almost didn’t hear the clerk say, “$35.17.”

As she collected her change, she had used two twenties, a black Lexus pulled into the station with tinted windows so she could not see who was inside.  She put her head down partly because the rain was heavier now and partly because that always seemed to help her see when she ran.  Then she found herself sitting in her little white Taurus, pulling the shifter up into the P and roaring out of the station back toward the bypass and going ninety if she was going a mile an hour all the way to the airport.  Then seeing no one behind her she slowed and made the stoplight easily just as it quit raining.

She had never known there were so many black Lexus models in the area.

The rest of the way to Wilton was about five miles of normal traffic and as God would have it, not a single black Lexus going either way.

In Wilton she stayed on the paved road all the way through and as she passed Ronglien Park she was no longer panicky.  It felt homely already.  And oh, how she did long to see Marie Rose.  It was like a ghost ship finally making harbor, no longer a ghost ship but known and recognized by everyone for miles around as the real McCoy.

As she drove the winding dirt road back off the highway into Marie’s farm the thought crossed her mind about how silly she had been, even Drew wouldn’t harm her, but if he did want to do such a thing, this was an ideal place.  In fact, she was still thinking along those lines when the road widened and there in Marie’s yard were several chickens, Marie’s old Bonneville, and an awful rusted brown pickup that seemed in pretty good shape as far as mechanical stuff went.

‘Since when did Marie Rose take to having reservation cars around?’ she mused and then smiling said, “Marie’s spading new ground!  And after all these years she had somehow picked a Native!’

Her car door opened.  She had not been aware it creaked that loudly before.  The front door was wide open, and there wasn’t a soul in the house so Annie Rose discovered as she prowled the back rooms only to hear voices but she couldn’t tell what they were saying.  They just seemed to be happy voices coming from the yard where her car was parked.